The inaugural Sydney Education Unconference in 2023 lets us share ideas, get inspired, form networks, and connect with the wider group of educators at Sydney.
Loosely following an unconference format, registrants will be invited to pose potential sessions they would like to run, or take part in. These sessions will be 50 minutes long and be interactive, collaborative, and discussion-based. Sessions will be curated ahead of the day, based on proposals and interests, and merged if necessary. Sessions would usually run once, or twice if there is sufficient demand known ahead of time.
Session formats may include:
- World café or micro-stations – small rotating groups of participants aided by group facilitators to discuss a wicked challenge or share practical ideas around a set of related teaching approaches e.g. unit/course coordination challenges.
- Speed mentoring – rotating 1:1 or small group conversations that aim to mix participants and ideas around a particular topic e.g. building education-focused careers.
- Workshop/tutorial/hackathon – interactive, practical, and hands-on activities that help individuals or groups produce a tangible output e.g. how to include student voice, how to apply for fellowship, how to design for equity.
- Problem sharing – interaction session to share teaching issues/challenges and work collaboratively to solve them.
Details
Date and time: Friday 3 February 2023 from 9:30 am
Venue: Abercrombie Building H70. Due to the interactive nature of the day, this will be an in-person event only.
Cost: Free, but registrations are essential for catering purposes.
Audience: University of Sydney staff who are education-focused academics, educational designers, HEA/AdvanceHE fellows, unit coordinators, sessional academics, other educators.
Program
| Time | Track 1 | Track 2 | Track 3 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 9:30 am | |||
| 10:00 am | Motivating students to do pre-class work, and making the most of class time Robyn Martin, Tara Smith, Kimberly Baskin, Marianna Koulias Location: Abercrombie Building H70 Seminar Room 2060 In blended and flipped teaching and learning, it's crucial that students engage in out-of-class preparation. What are effective ways to encourage this, and how does it integrate with what happens... [more] | Helping first-year students tackle the challenges of transitioning to university at scale Elly Cowan, Jane Kerr, Fran van den Berg, Ryan Naylor, Kimberly Baskin, Alix Thoeming Location: Abercrombie Building H70 Seminar Room 2240 First year is a challenging time of change and adjustment. What can first year teachers and coordinators do to support students in transition, especially in large cohort units and programs?... [more] | Artificial intelligence and implications for teaching and assessment Judy Kay, Ben Miller, Ruth Weeks, Danny Liu Location: Abercrombie Building H70 Seminar Room 2290 Artificial intelligence can help students (and educators) generate and analyse writing and ideas in ways that only humans could before. What are imaginative and radical responses we might need to meet... [more] |
| 11:00 am | |||
| 11:30 am | Artificial intelligence and implications for teaching and assessment (repeat session) Judy Kay, Ben Miller, Ruth Weeks, Danny Liu Location: Abercrombie Building H70 Seminar Room 2060 Artificial intelligence can help students (and educators) generate and analyse writing and ideas in ways that only humans could before. What are imaginative and radical responses we might need to meet... [more] | Exploring approaches for students as partners Special guest facilitator: Mollie Dollinger (Deakin) Location: Abercrombie Building H70 Seminar Room 2240 Involving students as citizens of their own learning has many benefits. What are the practical ways in which educators can meaningfully partner with students in designing and enhancing teaching and le... [more] | Bringing together multi-professional teams to design, deliver, and iterate teaching Rebecca Goldsworthy, Michelle Harrison, Jesse Xu, Dominique Briones, Jess Frawley Location: Abercrombie Building H70 Seminar Room 2290 Teaching is becoming more and more a team sport. What are effective ways that teams of tutors, designers, coordinators, support staff, and other educators can work together to lighten the load and imp... [more] |
| 12:30 pm | Building effective online learning experiences Ben Miller, Andy Smidt, Bob Kummerfeld, Sarah Humphries, Sam Clarke Location: Abercrombie Building H70 Seminar Room 2060 Student motivation, assessment, knowledge acquisition, and collaboration are closely tied to their online experiences. For a generation where online is their real world, what can we do to address comm... [more] | New ideas around assessment / Hack your assessment Kellie Charles, Sam Haley, Fereshteh Pourkazemi, Kria Coleman, Ruth Weeks Location: Abercrombie Building H70 Seminar Room 2240 Assessment, feedback, and academic integrity are wicked challenges. How are colleagues maximising authenticity, addressing integrity, and providing feedback at scale, while ensuring that assessments h... [more] | Education-focused academics’ informal community of practice Stephen George-Williams, Fran van den Berg, Robyn Martin, Eszter Kalman Location: Abercrombie Building H70 Seminar Room 2290 Communities of practice are rich and informal spaces for sharing, support, and collaboration. Let's have such a collegial session and get a conversation going about a CoP for EFs.... [more] |
| 1:30 pm | |||
| 2:30 pm | Getting the most from group learning Jacqueline Wesson, Kria Coleman, Ruth Weeks Location: Abercrombie Building H70 Seminar Room 2060 Groupwork can be perceived as inequitable and a burden. How do we balance the need for equity while also making groupwork authentic to the real world?... [more] | Exploring approaches for students as partners (repeat session) Special guest facilitator: Mollie Dollinger (Deakin) Location: Abercrombie Building H70 Seminar Room 2240 Involving students as citizens of their own learning has many benefits. What are the practical ways in which educators can meaningfully partner with students in designing and enhancing teaching and le... [more] | Speed mentoring for teaching case applications Amani Bell, Stephen George-Williams, Jess Frawley, Kimberly Baskin Location: Abercrombie Building H70 Seminar Room 2290 A strong teaching case can make or break careers. What do colleagues think make a strong teaching case for promotion and fellowship?... [more] |
| 3:30 pm | |||
Event is full - add yourself to the waiting list
What would you like to learn or share?
We are keen to find out what topics around learning, teaching, and assessment you would like to learn more about, or share. Please post your ideas into the Padlet below and vote for others that you want to see. To post an idea, click the plus button in the bottom right of the Padlet wall.
More information
This unconference is being run by the Educational Innovation team in the DVC (Education) Portfolio.
For more information, please contact [email protected]