* HERDSA Connect: Gather authentic evidence of learning through assessment in the age of AI
* SoTL for career-building: An online kōrero for education-focussed academics in Aotearoa New Zealand
* Kia ora! Messages from the New Zealand Branch
* Last chance to register for the Design For Learning Symposium!
* CRADLE Seminar Series: ‘Voice-First Written Assessment: Evidence, access, and ecological authenticity’
* Uni Student Wellbeing Research Hub Webinar
* CRADLE Seminar Series: ‘Entangled intelligence? Distributed cognition, AI agents, and assessment validity’
* New articles in Higher Education Research and Development

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: Gather authentic evidence of learning through assessment in the age of AI
Bronwyn Alton, 29 April 2026

Bronwyn reimagines what assessment may look like as we enter the age of AI and the role of real-world assessment tasks.

Read more: https://herdsa.org.au/herdsa-connect/gather-authentic-evidence-learning-...

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SoTL for career-building: An online kōrero for education-focussed academics in Aotearoa New Zealand
Tue 12 May, 1 PM (not 2 May as previously advertised)

This online kōrero invites teaching-focused academics to pool their concerns, experiences and advice to explore how scholarship in teaching and learning can be fostered, demonstrated and embedded within transparent career pathways.

https://auckland.zoom.us/j/99949875429

Although this session is targeting teaching-focused academics, anybody interested is welcome to attend. Please feel free to share with your networks.

Further information: https://herdsa.org.nz/contact-us

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Kia ora! Messages from the New Zealand Branch

All NZ HERDSA members automatically receive notifications regarding upcoming events.

If you are not a current HERDSA member, to stay informed regarding NZ activities, sign up to join the newsletter here https://herdsa.org.nz/contact-us

HERDSA NZ Branch on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/groups/15538045/

TERNZ 2026 tentative timeline: https://herdsa.org.nz/ternz

Further information: https://herdsa.org.nz/

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Higher Education Research & Development, Vol. 45 No. 4 is now available online

Higher Education Research & Development, Vol. 45 No. 4 (2026) is now available from the HERDSA website at https://herdsa.org.au/higher-education-research-development-vol-45-no-4

Free online access is available to HERDSA members through your member dashboard.

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Last chance to register for the Design For Learning Symposium!
Friday 1 May 2026, 10am-2.30pm AEST

Join us to explore how design-oriented approaches could transform higher education learning and teaching.

Plenary (streamed online) — 10am-12pm AEST
• Keynote: Teachers as Designers in the Age of AI: Rethinking Learning Design for a Changing University — Professor Sue Bennett, Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Academic), La Trobe University
• Expert panel discussion with Associate Professors Marian Mahat, Mark Merolli, Margaret Osborne, and Kate Tregloan, University of Melbourne

Following the streamed plenary, a series of in person presentations will examine:
• evidence informed learning design
• transformative and transferable learning approaches
• practical examples and research insights for curriculum innovation

Visit the Symposium webpage for session times, speaker details and registration information.

Further information: https://go.unimelb.edu.au/4ot2

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CRADLE Seminar Series: ‘Entangled intelligence? Distributed cognition, AI agents, and assessment validity’
Wednesday 13 May - 2.00 pm - 3.30 pm (AEST)

Is generative AI fundamentally restructuring how students think? And what might this mean for assessment? Register now for CRADLE’s seminar on 13 May to hear more from UQ’s Professor Jason Lodge on distributed cognition, AI agents, and assessment validity.

The proliferation of generative AI has sparked a crisis of inference in higher education. However, current responses often rely on an outdated ‘internalist’ model of learning that views cognition as occurring strictly within the individual mind. This seminar argues that the emergence of sophisticated AI agents necessitates a shift toward a distributed cognition framework and explores how students’ thinking infrastructure is being fundamentally restructured. Moving beyond the ‘AI as Oracle’ paradigm to consider ‘AI as Agentic Partner’, the session will examine the implications for assessment and challenge participants to consider the hard question of assessment: how do we generate valid evidence of learning when the process of learning has itself been transformed?

To learn more about the entangled nature of distributed cognition, generative AI and assessment, join us at 2.00 pm (AEST) in person at Deakin Downtown or online.

Further information: https://cradle-seminar-entangled-intelligence-cognition-ai-assessment.ev...

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Uni Student Wellbeing Research Hub Webinar
Wednesday 13 May, 4.00-5.15pm AEST

Join us for two presentations focusing on the mental health and wellbeing of international students:

• Hybrid learning, acculturation, and mental health among Chinese international students: Implications for practice | Peixin Zuo, PhD candidate, University of Melbourne
• International student wellbeing and everyday community encounters | A/Prof Hannah Soong, Adelaide University

This webinar is part of the Uni Student Wellbeing Project, which is funded by an Australian Research Council Discovery Grant. Register now!

Further information: https://go.unimelb.edu.au/x2v2

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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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New articles in Higher Education Research and Development

Joining forces: developing postgraduate education for teachers through university–municipality collaboration, Sara Viklund, https://doi.org/10.1080/07294360.2026.2655393

A tale of resilience: a collaborative autoethnography of international female academics in Australia, Dongmei Li, Jasvir Kaur Nachatar Singh & Linda Ng, https://doi.org/10.1080/07294360.2026.2657951

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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.