Willkommen, bienvenue, welcome!

Some of you might remember the phrase from Cabaret – ‘In any and every language, Welcome!’ If the pandemic taught us anything, it was the value of seeing and hearing from our students rather than talking to blank screens. You may have tried inviting (or even pleading with) students to turn on their cameras. ButContinue reading “Willkommen, bienvenue, welcome!”

Facilitating career skills workshops in Miro: a case study

How might we design and facilitate more engaging, fun and interactive learning experiences with students in an online environment? I wrestled with this question for a long time, especially after hearing from students that they are struggling with online lectures after the prolonged period of remote study. Then I came across Miro and see soContinue reading “Facilitating career skills workshops in Miro: a case study”

Entangled pedagogy, design and the messiness of education

In a recently published open access paper on “entangled pedagogy” (Fawns, 2022), I presented a diagram of a few views of the relationship between technology and pedagogy. This was an attempt to show some problems with emphasising one over the other (e.g. putting technology or pedagogy first or last). I sympathise with the desire ofContinue reading “Entangled pedagogy, design and the messiness of education”

Promoting Connectedness through Peer Mentor Support

During the lockdown of 2020, promoting connections and a sense of belonging became challenging. Leading in a Post-Covid World (LPC) was an intracurricular initiative run fully online in Semester 2, 2020, at the University of Sydney Business School. The program provided opportunities for students to develop their leadership  and team skills during the COVID-19 lockdownContinue reading “Promoting Connectedness through Peer Mentor Support”

How to Make Offshore Students Onshore?

Studying during Covid-19 has proven to be very difficult for staff and students at the University of Sydney Business School. The lock down of the university and the sudden change to online learning mode created lots of stress. In particular, offshore students who are commencing international students and who are not able to come toContinue reading “How to Make Offshore Students Onshore?”

#Pandemic Pedagogy

Evidence-based practice The COVID-19 pandemic is an unprecedented event in modern history, transforming the nature of higher education. To examine how we coped with COVID-19 in the classroom, we embarked on a special issue of the Journal of Marketing Education; #Pandemic Pedagogy. In times of uncertainty, we often look for advice from educational research journalsContinue reading “#Pandemic Pedagogy”

And that’s a wrap

The 3rd Annual Learning and Teaching Forum at the University of Sydney Business School concluded last week (18 Nov). Here’s a summary of the day and a taster for next year’s Forum. The morning began with a rousing keynote address from Dr Amanda White, Associate Head (Education) of Accounting at UTS Business School. Her talkContinue reading “And that’s a wrap”

Avatars, digital humans and the new ‘faces’ of educational media

As facial recognition technologies, animation and 3D modelling software become more powerful and commonplace, we’re seeing breakthroughs in how—and who—presents media to camera. Developments in 2D and 3D avatars, dubbed ‘digital humans’ at the photoreal end of the spectrum, create possibilities to re-think the presenter when it comes to delivering educational videos. Academics supported byContinue reading “Avatars, digital humans and the new ‘faces’ of educational media”

Play to learn: interactive experiences in education

One perennial question that educators ask themselves is ‘what is the best way to engage my students’? Increasingly, students are expected to be active participants rather than passive consumers of content. The switch to remote online learning has further exacerbated the need for educators to find more innovative ways of presenting their material. Face toContinue reading “Play to learn: interactive experiences in education”

3 lessons in creating sustainable learning design

The recent move to online and remote teaching due to COVID-19 has increased our reliance on effective online tools. But which ones should we choose? How many? And how sustainable are they? As digital learning designers we want to help create an engaging experience for students. We work with education developers, media specialists and contentContinue reading “3 lessons in creating sustainable learning design”