ACU 2020 Teaching Development Grant winners

Professor Zlatko Skrbis, Interim Provost and Deputy Vice-Chancellor Education and Innovation, congratulates faculty staff who have been awarded ACU Teaching Development Grants in 2020.

The Awards and Grants Committee received an unprecedented total of 36 high-quality and competitive proposals from teams representing all faculties and a wide range of disciplines. The committee commended the commitment of staff to these initiatives in learning and teaching which contribute to the innovation and excellence agenda at ACU. The committee awarded funding for eight projects in Group 1 and four projects in Group 2.

Group 1: Applications covered a broad range of topics including technology enhanced learning and performance, student support for placements in health and education, enhancing student career pathways, digital literacy, student mentoring, authentic assessment, and academic integrity. Innovative uses of technology in the COVID-19 context were well represented.

Group 2: Applications covered a broad range of topics including embedding principles of Indigenised learning, Indigenous approaches to higher education, and culturally protective practices and safe pedagogy. These projects continue to build cultural capacity in alignment with ACU's commitment.

The successful 2020 ACU Teaching Development Grant proposals for Group 1 are:

• Dr Rachel Busbridge and team, Faculty of Education and Arts: 'Career thinking and retention in the Bachelor of Arts: A first-year intervention to enhance student perceptions of the employability of arts graduates'.
• Dr Kerry Ttofari Eecen and team, Faculty of Health Sciences: 'Practicalities, feasibility and participant perspectives of a student-led telepractice literacy service for school-aged children'.
• Dr Sally Humphrey and team, Faculty of Education and Arts: 'Designing disciplinary multiliteracies pedagogies across teaching areas'.
• Dr Kathleen McGuire and team, Faculty of Education and Arts: 'Augmenting pre-service music teachers' intercultural understanding in an online environment through authentic immersion in a culturally diverse performance'.
• Dr Oscar Modesto and team, Faculty of Health Sciences: 'Does a flexible mentoring arrangement between first- and third-year psychology students promote psychological wellbeing, academic self-efficacy and student retention?'.
• Dr Maggie Nolan and team, Faculty of Education and Arts: 'Literature in a digital world'.
• Associate Professor Gert-Jan Pepping and team, Faculty of Health Sciences: 'Virtual practicum'.
• Dr Bhavani Sridharan and team, Faculty of Law and Business: 'Authentically assuring graduate capability through assessment authenticity, proximity and academic integrity'.

The successful 2020 ACU Teaching Development Grant proposals for Group 2 are:

• Mrs Cath Emmerson and Associate Professor Kerrie Thomsen and team, Faculty of Health Sciences: 'Codesigning the evaluation of allied health student learning in cultural capacity'.
• Dr Isabelle Lys and team, Faculty of Health Sciences: 'Co-creating a distinctive Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander online interactive garden trail with students for learning and for community engagement'.
• Dr Chrissy Monteleone and team, Faculty of Education and Arts: 'Education as Dreaming: Developing an innovative culturally supportive learning environment'.
• Associate Professor Kerrie Thomsen and Dr Elisa Yule and team, Faculty of Health Sciences: 'A co-design process for decolonising allied health curriculum'.

The Learning and Teaching Centre look forward to working with the successful applicants to progress their projects.