HERDSA Notices 4 February 2026

* HERDSA Blog Post: Creating Space for Proactive Educational Design
* HERDSA Workshop Series: Quality Control and Moderation for Mentors and Assessors of HERDSA Fellowship Applications
* Register for the first HERDSA Academic Development SIG of the 2026
* Call for Papers – HERD Special Issue 2027 on Leadership of learning, teaching and assessment
* Contemporary Approaches to University Teaching MOOC Semester 1
* CFP "Implementing Interactive Oral Assessments – What have we learned so far?" UniMelb Open Symposium Friday 27th March 2026
* CRADLE Seminar Series: 'Manifesto for feedback in the age of artificial intelligence'
* 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 Blog Post: Creating Space for Proactive Educational Design
Ella Collins-White & Monique Laura , 4 February 2026

Ella & Monique explore what happens when we stop asking educators to work in the margins and instead create space for collaborative, inclusive education design.

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HERDSA Workshop Series: Quality Control and Moderation for Mentors and Assessors of HERDSA Fellowship Applications
Tuesday 10 February and Tuesday 24 February, 2026

Are you currently mentoring, or considering becoming part of the HERDSA Fellowship mentoring community?

The HERDSA Fellowship Portfolio invites experienced mentors and all HERDSA Fellows to engage with and strengthen the HERDSA Fellow Mentors Community, while contributing to high quality mentoring practice and rigorous, consistent assessment of Fellowship applications.

Facilitated by A/Prof Kathie Ardzejewska and A/Prof Lee Partridge, this two part online workshop series is designed to develop shared understanding, enhance consistency and rigour in decision making, and provide a collegial forum for professional dialogue and community building.

Participants are encouraged to join both sessions.

Session 1: Standards, Consistency and Decision Making
Tuesday 10 February | 10:00 AWST · 1:00 AEST · 3:00 NZ
Register: https://bit.ly/3LSsdKd

Session 2: Applying Moderation in Practice
Tuesday 24 February | 10:00 AWST · 1:00 AEST · 3:00 NZ
Register: https://bit.ly/3Ocp20t

All HERDSA Fellows are encouraged to participate and connect with the HERDSA Fellow Mentors Community.

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Register for the first HERDSA Academic Development SIG of the 2026
Thu, 12 Feb, 1pm - 2pm AEDT

Start 2026 with connection and conversation!

Join the HERDSA Academic Development SIG for an online networking event designed to help you build community, share ideas, and explore opportunities for collaboration with fellow academic developers across universities.

Format:

Three SIG organisers will each share a 3–5 minute “quick bite” on a recent paper to spark discussion:

* Standards for good practice in academic development
* A potentially new way to allocate students in groups
* Engaging academics in professional development

Then we’ll move into breakout rooms for the real magic — meeting colleagues, validating shared experiences, and exchanging ideas (whether inspired by the papers or your own burning questions).

Why attend?

Connecting with peers who understand your work helps you feel less isolated, gain new perspectives, and open doors to collaboration. Whether you’re after support, inspiration, or simply good conversation with people who “get it,” this is your space.

Feel free to share - this SIG is open to everyone, regardless of HERDSA membership

Join us and make 2026 a year of connection!

Further information: olga.kozar@mq.edu.au or k.shoecraft@griffith.edu.au

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Call for Papers – HERD Special Issue 2027 on Leadership of learning, teaching and assessment
24th April 2026

Leadership of learning, teaching and assessment to 2050 and beyond

Effective university leadership of learning, teaching and assessment is fundamental to creating a rich and rewarding student learning experience. In the scholarly literature and in the media, various labels and models are used to conceptualise leadership: adaptive, authentic, distributed, ecological, flexible, servant, systemic, and transformational, to name but a few.

The 2027 HERD Special Issue is a collaborative sensemaking project. This is an opportunity for constructive critical reflection on:

- leadership models that can be applied to learning, teaching and assessment in higher education;
- leadership experiences that test the effectiveness of these models ; and
- leadership approaches that respond to immediate and/or longer-term priorities in higher education learning, teaching and assessment.

If you would like to discuss the suitability of your paper prior to submitting, please contact the guest editors:

Dr Lia Blaj-Ward, Nottingham Trent University, UK
lia.blaj-ward@ntu.ac.uk

Professor Susan Rowland, The University of Sydney, Australia
susan.rowland@sydney.edu.au

Further information: https://think.taylorandfrancis.com/special_issues/leadership-of-learning...

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Contemporary Approaches to University Teaching MOOC Semester 1
16 February – 28 June 2026

The CAUT MOOC was awarded the inaugural 2024 CAULLT/HERDSA Award for Outstanding Leadership in Research and Development in Higher Education. If you missed out on this MOOC last year then Semester 1, 2026 enrolments have opened for the Contemporary Approaches to University Teaching MOOC. There are 24 modules to choose from!

This course is for those who:
• teach in higher education anywhere in the world
• are sessional, contract or continuing teachers.
• want content designed by learning and teaching experts
• want to reflect on your teaching and enhance your students' learning
• want to evidence your professional learning
• are interested in scoping the course for their institution’s professional development program

You can choose which modules you explore and when, but we recommend one of the four pathways: new to teaching, enhancing student learning, enhancing your teaching practice or leading learning and teaching. Study is self-paced in two-hour modules that can be completed over a semester.

MOOC content is available to universities to share and adapt under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike license. The course is presented under the auspices of the Council of Australasian University Leaders in Learning and Teaching (CAULLT) and is led by Professor Agnes Bosanquet (Torrens University) and A/Prof Marina Harvey (Macquarie University).

Enrol here: https://canvas.instructure.com/enroll/DGJ4KE

16 February 2026 – 28 June 2026

Further information: mooc@caullt.edu.au

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CFP "Implementing Interactive Oral Assessments – What have we learned so far?" UniMelb Open Symposium Friday 27th March 2026
Abstracts due 16th February, Symposium Date 27th March 2026.

The "Implementing Interactive Oral Assessments – What have we learned so far?" Symposium will be held at UniMelb 27th March 2026 hosted by the Centre for the Study of Higher Education. Interactive oral assessments (IOAs) have come to be seen as an effective means of securing assessments in higher education in response to the challenges posed by generative artificial intelligence. Proponents suggest that IOAs, done well, can provide clearer evidence of individual learning, can be more authentic and more human, and can support deeper learning and the development of communication skills. But have these potential benefits been realised in practice? And how do we address concerns about scalability, validity, and equity? This symposium brings together educators involved in developing, delivering and evaluating new IOA models, in order to build an evidence base to support good practice.
The Symposium will include several parallel streams of presentations, grouped thematically. Presentations should be no longer than 15 minutes, with 10 minutes for Q&A.

We invite proposals (500 word absracts due 16th February 2026) for the presentation of research aligned with the Symposium theme, including studies of higher education policy and management, teaching, learning and assessment, student experience and outcomes, and equity and inclusion. More info at https://melbourne-cshe.unimelb.edu.au/events/symposia-on-higher-educatio...

Further information: https://melbourne-cshe.unimelb.edu.au/events/symposia-on-higher-educatio...

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CRADLE Seminar Series: 'Manifesto for feedback in the age of artificial intelligence'
Wednesday 18 February - 6.00 pm - 7.00 pm (AEDT)

The first seminar in CRADLE's 2026 Seminar Series introduces a new manifesto for feedback in the age of artificial intelligence.

In May 2025, seventeen researchers with expertise across higher education, health professional education, feedback and digital education came together to discuss future directions for feedback research at the University of Copenhagen.

Out of these conversations, a working party constructed a manifesto for feedback in the age of artificial intelligence, led by Professor Naomi Winstone from the University of Surrey. This always-in-progress document offers a values-led compass to guide decision making as educators and institutions are faced with as-yet-unknown futures where AI can be integrated into feedback processes.

In this panel, we interrogate potential future scenarios, and then ‘test’ the manifesto against a series of provocations offered by these possible futures. Panellists include Prof. Naomi Winstone (University of Surrey), A/Prof. Karen Gravett (University of Surrey), A/Prof. Christy Noble (University of Queensland), Dr Anna Jones (King's College London), and A/Prof. Kelli Nicola-Richmond (Deakin University), introduced by CRADLE's Prof. Margaret Bearman.

Join us online at the special time of 6.00 pm (AEDT) / 7.00 am (GMT) for a thought-provoking conversation to launch CRADLE's 2026 Seminar Series.

Further information: https://manifesto-for-feedback-in-age-of-AI.eventbrite.com.au/?aff=herdsa

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New articles in Higher Education Research and Development

Supporting lived experience teaching academics through co-reflection, Snita Ahir-Knight, Huia Monro, Javi Arango, Serra Clark, Toni Huls & Rachel Tester, https://doi.org/10.1080/07294360.2026.2617285

Facing inequalities in academia: understanding Chinese early-career academics’ identity formation, Shuangmiao Han & Jing Xie, https://doi.org/10.1080/07294360.2026.2615299

Professional learning in higher education: trends, gaps, and correlations, Ekaterina Pechenkina, https://doi.org/10.1080/07294360.2026.2615307

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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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