The Faculty of Economics and Commerce at the University of Melbourne is comprised of the Centre for Actuarial Studies, Accounting and Business, Information Systems, Finance and Management. Altogether, these four departments employ approximately 300 tutors each semester to support the delivery of undergraduate subjects.

Each year, all new tutors to the Faculty participate in a Professional Development Program. This involves:

• A 2-hour training session prior to semester. This session provides on orientation, tools for small group management, and strategies for student interaction. Where possible the sessions are conducted along discipline lines (finance, economics etc) in order to contextualise the teaching and learning and deal with issues specific to the content area
• A resource pack, which includes a training manual and relevant University and Faculty policies and processes
• A 1-hour observation conducted by a Faculty member after which tutors receive confidential and comprehensive feedback on their performance
• A 2-hour follow-up training session conducted mid-semester. This session focuses on assessment and giving feedback. It also provides an opportunity for tutors to workshop specific issues that have arisen during the first half of semester.

In addition, tutors are encouraged to access an interactive online tutor-training program, which contains concise information on key teaching areas followed by illustrative video and audio clips highlighting exemplary teaching. For example, there are interviews with accomplished teachers speaking about their teaching and video clips of accomplished teachers using higher-order questioning and other interactive teaching techniques.

The interactive online tutor-training program is publicly available at http://tlu.ecom.unimelb.edu.au/tutortraining/contact.html