What is good practice in academic development? Workshopping Australasian standards

Friday, 12 April 2024, 12:30 – 2 pm

CAULLT Grant Series

To register for this webinar, please click here.

Academic development activities have now been researched for decades, but what has not yet been clearly established are the standards that define good practice in this field. Drawing on the outcomes of a systematic series of CAULLT funded initiates, which have focussed on advancing academic development, we will share our research on establishing criteria and associated standards for assessing good practice in academic development.

This workshop will enable academic developers and institutional leaders to contribute to the validation of the new standards. It will be of particular value to academic developers who are creating innovative initiatives for their institutions and to institutional leaders who are involved in quality assurance and enhancement processes. Upon validation the standards will become available to enable the benchmarking of institutional academic development practices, to evidence the value of existing and proposed initiatives, and to inform robust decision-making around prioritising and resourcing academic development initiatives.

Participants in the workshop will:

  • Gain insights into the action research process employed to determine what is good academic development practice;
  • Engage in an activity on assessing good practice examples;
  • Discuss the complexities of determining good practice;
  • Critique and contribute to the validation of the criteria and standards of good academic development, and
  • Identify how the standards can be applied to their institution and practice.

Presenters

Marina, Jillian, and Andrea have collaborated on three sequential CAULLT research projects, and are co-directors of the Advancing Academic Development awards and event.

Honorary Associate Professor Marina Harvey, Macquarie University is an Australian National Teaching Fellow, a Principal Fellow of the Higher Education Academy and Fellow of ALARA (Action Learning and Action Research Association). As an Academic Developer for over 15 years her Action Research for SOTL extends to over 90 publications.

Jillian Hamilton is a Professor of Design at QUT. She has held senior roles in academic development and learning and teaching research and innovation, and is a former CAULLT President. She has led a number of learning and teaching research projects and been recognised by national awards for academic development including AAUT Citation, Excellence, and Program Awards.

Andrea Adam is Associate Director Academic Development at the University of Tasmania. Her team facilitates professional learning in higher education, and she has been the recipient of institutional and national teaching awards. Her work focuses on enabling the growth of colleagues in higher education, including her peers in academic development.