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Zooming in on the mind’s ear: Aural Perception exams in a pandemic
byLate one Tuesday afternoon in March 2020, I was at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music busily preparing handouts for the following morning’s solfège tutorials….
Latest Posts
With living voice: the power of oral examinations
byThe oral exam, sometimes referred to as a “viva voce” or just “viva”, is most commonly associated with the formal defence of a PhD…
Zooming in on the mind’s ear: Aural Perception exams in a pandemic
byLate one Tuesday afternoon in March 2020, I was at the Sydney Conservatorium of Music busily preparing handouts for the following morning’s solfège tutorials….
Supporting Online Group Work
byWith constructivism as its theoretical underpinning, group work relies upon social interactions to enhance learning by building connections between existing and new ideas or…
2021 Fellowship opportunities
byIn 2021 the University of Sydney as part of its Strategic Partnership with AdvanceHE is offering all staff the chance to receive professional recognition for…
In Defence of “Good Enough” in HyFlex Teaching
byFor many teachers at Sydney diving into HyFlex teaching this semester for the first time, it has been like learning to drive; how do…
HyFlex Teaching: Let the environment and students scaffold you
byIt is hard to drive a car and simultaneously engage in a serious conversation for a P-plate driver, particularly when they need to steer…
I speak of place, I speak of me: integrating Indigenous knowledge collaboratively in a first-year unit.
byIn 2020, the transition unit pilot in the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences asked teachers and unit coordinators to enact a new vision…
Designing your lecture for the 2021 world (and beyond)
byThe move to online learning and the subsequent impacts of our opportunities to teach at scale in large rooms has seen many academics rethinking…
Teaching Through Podcasts: Reflections on a year of practice
byLast January, in those halcyon pre-COVID days, I was preparing to teach a unit of study that was new to me. This was a…
Engaging students in tutorial discussions: two strategies to try
byAs part of teaching in higher education, we often ask students to read various texts such as academic journals and theory. In tutorials, we…
Tips for Teaching in HyFlex
byThe return to campus has ushered in new ways of teaching for many at Sydney; one of these is optimistically referred to as “HyFlex”….
Four meaningful ways to enhance student relationships and engagement with the right data
byStudents consistently say that they value their relationships with their teachers and their support and feedback. As we move into a COVID-normal teaching context,…
Doing learning design for online, while online
byOne of the things that the pandemic has shown us is that quality teaching and learning needs to look a bit different in different…
What do students think about working as ‘students as partners’?
byIn 2020, a group of student co-designers partnered with the University of Sydney’s Educational Innovation team to develop Get Prepared, a learning resource supporting…
Students’ perspective on supporting them in their transition to university
byThe recently launched Get Prepared Canvas site emerged from a collaboration between a group of student co-designers from a number of faculties across the University and Educational Innovation….
Connecting across borders
byDo you remember your first few days and weeks at university? It’s an exciting but daunting time for most and can define how strongly…
Welcoming students to Sydney
byStarting university can be an exciting but stressful time. The University of Sydney is a very large institution with a wide range of disciplines…
Get set for semester – changes and updates for 2021
byMost units in semester 1 will be taught through a mixture of in-person and remote options, enabling great flexibility in teaching modes to meet the…
Supporting students through HELP funding changes
bySince the end of the free tertiary education reforms introduced by the Whitlam government, most domestic students have seen their time at university supported…
Get Prepared: Helping students transition to university
byIn 2020, the year like no other, a team of staff from Educational Innovation and students from across the university came together in partnership…
Working with the wind
byTo be honest, my first years of unit co-ordination were somewhat of a challenge. Sweeping into the wind when all I had to do…
Designing and implementing learning outcomes
byHigher education units are designed in a structured way. Part of the backbone of this structure are learning outcomes that detail what a student…
Telling it like it is: Supporting international students’ transition to university
byAs Adam Bridgeman reminds us, “starting university is a daunting and life-defining moment”. This is especially so if you move to a new city…