Higher Education Research and Development Society of Australasia
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* HERDSA Blog Post: Reimagining Peer Review: Building a Culture of Teaching through Trust and Reflection
* Not too late to join another us for another HERDSA Online Engagement SiG Event
* HERDSA SoTL SIG - May 2025 meeting - This Friday! --- Expanding Your Reach: Writing for Impact in Teaching and Learning
* Thinking of a SoTL project? Want to chat through your ideas? Drop in and join me for a coffee and to chat SoTL
* Scholarships & Workshop: Universal Wellbeing Evaluate Tool
* CRADLE Seminar Series. Why authenticity matters: Helping students to find meaning and value in assessment
* Seeking Participant Volunteers for a UNE Resilience in Higher Education and technology Qualitative Study
* Seeking experienced online/hybrid HE teachers to support a HERDSA project on engagement strategies valued by students
* New online first articles in Higher Education Research and Development
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HERDSA Blog Post: Reimagining Peer Review: Building a Culture of Teaching through Trust and Reflection
Hasti Abbasi & Barbie Panther, 14 May 2025
Hasti Abbasi & Barbie Panther introduce a model for academic peer review that is built on trust and reflection called Reflective Peer Teaching Development (RPTD) .
Read more: https://herdsa.org.au/herdsa-connect/reimagining-peer-review-building-cu...
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Not too late to join another us for another HERDSA Online Engagement SiG Event
May 15, 2025 12:00-1:00pm (AEST - QLD time)
Join the HERDSA Online Engagement SiG for another great event: Critically reflecting ‘on’ and ‘of’ online engagement in HE
Online student engagement in higher education continues to be an important measure of student learning and quality teaching in higher education, with the goal of these efforts to increase student engagement, retention, satisfaction and success. Yet, interpretations and definitions of online engagement are still elusive, continue to be debated, and change with the times, influenced by major changes in technology, world events such as CoVID, and even changes in pedagogy and teaching within the online environment. Inspired by the work and research of Redmond et al (2022), the HERDSA online engagement in HE SiG invites you to join us for a collaborative opportunity to explore, add to, refine, or potentially consider a more inclusive definition of online engagement HE. Together, we will move through a reflection process that allows debate, deliberation, and reframingof existing interpretations.
Facilitators – Petrea Redmond & Alice Brown (Online Engagement Specialists – School of Education – University of Southern Queensland)
Further information: https://events.teams.microsoft.com/event/b9df67a6-693e-4157-ab11-0a2051b...@9aee26d8-97c2-4fad-8900-96735f6dc73f
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HERDSA SoTL SIG - May 2025 meeting - This Friday! --- Expanding Your Reach: Writing for Impact in Teaching and Learning
Friday, 16 May 2025, 12.00–1.00 pm AEST (NSW/VIC time)
This month, we welcome Professor Kelly Matthews back to deliver a second workshop on her co-authored book "Writing about Teaching and Learning in Higher Education."
Topic: Expanding Your Reach: Writing for Impact in Teaching and Learning
Presenter: Professor Kelly Matthews (UQ)
Date: Friday, 16th May 2025
Time: 12.00–1.00 pm AEST (NSW/VIC/QLD time)
How can teaching and learning scholars broaden their publishing possibilities and reach new audiences?
Join Professor Kelly Matthews for a 50-minute deep dive into the multiple writing genres available for sharing scholarly insights in higher education. This session explores how to expand the impact of your work by engaging with different forms of writing, moving beyond traditional journal articles to reach educators, policymakers, and broader academic communities.
Drawing from the open-access book Writing about Learning and Teaching in Higher Education, this session offers practical strategies to help scholars contribute meaningfully to conversations that shape the future of education. You can access the book here: https://www.centerforengagedlearning.org/books/writing-about-learning/
If you missed the first workshop that Kelly delivered on “Getting Published: Set-up and Planning” last year, you can now watch it on our new YouTube channel https://www.youtube.com/@HERDSASoTLSIG (yes, we did it - subscribe!). This session will prompt you to think about why we are writing, who we are writing for, and how we can initiate a conversation within the SoTL community and establish our individual identities. It also flows naturally into our (second) workshop with Kelly this month!
Professor Kelly Matthew is from the University of Queensland. Kelly has co-authored the open-access, well-received textbook on writing about teaching and learning with Professor Mick Healey (UK) and Professor Alison Cook-Sather (USA) that is published by Elon University Center for Engaged Learning (USA).
Link to register for the session: https://unisq.zoom.us/meeting/register/rT5UexjmRfCDHWnCrZb1zQ#/registration
Join us on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/groups/14343410/
Further information: Please feel free to contact the HERDSA SoTL SIG at herdsa.sotl.sig@gmail.com
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Thinking of a SoTL project? Want to chat through your ideas? Drop in and join me for a coffee and to chat SoTL
Every Tuesday fortnight 12-12:45 pm AEST (QLD time)- Next Drop In's 20/5; 3/6/; 17/6
re you interested in SoTL? Not sure where to start? Do you have an idea but need guidance on progressing it? Then join me for a coffee and to chat SoTL.
Use this time to explore a new idea or to develop a potential SoTL project; discuss a hurdle that’s blocking the progress of your SoTL project, chat about how to disseminate key insights from your SoTL study through a publication, blog, or conference presentation, or maybe explore a different methodological approach for exploring a SoTL phenomenon. Assoc Prof. Alice Brown (#HERDSA Executive and Lead for Scholarship of Teaching and Learning - SoTL modules and New Scholars) is organising fortnightly drop-in sessions to help navigate the world of SoTL. Whether you're new to SoTL or looking for ways to publish your research, these sessions are for you. Grab your coffee and drop in for some valuable insights and discussions. See you there!
Further information: Contact Alice Brown (Alice.Brown@unisq.edu.au) - Zoom Link for Coffee Chat - https://bit.ly/3A0iaw5
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Higher Education Research & Development, Vol. 44 No. 1 is now available online
Higher Education Research & Development, Vol. 44 No. 4 (2025) is now available from the HERDSA website at https://herdsa.org.au/higher-education-research-development-vol-44-no-4
Free online access is available to HERDSA members through your member dashboard.
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Scholarships & Workshop: Universal Wellbeing Evaluate Tool
20th May 2025
The FREE Research & Educational Equity Trust (Charitable) is offering a limited number of 2025 scholarships for professionals in higher education, research, and evaluation to gain accreditation to administer, analyse and report the Universal Wellbeing Evaluation Tool (UWET)—a secure digital, evidence-based questionnaire developed over a 16 year wellbeing research programme conducted by the NZ Curriculum Design and FREEDOM Wellbeing Institutes.
UWET is currently being applied across sectors to assess individual and population-level wellbeing, most recently with Education Support Workers and as part of transformative wellbeing literacy interventions in a higher education context.
As part of TechWeek 2025, we also invite you to attend the related online workshop on 20 May: Solving the Right Problems in Work & Education—featuring case studies and live Q&A.
Further Information:
https://events.humanitix.com/tech-and-wellbeing-solving-the-right-proble...
Or email: contactus@fwi.ac.nz
Further information: Further Information: https://events.humanitix.com/tech-and-wellbeing-solving-the-right-proble...
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CRADLE Seminar Series. Why authenticity matters: Helping students to find meaning and value in assessment
Wednesday 4 June 2025 2.00pm - 3.30pm (AEST)
n this presentation, CRADLE Fellow Dr Tim Chambers, Senior Lecturer, School of Psychology, unpacks the results of his recent research investigating students' perceptions in health psychology assessments.
The recent problematising of authentic assessments has resulted in a multitude of new perspectives that invite us to look beyond merely replicating real-world tasks and consider the meaning and purpose of these tasks and the context within which they are undertaken. This seminar will focus on how psychological authenticity may shape students’ perceptions of the meaning and value of assessments. Guided by self-determination theory, we propose that students make authentic judgements regarding the alignment between the assessment task and their personal values before then performing self-determined behaviours. Drawing on the experiences of first-year psychology students, I will showcase how they perceived authenticity within the context of health psychology assessments. Following this, I will reflect more broadly on students’ experiences with first-year assessments that resonate with being true to themselves.
Join us for this compelling and this topical presentation at Downtown or online.
Further information: https://aus01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdeakin...
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Seeking Participant Volunteers for a UNE Resilience in Higher Education and technology Qualitative Study
We would like to hear from academics at all levels who are willing to participate in this UNE PhD qualitative study (Ethics approval: HE24-129, valid 10/7/2026) investigating how academics in Australian higher education institutions adapt and manage their practice using workplace technology to complete educative work. Your participation will involve completing a short pre-screening online survey, ensuring the target group, academics employed in a higher education institution in Australia, who use workplace technology for educative work are selected (public or private university). If you wish to participate please click on the link to complete the short survey. Please answer all questions in the survey to be considered in this study (including your full name and contact details).
https://unesurveys.au1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_08ocuZ46BaZ3bHE
An invitation to participate in an online, short video interview will be sent to participants who meet pre-screening criteria and interviewees need to submit a 300-400 word reflection (post interview). We look forward to hearing from you.
Please forward this request to academics, working in Australian Higher education institutions
Further information: contact Marie (Bernie) Fisher: mfisher@myune.edu.au or LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/marie-f-51697368/
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Seeking experienced online/hybrid HE teachers to support a HERDSA project on engagement strategies valued by students
Please respond ASAP
o all experienced online teachers and engagement experts in Higher Education, we are currently seeking your assistance in a research project (HERDSA grant 2024) to investigate students' perceptions of their most valued course (subject) specific online engagement strategies. These are strategies that teachers include as part of their online learning environment to support student learning (such as discussion forums; social forums and introductions; Padlets, eBooks, online tutorials, team activities, badges, personal communications, weekly announcements and nudges, collaborative/peer activities and opportunities to learn with others, short recordings, and digital media and videos, stop and think activities, online whiteboard, guest speakers, providing explicit expectations about learning and ways of working, …..and many more).
If you are a strong online teacher or know of an uber teacher who strongly engages students online, then please contact us. The research team is eager to hear from your students about their experiences of online engagement in your course. We are interested in learning more about the strategies your students found useful in helping them feel part of the subject.
Further information: Alice.Brown@unisq.edu.au
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New online first articles in Higher Education Research and Development
A new theoretical framework to evidence scholarly activity that includes the creative arts: reconceptualising Boyer scholarship, K. Ardzejewska, D. G. Eden & A. G. Shannon, https://doi.org/10.1080/07294360.2025.2492131
Supporting neurodiversity in higher degree research supervision: a relational approach, Anna Szorenyi & Cambrey Payne, https://doi.org/10.1080/07294360.2025.2493248
https://www.linkedin.com/company/herdjournal
https://bsky.app/profile/herdjournal.bsky.social
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In the spirit of reconciliation HERDSA acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of country throughout Australasia and their connections to land, sea and community. We pay our respect to their Elders past, present and emerging.