HERDSA Notices 20 May 2026

* HERDSA Connect: The HERDSA Fellowship journey – one of the most rewarding experiences
* Important notice re HERDSA SoTL Modules Access Still Temporarily Disabled
* CRADLE Seminar Series: ‘Voice-First Written Assessment: Evidence, access, and ecological authenticity’
* Victorian Interdisciplinary Studies Association of the Western United States Virtual Roundtable: Time for Teaching
* JANZSSA PD session — Want to write about your practice? Ethics for student services professionals
* Deakin online event: Engaging ALL students through integrated employability and career development learning
* Australian Universal Wellbeing Symposium 2026 – Advancing Primordial Prevention

To submit an announcement for this list complete the online form at http://herdsa.org.au/herdsa-notices

A full list of HERDSA Notices is online at http://www.herdsa.org.au/latest-news

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HERDSA Connect: The HERDSA Fellowship journey – one of the most rewarding experiences
Ruth Donoghue & Kathie Ardzejewska, 20 May 2026

Ruth & Kathie share their journey through the HERDSA fellowship journey as mentee and mentor.

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Important notice re HERDSA SoTL Modules Access Still Temporarily Disabled

Please note that due to a recent security incident, access to the 'Canvas free-for-teacher' site that hosts our HERDSA SoTL Modules has been temporarily disabled. Canvas is currently working hard on rectifying this issue and hopefully access to the AMAZING redeveloped HERDSA SoTL Modules will be available again very soon. Current wording on the Canvas website notes that "As part of our ongoing response to a recent security incident, we have identified that our Free-For-Teacher offering was leveraged by an unauthorized actor in their activity. Out of an abundance of caution, we have decided to temporarily disable Free-For-Teacher access while we continue our investigation and implement additional safeguards."

HERDSA appreciates how valued the HERDSA SOTL Modules are and apologises for any inconvenience.

The 10 modules have been specifically designed for the HERDSA community. The modules are relevant for national and international scholars, acting as a capacity-building resource to assist in developing and refining SoTL knowledge and skills.The aim of the HERDSA SoTL modules is to introduce you to the nature, purpose and process of the scholarship of teaching and learning, and act as a capacity-building resource to assist you in developing and refining your SoTL knowledge and skills. Please consider accessing, viewing and using the HERDSA SoTL Modules to support your Scholarship (free for HERDSA members).

Further information: For non HERDSA members please enquire at https://forms.office.com/r/qtb6nfxqAd

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CRADLE Seminar Series: ‘Voice-First Written Assessment: Evidence, access, and ecological authenticity’
Tuesday 26 May - 10.30 am to 12.00 pm (AEST)

If AI allows students to generate fluent prose independently of ideational labour, how can educators assess their students' disciplinary reasoning? Register now for CRADLE's seminar on 26 May to hear the University of Oxford's Kelly Webb-Davies outline Voice-First Written Assessment, a two-stage model developed as a response to this evidentiary crisis.

Even before generative AI, requiring performance in prestige academic prose risked distorting or suppressing students’ best thinking and, as a result, undermining valid inference about disciplinary reasoning. Now that fluent prose can be generated using AI, the already unstable link between polished prose and the thinking it was assumed to represent has been entirely severed. Detector-led and disclosure-based responses cannot repair this evidentiary chain. Voice-First Written Assessment is a two-stage assessment model that reconfigures where and how evidence of students’ reasoning is secured and interpreted. The seminar will present the evidentiary logic and operational design of the model alongside implementation examples and an overview of planned pilot applications.

To learn more about Voice-First Written Assessment and its potential applications, join us at the special time of 10.30 am (AEST) in person at Deakin Downtown or online.

Further information: https://cradle-seminar-voice-first-written-assessment.eventbrite.com.au/...

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Victorian Interdisciplinary Studies Association of the Western United States Virtual Roundtable: Time for Teaching
15 June 2026

The deadline for submissions for the Victorian Interdisciplinary Studies Association of the Western United States (VISAWUS)'s virtual roundtable series on teaching has been extended to June 15th, 2026. Please consider submitting an abstract and see the CFP and below.

VISAWUS 2026: Time for Teaching

Good teaching is never easy, but has it ever been this hard? Since the COVID-19 pandemic, educators have been asked to pivot and reimagine their pedagogical practices again and again. Six years later, the “new normal” has yet to arrive. Instead of a return to business as usual, faculty are facing a barrage of legislative attacks on academic freedom and the dizzyingly rapid adoption of AI by universities and students alike. As teachers, we are being tasked with simultaneously revolutionizing our approach to assignment design and assessment, while ridding our curriculum and lesson plans of material associated with DEI initiatives or deemed “divisive” by politicians.

This virtual roundtable series, organized by the Victorian Interdisciplinary Studies Association of the Western United States (VISAWUS), is dedicated to the problem and practice of teaching Victorian studies in an era marked by retrograde policies and techno-optimistic imperatives. It asks, how do we teach nineteenth-century literature and culture, while remaining present to the challenges of the twenty-first century university? And what might we gain by employing Victorian modes of embodied learning—such as object lessons and recitation assignments—in the contemporary classroom?

The virtual series will take place over several dates in Fall 2026 and will be geared toward resource sharing and community building. Participants will be invited to share a 6–8-minute presentation, as well as a tangible part of their classroom practice: an assignment, exercise, or activity. We invite proposals from contingent faculty, graduate students, early career scholars, and senior faculty alike.

Possible topics may include, but are not limited to:
Teaching reading and writing in the age of LLMs and AI
Navigating contemporary politics in the Victorian classroom
Forms of attention and distraction and/or strategies for cultivating focus
Object lessons, especially models for hands-on engagement and approaches to teaching material culture
Structures for formative feedback, rubrics, and assessment
Approaches to “ungrading” and labor-based grading practices
Cultivating reflective practices (as educators and with students)
Multimodal learning and assignments
Using digital tools to facilitate material gains (online archives, course blogs, annotation software, etc.)
Experiential learning and service learning

Please submit a presentation title and brief abstract of no more than 200 words along with a one-page CV to visawus2026@gmail.com by June 15, 2026. Panel proposals are also welcome. Questions should be directed to Ashley Nadeau (Utah Valley University).

Further information: visawus2026@gmail.com

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JANZSSA PD session — Want to write about your practice? Ethics for student services professionals
Thursday 18 June 2026

By popular demand, the Journal of the Australian and New Zealand Student Services Association (JANZSSA) will host a free webinar on Thursday 18 June to address some frequently asked ethics questions.

This professional development session is an essential introduction to navigating ethics when publishing program and other data in publications such as JANZSSA.

Guest presenter Dr Abbe Winter (SFHEA) will explain when ethical approval is necessary and how to obtain it, taking you step-by-step through the importance of ethics when writing for publication

Further information: https://janzssa.scholasticahq.com/post/3920

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Deakin online event: Engaging ALL students through integrated employability and career development learning
23/6/2026

Join award-winning careers and employability researcher Dr Michael Healy, Principal Research Fellow, Knowledge Mobilisation, Centre for Inclusive Employment at Swinburne University in conversation with David Eckstein, Lecturer, Equity Programs, (Office of the PVC Graduate Employment), Deakin University, where he discusses the equitable and far-reaching benefits for all students of integrating employability and career development.

These benefits include:
developing self-help perspectives in all students, including those with lived equity experience
developing students’ engagement with their academic studies
engaging with the way each student thinks about themselves as an emerging professional.

This timely online event, hosted by the Deakin Graduate Employability Community and open to all, offers insights into fostering students’ personal stake in their studies and their future professional selves.
Date: Tuesday 23 June
Time: 12–1:30pm
Location: Online
Link to register https://www.eventbrite.com.au/e/1989352795764?aff=oddtdtcreator

An event not to be missed! (Although if you can’t make it on the day, a recording will be available after the event.)

Further information: ge-alg@deakin.edu.au

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Australian Universal Wellbeing Symposium 2026 – Advancing Primordial Prevention
3 August 2026 - Abstract Submission Deadline

How should higher education and other organisational systems respond to increasing poor psychosocial, mental health, poor workforce wellbeing disengagement, and the loss of human potential?

The Australian Universal Wellbeing Symposium 2026 invites researchers, academics, and professional practitioners to research and practice advancing discussions exploring national and global innovations across higher education and broader organisational contexts.

Grounded in 17 years of Universal Wellbeing research the symposium will explore workforce sustainability, wellbeing capability development, organisational systems thinking, and wellbeing measurement from new perspectives.

Abstract submissions are currently open.

Keynote speaker announcements will be released over the coming month.

Further information: https://www.nzcdi.ac.nz/australian-uw-symposium-2026

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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.

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