The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission has released a free online education program for tertiary institutions to help educate students about their rights and obligations under Australian competition and consumer laws.
The modules are suitable for any student interested in competition and consumer law, and can be incorporated by tertiary institutions into a wide variety of degree courses – including business, marketing and advertising, professional practice management, journalism, media studies, communications, entrepreneurship or other related courses.
ACCC Deputy Chair Dr Michael Schaper, himself a former business school dean, said the program was a simple, interactive and helpful tool for lecturers to take and teach relevant areas of competition and consumer law to their students.
“It’s a simple modular structure that allows academics to pick the areas they want to teach students about. We provide educators with course materials, learning objectives and assessment material which they can then use as is, or adapt to meet their needs. Lecturers don’t need prior knowledge of the Act to use and teach these modules.
“The ACCC is committed to helping aspiring future business leaders and university-educated professionals to understand their rights and responsibilities under the Competition and Consumer Act, including the Australian Consumer Law,” Dr Schaper said.
There are 12 different modules on a range of topics. Issues covered include misleading sales and advertising practices; social media; pricing laws; business scams; cartels; misuse of market power; product safety; and consumer rights.
At the end of most modules, users can do a short assessment quiz to test their understanding of the topic.
Lecturers and tutors are able to subscribe to the program and will receive a free instruction manual, which will contain a PowerPoint presentation, a larger suite of quiz questions and answers, and a discussion question and answer for each module.
“The subscription is a useful tool for lecturers and tutors to further test their student’s knowledge within the classroom. I strongly encourage tertiary institutions to take advantage of this free online program,” Dr Schaper said.
This tertiary program follows on from the success of two other ACCC educational online programs, the ACCC’s Small Business Online Program and the Pre-Entry Franchise Education Program, developed by Griffith University’s Asia-Pacific Centre for Franchising Excellence. Since its launch, subscribers to the free Small Business Online Program have completed over 3,000 educational quizzes and the Pre-franchising program has recently accepted its 5,000th enrolee in just over two years of operation.
The online education program for tertiary students and registration for the additional resources for lecturers and tutors are available at www.ccaeducationprograms.org.