Educator and researcher
Lecturers play a pivotal role in shaping the learning of their students. In a metric-focused university environment, this learning necessitates the assessment of students’ learning throughout their educational journey. Assessing assignments not only gauges the understanding of the subject matter but also evaluates the development of critical academic skills. These skills, such as research, analysis, …
Autoethnography has become an increasingly popular research methodology, particularly within the humanities and social sciences. I use it regularly because of its emphasis on personal experiences, reflexivity, and storytelling which allows for a deeper exploration of complex experiences and societies. So what is autoethnography? The name autoethnography comes from three core aspects: self, culture, and …
Continue reading “Autoethnography: What is it and how do you do it?”
This post is based on an article I recently published. It is commonly thought that contemporary students are digital natives who are naturally able to use sophisticated digital literacy in their daily practices because they have been immersed in the digital age their entire lives. Research, though, shows that the concept of being a digital …
Continue reading “Learning how to evaluate the reliability of online sources”
Students who do not live on campus and commute to university (often termed commuter students) can experience a sense of detachment from the university community, which can adversely affect their student experience. Juggling travel, studies, and other commitments means that these students can feel like they are visitors to their own campus. In a recent …
Continue reading “Building a sense of belonging for students who do not live on campus”
Credit: This blog post is an adapted form of a recent paper I wrote. Artificial intelligence (AI) has been present in society for several years – think, for example, of computer grammar-checking software, autocorrect on your phone, or GPS apps. Recently, however, there has been a significant advancement in AI research with the development of generative …
Continue reading “Fostering AI literacy as students, teachers, and researchers”
Credit: This blog post is an adapted form of a case study I wrote for Advance HE. Universities have been cracking down on cheating and all sorts of dishonest academic behaviour recently. They’ve rolled out a bunch of strict rules related to academic integrity and use fancy software to keep an eye out for academic …
Continue reading “Improving students’ understanding by building a culture of academic integrity”
For many years now, I have been working to improve the experiences of PhD students. One practice I’ve found particularly useful is incorporating collaborative and peer-based learning through doctoral writing groups. My work with writing groups started way back in 2013 and, over more than a decade, I have further refined my approach. I currently …
Innovations in assessment task design are essential if we as educators are to encourage our students to see assessment as a learning process, rather than just a means towards a grade. In a recent study I did with some of my colleagues from accounting, we developed a flexible assessment regime designed to bolster students’ higher-order …
Continue reading “Embracing flexibility in assessment to enhance higher-order thinking”
In clinical education, the challenge is to not just impart content knowledge, but also help students develop critical real-world clinical skills. This is particularly true when it comes to critical thinking and clinical reasoning skills. In a paper I recently wrote with colleagues from a midwifery unit, we demonstrate how constructive alignment of a course’s …
Credit: Text and images have been republished from an article in the Monash Lens, https://lens.monash.edu/@education/2023/04/28/1385557/trauma-anxiety-depression-solitude-the-impact-of-covid-19-on-academic-indentity COVID-19 brought about unprecedented changes to society, causing widespread disruption to many aspects of our lives. The pandemic has impacted people from all walks of life, but particularly hard-hit have been academics, early-career researchers (ECRs), and PhD students. They’ve had to …
