Dr. Shawn Ross, School of History and Philosophy

Peer review improves student writing and teaches valuable skills related to critical assessment of others’ and one’s own work. In an environment where staff are encouraged to “assess efficiently”, peer review also has the potential to replace some instructor marking. Effective peer review, however, requires an effective but easy-to-use platform to manage logistics (e.g., anonymising submissions, distribution of the assignment to be reviewed and the reviews themselves) and provision of adequate support material for students (e.g., instructions, rubrics for assessment, exemplars).

PeerMark, a component of TurnItIn integrated with Blackboard, provides an accessible yet robust platform for peer review, one that provides necessary features without excessive complexity. In this interactive seminar, Dr Ross (School of History and Philosophy) will demonstrate the use of PeerMark, and discuss some of the components of successful peer review, using examples involving a range of History and Archaeology assignments and paper writer drawn from courses of various levels and sizes. Time will be set aside for discussion of the pros and cons of peer review, peer review vs. peer marking, and ideas for implementation.

Dr. Gangadhara Prusty, Engineering

In large and diverse groups of students, it is often difficult to identify and help the students who are struggling. In 1st year Engineering Mechanics 1 (>275 students) and 2nd year Solid Mechanics 1 (>300 students) at UNSW, Dr Ganga Prusty has used a blend of online and face-to-face teaching to help students learn threshold concepts needed to progress in their studies.

Dr. Prusty combines traditional classroom teaching with use of a new online teaching tool – the Adaptive eLearning Platform, to create a learning environment for 21st century multi-tasking, netgen students, who learn differently from their predecessors. The result is a smooth and enjoyable learning process which goes beyond the ‘book and board’ and engages and stimulates students to learn and achieve. Evidence of the effectiveness of the approach includes a significant reduction in failure rates, improved student satisfaction with the courses and improved performance in subsequent courses.

Dr. Prusty is leading a project entitled “An adaptive eLearning community of practice for mechanics courses in engineering” funded by the Australian Learning and Teaching Council (ALTC), in which the Adaptive eLearning Platform is being evaluated across several universities for learning of threshold concepts in engineering mechanics. The technology supports interactive virtual laboratory activities (simulations) through which teachers can diagnose common conceptual sticking points in large classes – sticking points that would otherwise only be picked up by skilled one-to-one coaching.

Panel: Jacquelyn Cranney, Stephen Marshall, Janet Chan, Jennie Lang, and Eileen Baldry.
This interactive session will examine the concept of “Global Citizenship”. As a UNSW graduate attribute, global citizenship is defined as “a commitment to embracing cultural diversity” and graduates are expected to be:

• culturally aware and capable of respecting diversity and acting in socially just/responsible ways
• capable of applying their discipline in local, national and international contexts
• capable of initiating as well as embracing change
• ethical practitioners
• capable of effective communication.

Some questions to explore:

• How do we know that our graduates have these capabilities?
• What assessment and quality assurance strategies are needed?
• Should the development of this attribute be within the formal curriculum domain or the extra curricular domain?
• Within the formal curriculum domain, are educators aware of this graduate attribute?
• What is the best way to teach and assess this attribute within the curriculum?
• How does “global citizenship” relate to the concept of “Internationalisation of the curriculum”?

We welcome your input to this session, which will be chaired by Jacky Cranney, ALTC National Teaching Fellow, and will feature a panel of colleagues from across the university, including Janet Chan (President, Academic Board), and Stephen Marshall (Director, Learning and Teaching@UNSW)

You must register to attend.  For more information and to register online, go to: www.edtec.unsw.edu.au/event_rego/events.cfm

Dr Patsie Polly (School of Medical Sciences, Medicine) and Ms Gwyn Jones (Learning Centre)

In this interactive session, Dr Patsie Polly (School of Medical Sciences, Medicine) and Ms Gwyn Jones (Learning Centre) share their experience of designing and implementing an approach to assessment to enhance student learning and engage them as researchers.  Their approach, which engages tutors and students into a community of practice, has resulted in both positive learning outcomes and increased confidence amongst students as researchers.  Aspects include: development of standardised and explicit marking criteria, skills workshops (SWLs) and a skills focus guide (SFG).  Come along to hear about how this approach was implemented and the impact it has had; plus discuss how it can be applied in a range of different assessment contexts to build student engagement and skills development.

You must register to attend.  For more information and to register online, go to: www.edtec.unsw.edu.au/event_rego/events.cfm