Recipients

This project, which commenced in October 2008, aims to develop a comprehensive framework for evaluation of learning spaces across a range of design intentions and learning contexts.

The project team, working with two national partners (Victoria University and University of Queensland) and coordinated through Swinburne Professional Learning, is working with student and academic staff reference groups, services stakeholders and management to develop and trial potential evaluation approaches and strategies from a range of perspectives.The three national partners will also trial specific evaluation methods for particular types of spaces, each of which is relevant to current development needs:

• the information/learning commons (Victoria University)
• student-owned project spaces (Swinburne University of Technology)
• spaces oriented to both teaching and independent learning (University of Queensland)

An international reference group, responsible for providing critical support for the project includes three international universities (University of Nottingham, University of Warwick and Indiana University) with similarly disparate learning space innovations and substantial experience in learning space evaluation.

Support for this project has been provided by the Australian Learning and Teaching Council (ALTC) Ltd, an initiative of the Australian Government Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations.

Nicki Lee
Academic Director
Swinburne Professional Learning

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The Promoting Excellence Initiative commenced at Swinburne in March 2008. The initiative is designed to improve current systems and communication strategies in order to identify and remove barriers to academic engagement and leadership in learning and teaching innovation, facilitate support and networking for groups and individuals, and develop pathways for identifying and supporting key academics to take part in The Australian Learning and Teaching Council activities.

The initiative focuses on development of internal capability together with improved alignment with The Australian Learning and Teaching Council objectives within the context of our curriculum renewal process, and sharing good practice across the sector.

The initiative includes the establishing of a Learning & Teaching Scholarship Advisory Group chaired by the PVC (Learning & Teaching) with a brief that includes:

• Developing recommendations on the operation and inter-relation of internal systems which support engagement in teaching scholarship and recognise and reward teaching excellence,
• Development of new strategies to engage with The Australian Learning and Teaching Council initiatives, mapping and re-establishing coherent links between institutional strategic directions and The Australian Learning and Teaching Council objectives,
• Achieving consistent alignment of internal and external awards, benchmarking support practices with other institutions, refining communication and coordination of submissions, The Learning & Teaching Scholarship Advisory Group, membership includes:
PVC (Learning & Teaching) (Chair)
Representatives of Faculty Deputy Deans or Associate Dean (Learning & Teaching)
An Educational Development Coordinator
An Academic Development Advisor
Academic Director (SPL)
Associate Dean (Learning & Teaching Scholarship) SPL selected successful applicant for ALTC award grant or project

The Development of Academics and Higher Education Futures is a project of the Council of Australian Directors of Academic Development. The project is supported by the Australian Learning & Teaching Council in Higher Education (Discipline-Based Initiatives: Higher Education Enterprise Scoping Project). Swinburne University of Technology is the lead institution.

This project is designed to investigate how universities organise for academic development and the strategies employed to develop academics in the light of current and emerging challenges for higher education in Australia.

Adjunct Assoc. Professor Peter Ling
Swinburne Professional Learning

DAHEF website

A team from the Faculty of Higher Education Lilydale has been awarded a prestigious Australian Award for University Teaching by the Australian Learning & Teaching Council. This is the first time Swinburne has won the award.

The award recognises Catherine Moore, Professor Bruce Calway, Luisa Signor, and Ian Wallace for their work on the Open Access Undergraduate Information Systems Program – Inclusive Online Pedagogy.

• Andrew Cain For innovations in the teaching and assessment of software development subjects that inspires and motivates students to achieve depth in understanding.
• Dr Alexis Esposto For implementing and evaluating innovative curriculum design, which significantly improves student engagement, motivation, participation and student grades in undergraduate economics education.
• Catherine Farrell For innovative incorporation of emerging technologies and social media into the classroom, providing relevant and engaging real world learning opportunities for students.
• Dr Alex Maritz For academic leadership, in designing and implementing research-led and entrepreneurial approaches to coursework maters education, within the discipline area of entrepreneurship.
• Dr Mark Schier For inspiring students with a motivating environment in first year, and providing a progression through second and third years, developing deep independent learning skills.
• Debbi Weaver For outstanding mentoring of academic teaching, to support reflection, evaluation and the scholarship of teaching, leading to improved outcomes for students.
• Lynette Zeeng and Diane Robbie For the implementation of social networks to motivate students to capture, analyse and critique the visual image, producing effective and sustainable learning outcomes.