HERDSA SA is delighted to announce the outcome of our small grants applications for 2025! This initiative is aimed at building capacity at a local level with applicants from HERDSA SA partnering with other HERDSA members from different institutions within or outside of the state under leadership of a mentor to enhance their SoTL research practice. The winning teams were as follows:

Dr Chinh Ngan Nguyen (University of Adelaide) and Ms Sandhya Maranna (University of South Australia) under guidance of Associate Professor Tania Crotti (University of Adelaide).

Their grant entitled “Corpus-Based Learning in Professional Education: A Scoping Review to Inform Pedagogies in Health and Beyond” impressed the review team as interesting and appropriate in scope for the HERDSA SA small grant scheme. The outputs were viewed as feasible in the timeframe with clear deliverable (scoping review), which is achievable and sharable.

Dr Masha Smallhorn (Flinders University), Dr Narelle Hunter (Flinders University) and Dr Sarah Davey (University of South Australia). Mentor TBC.

Their grant, focussed on the impact of interactive oral assessments (IOA) on student learning outcomes in a large cohort first-year molecular biology unit, impressed the review team in that it built on and extended a previous UniSA-based project and sets up an effective future collaboration appropriate for larger grant applications. It also had meaningful sector-wide implications.

Each team will be in receipt of $1,000 to spend on the research activities. HERDSA SA look forward to sharing the outcomes of these two fantastic projects.

Dr Amanda Richardson & Prof Edward Palmer
Co-chairs – HERDSA SA Branch