16 October 2025

As Semester 2 draws to a close and we enter a busy period of marking and administrative tasks, I encourage you to take a moment to read through the information included in this newsletter.

The ACU community continues to thrive thanks to the dedication of our staff in both academic and professional roles. As we continue to innovate and evolve our teaching practices, CEI welcomes your feedback, ideas, and reflections for the year ahead, based on your experiences and those of your students.

SELT surveys are an integral feedback mechanism, and we encourage you to promote the importance of completing the surveys to your students. You can access promotional materials to share in your classrooms here. You can also monitor the response rates of your survey(s) in Canvas, see how to check them here.

If you have any questions, please get in touch with CEI@acu.edu.au.

Professor Anthony Whitty
Director, CEI


CEI T&L Showcase

Join us next Wednesday, 22 October for this year's CEI Teaching and Learning Showcase. This national event brings together educators and innovators from across ACU and the higher education sector to explore this year's theme, Reimagining Human Connection in an Age of Digital Disruption.

This special event will feature:

  • Professor Tania Broadley, Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Education), unveiling the Education and Student Success Plan.
  • Professor Phillip Dawson (Deakin University) delving into the world of GenAI and its impact on assessment.
  • A student panel and an external panel offering their insights and perspectives on connection, innovation, and belonging in contemporary education.

Rooms are reserved across all campuses (excl. Blacktown) to support in-person networking, meaningful conversations, and shared refreshments.

Register your attendance and view the full event program on the CEI Showcase Series webpage.

We look forward to welcoming you to the CEI Showcase. For any questions, please contact CEI@acu.edu.au.

Commonwealth Prac Payments

The CPP Team are busily reviewing applications for upcoming placement windows for nursing, midwifery, social work, and teaching cohorts. Staff play a key role in supporting student awareness and application readiness.

There are 3 key stages of CPP eligibility:

  1. enrolment/unit level
  2. means testing, and
  3. placement requirements
    a) Must be completing a minimum of 30 hours or 4 days of placement a week.
    b) Many integrated placements, flexi placements and placement days that include single visits in education may not be eligible.

You can support students by:

  • Directing them to the Student Portal for information and to apply.
  • Confirming placement details if required.
  • Encouraging them to check their eligibility and apply before their placement begins.

The following resources will help students gain a better understanding:

For further questions, please contact CPP@acu.edu.au.

HELTA Symposium: Scholarship of Teaching and Learning

The 2025 HELTA Symposium of Scholarship of Teaching and Learning will be hosted online on 4 December.

All academic and professional staff are encouraged to attend the Symposium online. This is an excellent opportunity to learn more about teaching initiatives happening across the university, beyond your own school, faculty or directorate. The event program will be available soon.<

Register your attendance

If you have any questions, please contact CEI@acu.edu.au.

EIP and in-class quizzes

This is a reminder of the new integration between the Disability Data Management System (DDMS) and Canvas, to streamline support for students with approved Education Inclusion Plans (EIPs).

The new Canvas and DDMS integration automatically apply additional time to Canvas classic quizzes, for students with an applicable EIP.

All EIPs will be added to Canvas classic quizzes that are timetabled through exams and will be checked to confirm the adjustment has been applied.

For ALL in-class quizzes, staff will need check to confirm the adjustment has been applied.

If you need further assistance, read the support article here or reach out to the Learning Technology Team via Service Central.

Exciting update to the AI Hub

We're thrilled to announce the launch of the new AI Ethics tile on the library's AI Hub. This addition explores AI ethics through the lens of Catholic social teaching.

AI Ethics invites readers to reflect on key ethical pillars:

  • Human dignity and agency
  • Justice and equity
  • Transparency and accountability
  • Sustainability and stewardship
  • Purpose and flourishing

We encourage you to explore this new resource and consider how these principles shape our use of AI. Feel free to share this resource with your students.

A big thank you to faculty colleagues for their valuable feedback and support.

Academic Skills Unit vs Studiosity: Supporting Student Success

The Academic Skills Unit (ASU) offers tailored, in-depth support to help students thrive in their studies. ASU focuses on building core academic skills in maths, academic language, and learning strategies through a range of services including:

  • Self-paced online resources
  • Interactive workshops
  • One-on-one consultations
  • Library drop-ins during semester
  • Ask an Advisor email support

This personalised, curriculum-aligned support is delivered by experienced advisors who understand ACU's academic expectations.

Studiosity provides on-demand, external academic support, available 24/7, to complement the ASU service. Students can submit questions or writing for feedback, but the service is not ACU-specific and does not have the contextual depth of ASU's offerings.

How you can promote ASU to students

You can collaborate with ASU to create discipline-specific workshops or resources to support your students by submitting the Service Central forms below:

Associate Deans (Learning and Teaching) - Contact Details

Assoc Professor Jennifer Carpenter Associate Dean Learning Teaching and Governance, Faculty of Education and Arts
Dr Ian Elmer Acting Associate Dean, Learning and Teaching, Faculty of Theology and Philosophy
Assoc Professor Stephen Guinea Associate Dean, Learning, Teaching and Professional Experience, Faculty of Health Sciences
Assoc Professor Bhavani Sridharan Associate Dean (Learning Teaching and Accreditation), Faculty of Law and Business

Previous editions of Learning & Teaching Matters

Page last updated on 16/10/2025

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