Higher Education Research and Development Society of Australasia
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* HERDSA Blog Post: Mission Possible: Engaging Students at scale – A Case Study
* HERDSA Community: Reflecting on reflective practices as SoTL Scholars.
* Join us for the upcoming HERDSA Webinar: The 5C Formula for Impactful SoTL Projects
* Join the HERDSA Online Engagement SiG for another great event: Critically reflecting ‘on’ and ‘of’ online engagement in HE
* Transforming undergraduate learning: teaching transdisciplinarity on a university-wide scale/ITD Alliance Oceania Region Network
* CRADLE Seminar Series: Why authenticity matters - Helping students to find meaning and value in assessments
* Online Teacher Education in the Evolving Technological Landscape
* Seeking experienced online/hybrid HE teachers to support a HERDSA project on engagement strategies valued by students
* Seeking Participant Volunteers for a UNE Resilience in Higher Education and technology Qualitative Study
* New online first 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 Blog Post: Mission Possible: Engaging Students at scale – A Case Study
Beatrice Chu, 23 April 2025
Beatrice Chu sheds light on the strategies she used to engage an 800+ student cohort with strategies such as gamification and AI chatbots.
Read more: https://herdsa.org.au/herdsa-connect/mission-possible-engaging-students-...
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HERDSA Community: Reflecting on reflective practices as SoTL Scholars.
SoTL SIG Webinar, 21 March 2025
Sue Sharpe provides a recap of the March SoTL SIG session presented by Dr Corinne Green who drew on her experience of writing a book chapter to discuss reflective practice in teaching and learning. The recap includes a list of key takeaways and a link to the webinar recording for those interested in learning more from Corinne’s experiences.
Read more: https://herdsa.org.au/news/herdsa-sotl-sig-march-recap-reflecting-reflec...
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Join us for the upcoming HERDSA Webinar: The 5C Formula for Impactful SoTL Projects
Wednesday April 30th, 12:00-1:00pm AEST (QLD time)
Whatever your journey has been so far, you might be interested in conducting your own SoTL project, but unsure where to start. While there's no one-size-fits-all formula, a helpful way to begin is by considering the 5C Approach. (Concern, Common Ground, Crack in Knowledge (Complication), Contribution, Course of Action). The 5C’s provide a structured yet flexible pathway to guide you through identifying and developing a project that aligns with your interests and goals.
Join Associate Professor Alice Brown (UniSQ, HERDSA Executive and SoTL Portfolio Lead) and Dr. Olga Kozar (Macquarie University) for a refreshed, popular workshop, where you’ll consider the 5C’s approach for selecting a promising research topic.
This framework will help you to conceptualise and develop a strong Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) project. Bring your ideas, and let’s brainstorm together how YOU can select the most impactful research topic.
Further information: Click here to register - https://events.teams.microsoft.com/event/ba01618a-6522-4f10-a3c6-5b85254...@c4d10133-8d1d-45b3-8a8c-d
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Join the HERDSA Online Engagement SiG for another great event: Critically reflecting ‘on’ and ‘of’ online engagement in HE
May 15, 2025 12:00-1:00pm (AEST - QLD time)
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 reframing 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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Transforming undergraduate learning: teaching transdisciplinarity on a university-wide scale/ITD Alliance Oceania Region Network
Thursday, May 1, 2025
The ITD Alliance Oceania Regional Network invites you to a webinar on 1 May 2025: Transforming undergraduate learning: teaching transdisciplinarity on a university-wide scale, A dialogue between Giedre Kligyte (University of Technology Sydney) and Chris Browne (The Australian National University). While a focus on transdisciplinary approaches for tackling complex social and environmental problems is well established in specialised postgraduate programs, universities are becoming increasingly interested in embedding transdisciplinary capabilities at the undergraduate level. The University of Technology Sydney and The Australian National University are pioneers of such university-wide efforts in Australia. In this session, Giedre Kligyte and Chris Browne will share their experiences of implementing transdisciplinary learning at scale.
Date: Thursday, May 1, 2025
Time: 1:00pm AEST, Sydney
Duration: 90 minutes comprising a 60-minute seminar followed by a 30-minute Talanoa (open discussion)
Register at Humanitix (Zoom link sent to registered participants): https://events.humanitix.com/transforming-undergraduate-learning-teachin...
Further information: https://events.humanitix.com/transforming-undergraduate-learning-teachin...
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CRADLE Seminar Series: Why authenticity matters - Helping students to find meaning and value in assessments
4 June 2025, 2.00pm
In 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, 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,perceived authenticity within the context of health psychology assessments will be discussed. Following this, students’ experiences with first-year assessments that resonate with being true to themselves will be highlighted.
Further information: https://www.eventbrite.com.au/e/cradle-seminar-series-why-authenticity-m...
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Online Teacher Education in the Evolving Technological Landscape
17 September 2025
Join educators, researchers, and policymakers for a one-day onnline conference exploring the future of online teacher education. With advances in AI and digital tools, teaching strategies, engagement, and accessibility are evolving rapidly.
Hosted by UniSQ| Supported by Morgan State University, STAR Scholars & AACU
Explore the future of online teacher education with global experts. Topics include AI in teaching, virtual engagement, ethics, and equity.
Featuring keynote speakers: Professor Simon Buckingham Shum and Professor Donna Pendergast
Call for Papers now open – submit your abstract by 1 July 2025!
Further information: https://create.usq.edu.au/onlineteachereducation/
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Seeking experienced online/hybrid HE teachers to support a HERDSA project on engagement strategies valued by students
Please respond ASAP
To 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 are 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: Please email Alice Brown - for further information - Alice.Brown@unisq.edu.au
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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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New online first articles in Higher Education Research and Development
Collaborating with care: creating spaces for authentic reflective practice in academia, Catherine Trundle, Jessica Gill, Sabrina Gupta, Joanne Marcucci & Laura Petridis, https://doi.org/10.1080/07294360.2025.2488857
Understanding the role of perfectionism standards and discrepancy in longitudinal patterns of anxiety and depression: a latent class growth analysis approach, Yoy Bergs, Yannick Griep, Pascale Peters, Xander Lub & Rob Blomme, https://doi.org/10.1080/07294360.2025.2492123
Taste for science or money? Determinants of career choice for doctoral graduates in China, Shen Wenqin, Zhao Yue & Xu Haotian, https://doi.org/10.1080/07294360.2025.2488870
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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.