Sustaining and maintaining teaching innovation for a new normal
This University-wide symposium on Wednesday 14 July 2021 will celebrate simple and shareable innovations in active learning and assessment from the past year. The aim of this is to highlight the approaches to teaching and assessment developed by colleagues across the University, and to come together and share practice and ideas. We will be joined by internationally-renowned educator and author Peter Felten from Elon University, who will be delivering a keynote address. Come, be inspired, and get practical ideas for your own teaching that will help your students feel more connected, engaged, secure, and that they belong.
Key details
Date: Wednesday 14 July 2021, starting at 9:20 am AEST (UTC+10).
Venue: Online via Zoom, due to the new COVID restrictions in Sydney. Zoom details will be emailed to registrants closer to the date of the symposium.
Cost: Free but registration essential.
Availability: Registration is available to University of Sydney staff and students, as well as staff from other higher education institutions.
Symposium program
This will feature a keynote by Peter Felten, 18 talks by colleagues from across the University, and a student panel to explore students’ experience of the “new normal”. When you register please submit a question for the student panellists to find out more about what life and learning has been like for our students.
Please note that the times below are in Australian Eastern Standard Time (AEST), UTC+10.
| Time | Track A | Track B | Track C |
|---|---|---|---|
| 9:20 am | Welcome and setting the scene DVC (Education) Pip Pattison | ||
| 9:30 am | Keynote: Relationship-rich education and the ‘new normal’ Peter Felten The novelist Arundhati Roy has argued that historically pandemics force "humans to break with the past and imagine their world anew". A liminal moment like this is rare, exciting, and perilo... [more] | ||
| 10:20 am | Break | ||
| 10:30 am | [1A1] Building connection and belonging in large remote and on-campus cohorts Alix Thoeming, Anastasiya Byesyedina, and Tara Smith Launching a brand new, large, core unit in 2021 was a unique and exciting challenge for the FASS1000 teaching team. With the lessons we learned in 2020 in our pockets and a view to whatever normality ... [more] | [1B1] Improving student learning and academic integrity by replacing exams with supported authentic reflections Robyn Martin As a foundation unit for the Masters of commence, MKTG5001 would often be the only marketing unit students would undertake in their studies. This means that the need to be relevant and valuable is int... [more] | [1C1] How ‘true’ HyFlex can foster community, engagement, and relationships Tamara Neal Most students welcome opportunities to make social and intellectual connections with one another in the course of their studies. A flexible engagement with HyFlex will facilitate these. In this talk, ... [more] |
| 10:45 am | [1A2] Physics@Home: Authentic experiments and community building online and anywhere Tara Murphy and Mike Wheatland A major challenge with teaching physics online is how to provide students with critical skills in experimental lab. Last year PHYS1001 was completely redesigned for the August intensive. After investi... [more] | [1B2] Data, storms, and a film festival: Transforming field trips for the new normal Ana Vila-Concejo and Tristan Salles Over many years our MARS5001 students had 2 months to collect and analyse data on beach evolution. As a result, they learnt a lot in the field but the data had low quality and was often boring (not en... [more] | [1C2] Stimulating higher order thinking by gamifying HyFlex learning activities Eryn Werry Gamification of learning in HyFlex was used in the Master of Brain and Mind Sciences to increase engagement and to stimulate higher-order thinking. Examples of activities included Family Feud, physica... [more] |
| 11:00 am | [1A3] Replacing placements with authentic, simulated experiences for work-integrated learning Elizabeth Bourne, Amani Bell, Robyn Johnson The COVID-19 pandemic resulted in many speech pathology (SP) placements being cancelled; in May 2020 we had a 52% shortfall of SP placements. In response to this challenge, we drew on current research... [more] | [1B3] Flexible authentic assessment to promote group work, enhance communication skills and foster research inquiry Clara Sitbon After the FASS Curriculum Sustainability Project, which saw a redesign of our major in French and Francophone Studies, and in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, which saw the introduction of mixed mod... [more] | [1C3] Engaging students as co-creators of simple but effective HyFlex experiences Sue Randall In 2019, units in a postgraduate certificate were delivered in HyFlex to allow participation by nurses in remote far west NSW with their peers in a University of Sydney classroom. A simple approach wa... [more] |
| 11:15 am | Q&A Speakers from this track | Q&A Speakers from this track | Q&A Speakers from this track |
| 11:30 am | Break | ||
| 12:00 pm | [2A1] From teacher-telling to student-doing: Changing engineering teaching to support case-based groupwork Fatima Afzal The School of Project Management has transitioned from traditional lectures and tutorials to workshop mode of delivery which has increased the opportunities for teacher-student interaction and engagem... [more] | [2B1] Preparing students for the new normal using flipped classrooms, authentic challenges and student voice Maria Ishkova, Vanessa Loh, Georgia White, Oliver Lawton, Jenna Tyson, Herman Fung, and Mina Askovic Taking a ‘students as partners’ approach, the UPSKILL Team Project became a flagship assignment of the agile flipped classroom design introduced in WORK3205 Organisational Communication, Semester ... [more] | [2C1] Stepping back so students can step up: How sharing rich media online can open up true collaboration Angela Hecimovic and Robert Morley Angela and Robert invite you into their auditing classroom, where they will demonstrate how they have utilised Padlet each week for real-time collaboration between students. As educators, we were keen... [more] |
| 12:15 pm | [2A2] Cementing student understanding through a jigsaw of groupwork and team teaching Elizabeth Cayanan The tutorial content from the nursing undergraduate human physiology unit historically incorporated a series of topic questions that students were asked to work on in class, with intermittent slides t... [more] | [2B2] How journals enhanced student engagement with pre-readings and supported assessment preparation Ben Brown In my unit, students prepare set readings for tutorials by keeping a ‘preparation journal’. The journal forms a log of student engagement with material and helps inform responses to other pieces o... [more] | [2C2] Connecting student teams and industry experts across the globe in project-based learning John Kavanagh, Graham Madsen, Claudia Moratti Chemical Engineering is a team based project integrating the first 3 years of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering. It is one of two capstone design projects and has a focus on open ended problems, i... [more] |
| 12:30 pm | [2A3] A structured case-based groupwork to enhance online collaboration Corina Raduescu and Jeffrey Lo Since the COVID-19 pandemic forced us into remote online teaching and learning, students faced various challenges to achieve full participation in online groupwork. In the Business School these are am... [more] | [2B3] An ‘active learning ecosystem’ to transform online student collaboration and time-efficient support Andy Smidt In this presentation I will share a range of online systems (including SRES, Padlet, Google Slides and Mentimeter) used in a case-based speech pathology unit accessed via zoom. My approach created an ... [more] | [2C3] Encouraging thoughtful student peer feedback using thinking hats online Helena Robinson Receiving helpful feedback, being supported to learn in an online environment, and feeling part of a learning community have been key features of how we evaluate student satisfaction at the University... [more] |
| 12:45 pm | Q&A Speakers from this track | Q&A Speakers from this track | Q&A Speakers from this track |
| 1:00 pm | Break | ||
| 1:15 pm | Student panel Students Helena, Robert, Caleb, Mahmoud, Kate, Vivien, and Christine together with Samantha Clarke and Rebecca Denham | ||
| 2:15 pm | Closing remarks Adam Bridgeman | ||
About our keynote speaker
Peter Felten is executive director of the Center for Engaged Learning, assistant provost for teaching and learning, and professor of history at Elon University. He works with colleagues on institution-wide teaching and learning initiatives, and on the scholarship of teaching and learning. In his teaching, Peter aims to help students think critically and write clearly about the connections between the lives of individual people and larger themes in history. He has published six books about undergraduate education including most recently (with Leo Lambert), Relationship-Rich Education: How Human Connections Drive Success in College (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2020). He has served as president of the International Society for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning, and is co-editor of the International Journal for Academic Development, on the advisory board of the National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE), and a fellow of the John N. Gardner Institute for Excellence in Undergraduate Education, a foundation that works to advance equity in higher education.
Get further equipped for teaching in the new normal
Following the symposium, a number of professional learning workshops will be run to further equip Sydney educators with the tools to redesign their curriculum, delivery, student support and engagement, and assessment approaches. They will be delivered by Educational Innovation with assistance from experienced teachers from across the institution.
- Modular Professional Learning Framework winter school
- Tuesday 13 July – Module 04 Curriculum design and constructive alignment
- Friday 16 July – Module 05 Assessment and feedback for learning
- Monday 19 July – Module 01 Principles of learning and teaching and Module 08 Engaging students in lectures and large classes
- Tuesday 20 July – Module 03 Inclusivity and diversity and Module 06 Supporting student cohorts and teaching teams
- Wednesday 21 July – Module 13 Designing for blended and online learning and Module 14 Online tools for interactive and collaborative learning
- Thursday 22 July – Module 15 Creating and using educational media
- Tuesday 27 July – Module 21 Supporting interdisciplinary learning
- Teaching in HyFlex workshops – be equipped with practical approaches to teach classes where students are online and in-person, simultaneously
- All-in-one workshops: Friday 30 July, Monday 2 August, Tuesday 3 August
- Drop-in HyFlex clinics – find a session and book
- Student Relationship Engagement System (SRES) workshops – build stronger relationships and engage your students personally, at scale
- Beginners: Monday 26 July, Thursday 29 July
- Masterclass: Tuesday 3 August
- Zoom workshops – pick up tips and approaches for effective Zoom teaching
Sydney educators can also book a 30 minute online consultation with an educational designer at any time.
More information
This symposium is being organised by the Educational Innovation team in the DVC (Education) Portfolio, and is led by Eszter Kalman, Adam Bridgeman, and Danny Liu. To contact us, please email [email protected].