Category Archives: Posts

Date: Thursday 13^th December, 9am – 3pm.

Venue: City Campus, University of Technology Sydney.

Theme: A Festive Mix of Learning and Teaching ideas.

All welcome, registration details coming soon.

If you would like to present a teaching idea (20 mins) or workshop (1 hour), please contact Mary Coupland.

mary.coupland@uts.edu.au

28 November 2018

Does everyone belong at university? A panel discussion.

Throughout this thought-provoking session, our panellists (and you- the audience) will explore aspects of the agenda to widen access to, and broaden participation in, higher education. The challenging questions will include:

• Is more access of itself a good thing?
• Does the current market-driven user pays system promote more access, or does it burden vulnerable students with debt?
• Is university the domain of an intellectual elite?
• Has the demand-driven system reached saturation point?
• Do students with lower scores benefit from university?
• How do universities support broadening student cohorts?
• Whose responsibility is it if students drop out?
• Where does vocational education fit?
• Is a university education even relevant for our future entrepreneurs?

Our diverse panel comprises student, business, university, and societal perspectives of the university, with particular focus on the ramifications of thoughtful consideration that increases access to higher education. Every Australian university is under scrutiny to improve progression and retention rates, to increase representation across diverse student groups, and to meet Federal targets – but the unasked questions remains: does everyone belong at university?

Meet the Panel

• Paul Buckley – a USQ student with a double degree in Mechanical Engineering (Honours) and Business Management and Leadership
• Jenelle Choyce – Regional Director in the Department of Employment, Small Business and Training (Darling Downs & South West Region)
• Roger Green – Mentoring for Growth member, and recipient of the Etcom Small Business of the Year Award, and
• Kristen Lyons – Associate Professor, University of Queensland

Join us on November 28 from 13:30 – 15:00 (AEST), either in-person (Y103 Television Studio), or online.

You are encouraged to participate in the discussion via Twitter. Tweet your questions during the session with the conference hashtag #WAHED2018 and the committee will pose them to the panel. If you are unable to attend the panel session, you can follow along via Twitter using the hashtag #WAHED2018.

For more information, including information about our panelists, please visit the website.

Please direct all enquiries to wahed@usq.edu.au.

Further information: https://wahed.usq.edu.au/panel/

14 November 2018 11am – 12pm QLD time

Higher education promises to be a vehicle for economic and social mobility; however, this promise increasingly goes begging as our institutions are subtly structured to reinforce existing inequalities, with engagement, persistence, and achievement still closely tied to affordability. The oft-heard institutional claim to be student-centered is similarly hypocritical, as it is usually faculty, accreditation requirements, and budgetary constraints that dictate both the structure and content of the learning experience. It is against the backdrop of these paradoxes that open education practices have emerged as a transformational force in higher education.

Open educational practices (OEP) encompass the creation, adaptation, and adoption of open educational resources, open course development, and even the design of renewable assignments where students are empowered as co-creators of knowledge. OEP represents a truly learner-centered approach to education that radically enhances both agency and access. This presentation will draw on a diverse set of examples to make a case for why the shift away from traditional (closed) practices is not only desirable but also inevitable, and how OEP support the modern university’s mission by serving both social justice and pedagogical innovation.

Dr. Rajiv Jhangiani is a Special Advisor to the Provost on Open Education and a Psychology Professor at Kwantlen Polytechnic University in British Columbia, where he conducts research in open education and the scholarship of teaching and learning. A recipient of the Robert E. Knox Master Teacher Award from the University of British Columbia and the Dean of Arts Teaching Excellence award at KPU, Dr. Jhangiani also serves as an Associate Editor of Psychology Learning and Teaching, an Ambassador for the Center for Open Science, and co-director of the Open Pedagogy Notebook. Formerly an Open Education Advisor at BCcampus and a Faculty Workshop Facilitator with the Open Textbook Network, Dr. Jhangiani’s books include A Compendium of Scales for Use in the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (2015) and Open: The Philosophy and Practices that are Revolutionizing Education and Science (2017). You can find him online at @thatpsychprof or thatpsychprof.com

Further information: https://www.usq.edu.au/library/usq-libraries/events/2018/11/usq-salon-Rajiv

When: 14th – 16th november

Where: University of Newcastle

More information here

Mathematics underpins much of the scientific and technological progress of modernity. This workshop will bring together experts to study the conceptual and neurological basis of mathematical thought and creativity, different aspects of which are associated with brain structures evolved for different purposes. We will explore links to machine learning, which plays a critical role as a model for cognition, as well as cognitive psychology, neuroscience, philosophy and pure and applied mathematics. For further information, please visit the workshop website. The conference is part of CARMA’s Special Semester on Mathematical Thinking.

At this workshop, we will target discussions at forming new interdisciplinary collaborations and formulating concrete research questions with a view towards major grant applications in the ARC Discovery and linkage programmes, among others. Expected benefits arising from such collaborations include machine learning improvements, computer assistance for mathematical research and other high-level cognitive tasks, and improved insight into mathematics education at all levels.

When: 13th November

Where: University of Newcastle

More information here

This year, EViMS will continue to provoke and promote creativity and cross-fertilisation across mathematics research and mathematics education. For further information, please visit the workshop website.

When: 9th – 11th November

Where: University of Newcastle

More information here

A workshop on the teaching of mathematical concepts using diagrammatic reasoning in higher education, investigating the potential for diagrammatic reasoning to be used to enhance the teaching of mathematics and abstract concepts across a range of disciplines (of business and economics, physics, engineering, and computer science) at the University of Newcastle. It will investigate the potential of diagrammatic reasoning as a novel pedagogical tool to enhance the learning of diverse student cohorts. For further information, please visit the workshop website.