HERDSA Notices 5 November 2025

* HERDSA Blog Post: Goodbye, online exams! Rethinking online assessment with a Digital Decision Index
* HERDSA Community: NSW Branch nominates a new Branch Executive
* The count down is on for the release of the redeveloped HERDSA SoTL Modules
* HERDSA Online Engagement in HE (SiG event) Widening the Doors in HE: Implications for Engaging Underrepresented Students Online
* CRADLE Seminar Series: 'More than the individual: transforming feedback cultures'
* CALL FOR EOI: Editors - TESOL in Context 2026-2028
* Transformative Wellbeing Systems Workshop - Building Measurable Prevention Frameworks
* 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: Goodbye, online exams! Rethinking online assessment with a Digital Decision Index
Therese O'Sullivan, 5 November 2025

Therese shares her experiences in how online assessment can be done in the age of artificial intelligence with the example of a digital decision index assessment.

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HERDSA Community: NSW Branch nominates a new Branch Executive
HERDSA NSW, 1 October 2025

Jo-anne Chuck explains the benefits of being part of the HERDSA NSW leadership team and thanks the outgoing branch members for their excellent work and support over the past 2 years.

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The count down is on for the release of the redeveloped HERDSA SoTL Modules
Launch date - Wednesday November 12th, 2025

HERDSA is excited to announce the upcoming release of the newly updated Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) Modules.

These modules are designed to:
- Introduce the nature, purpose, and process of SoTL
- Build your capacity to develop and refine your SoTL knowledge and skills
- Inspire your curiosity to improve student engagement, equity, success, and learning
***Follow the journey from curiosity to real impact.
You’ll walk alongside a group of educators as they move from that first “I wonder…” through each step of a SoTL project, encountering interactive challenges, guided reflections, and practical examples along the way.
Module highlights include:
1. Introducing SoTL – Explore its purpose and value in higher education.
2. Becoming an Evidence-Based Educator – Ground your practice in research.
3. Foundations of Producing SoTL – Scope and project planning.
4. SoTL Research Methods – Action research, surveys, observations, interviews, and more.
5. Designing your SoTL project – From concept to plan
6. Theoretical frameworks in SoTL – Making your thinking visible.
7. From vision to reality – Developing an armoury of tools for engaging in SoTL research
8. Analysing & Interpreting Data – Turn raw data into meaningful insights
9. Disseminating SoTL findings
10. Enhancing the impact of your SoTL research
Each module takes you through four phases of learning—Discover, Explore, Engage, Connect—with opportunities to dive deeper if you choose.

Further information: Enquire at https://forms.office.com/r/pkXF0BN5F4

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HERDSA Online Engagement in HE (SiG event) Widening the Doors in HE: Implications for Engaging Underrepresented Students Online
Save the date - Thursday November 20th - 11am AEST (QLD time) - NSW daylight saving time 12pm

Globally, a key priority in higher education is to increase equity of access for students and successful degree completion. These outcomes are not only transformative for students but also directly benefit the institution, positively impact national productivity, the economy, and contribute to a more diverse and skilled workforce. There is a notable trend for underrepresented students to gravitate towards online study, drawn by its flexible learning format. Yet, while widening the doors to underrepresented students is commendable, it comes with significant responsibility for all stakeholders. Online teachers are evidencing significant effort, innovative practice, and focused attention on strategies to enhance engagement and learning online. However, limited attention has focused on exploring how online environments and practices may require nuancing to respond to the diversity of learning styles and considerations to afford success and enable equity in students to flourish. This HERDSA Online SiG event starts by sharing key insights from an innovative project that explored this issue. The study employed think tank methods and methodology and invited two groups of experts - those with online learning expertise and research background and those with equity expertise - to contribute insights to the question What would an increase in online enrolments of underrepresented students mean for the online teaching and engagement strategies we currently employ? Participants are then invited to share their considerations and discuss future implications and recommendations for key stakeholders who are committed to supporting equity of opportunity and success for underrepresented students who choose to study online.

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CRADLE Seminar Series: 'More than the individual: transforming feedback cultures'
Tuesday 11 November - 2.00 pm - 3.30 pm (AEDT)

Despite best efforts, many feedback practices remain far from ideal. For decades, higher and professional education has addressed the challenge of practically changing feedback through educator workshops and training. More recently, training has also encompassed learners with the promotion of feedback literacy skills. But little appears to make much of a difference to on-the-ground feedback experiences in medical education.

One possible response is to shift attention beyond individual learners and teachers to consider the social and the contextual construction of feedback. A five year multi-phase qualitative project investigated the role of feedback cultures in the contrasting contexts of surgical and intensive care medical training. This talk presents findings, including culture-specific feedback strategies and insights into the key question of how to enhance feedback in less than ideal circumstances.

Join us in person at Deakin Downtown or online to hear CRADLE's Professor Margaret Bearman discuss this perennial challenge for practical feedback change.

Further information: https://cradle-seminar-series-transforming-feedback-cultures.eventbrite....

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CALL FOR EOI: Editors - TESOL in Context 2026-2028
Friday 14 November 2025

The Australian Council of TESOL Associations (ACTA) is inviting Expressions of Interest for the honorary role of Associate Editor for its official peer-reviewed publication, TESOL in Context, for the term 2026–2028.

Associate Editors co-lead one of the journal’s two general issues each year, working collaboratively with the Managing Editor to ensure rigorous peer review and high-quality publication.

This is an exciting opportunity to contribute to a leading national, internationally refereed, Scopus-indexed open-access journal and to shape dialogue between research, practice, and policy in TESOL and/or EAL/D.

Applications from teams (2-3 people as a team) are warmly welcomed.

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Transformative Wellbeing Systems Workshop - Building Measurable Prevention Frameworks
14 Nov 2025

Join the Transformative Wellbeing Systems Workshop - a one-day, research-based professional development opportunity designed for educators, wellbeing leads, researchers, and organisational decision-makers.

Developed from 16 years of New Zealand research, the Universal Wellbeing Model (UWM) provides a framework that links wellbeing directly to participation, retention, programme completions, achievement, and equity outcomes.

This workshop helps participants move beyond reactive support services toward measurable prevention-based systems that measurably enhance organisational resource levels and reduce risk.

Held at the FREEDOM Wellbeing Institute in Hamilton, with an option to join online, attendees will leave with tools and evaluation methods to integrate wellbeing outcomes into 2026 strategy and reporting cycles.

Further information: https://www.freedom-ihe.ac.nz/wellbeing-events/tertiary-wellbeing-system...

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New articles in Higher Education Research and Development

In researcher development, are we missing men, fixing women, or creating gender trouble? Meagan Tyler, Tseen Khoo & Dan Bendrups, https://doi.org/10.1080/07294360.2025.2573975

Interculturality as (im-)possibilities in non-places: international university students’ encounters in China, Mei Yuan, Yajun Deng, Peiyao Li & Fred Dervin, https://doi.org/10.1080/07294360.2025.2564994

Attending virtual academic conferences: the roles of financial support from universities and researchers’ career stage, Yu-Shan Hsu, Yu-Ping Chen, Maria Bastida & Jan Selmer, https://doi.org/10.1080/07294360.2025.2564979

Navigating organizational identity in transnational higher education: the case of a Hong Kong university's branch campus in mainland China, Kun Dai, Stephen Wilkins & Xiaofan Zhang, https://doi.org/10.1080/07294360.2025.2566433

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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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