Running for its second year, UNSW's Education Festival 2022 brought our community together again, to celebrate our education and our educators - across the institution. Multiple events ran throughout the week that enabled sharing, and challenged and inspired what we do next in education at UNSW.
While the inaugural Festival in 2021 had to be hosted mostly online, this year we were able to get together, share and re-connect In Real Life! Most of the events and activities were held on the Kensington Campus, many of which were also hybrid or accessible via livestream links. See below for more detail about each event during the Education Festival, including Ed-Tech Activations, and glance at the Program Outline to see how the week panned out.
The festival encouraged cross-faculty connection and collaboration, and most of the events will included presentations from across the institution.
Themed events in 2022
(click on each of the below titles for more information)
Keynote: Reflective teaching: beyond the ‘Why’ to the ‘How’
Sondoss’ teaching philosophy rests on integrating stories, models, and inquiry-based approaches to hone students' abilities to deal with complexity and uncertainty. Her reflection strategies make this sometimes challenging concept accessible and easy to engage with, even for students who may initially find it difficult. The end of the year (and the start of the UNSW Education Festival) is a perfect time for us all to stop and reflect. Sondoss takes us on the journey and demonstrates the power of teaching reflective practice, looking beyond the 'why' into the 'how'.
About A/Prof. Sondoss El Sawah
Sondoss is the Director of the University’s Capability Systems Centre (CSC) and an Associate Professor at the School of Engineering & Information Technology at UNSW Canberra. A highly dedicated educator, Sondoss loves to stretch the mental models of her students to think in systems which extend beyond narrowly-defined and technically focused boundaries to more holistic view of the social, cultural, and ethical aspects.
Presentations showcased pedagogical innovations, practices and strategies that support and inspire students to become agents of change. How can we empower them to enact authentic, considered and powerful interventions both locally and globally?
How do we ensure that hands-on experiences engage students' learning and prepare them for solving real-world challenges in industry? Presenters shared their experiential learning innovations as short talks and interactive workshops. Hosted at the Roundhouse, the event featured two floors of activities on teaching innovations, and an exposition of interdisciplinary ChallENG students' project work. It also included demos as part of the festival's Ed-Tech Activations.
Among the event highlights:
Workshops led by Dr May Lim, Prof Peter Heslin and A/Prof Carol Oliver
Keynotes: 'Who participates and what do they get out of it?' by Prof Joanna Millunchick and 'Transforming learning in a flagship Engineering program’ by A/Prof Siva Krishnan
Student-centred education experience: 2023 and beyond
This session showcased examples of the successes and challenges that our educators have encountered in designing and delivering student-centred learning. Focused on the future, some of the questions explored looked at:
What does student-centred learning mean?
How can we involve students in their learning?
How can we agree to student requests while ensuring that they meet competencies and that accreditation requirements are met?
How can both staff and student wellbeing needs be met in this environment?
The event included a Student Panel Session in collaboration with the Healthy Universities Initiative.
At lunchtime, participants were able to join a live, hands-on demonstration of the Physics Digital Teaching Hub, as part of the festival's Ed-Tech Activations.
Co-hosted by UNSW Medicine & Health and UNSW Science
Day: Wednesday 23 November
Format: Hybrid - Webster Theatre A + livestream link
How do we re-engage students in our ever-changing physical and virtual learning environments? This event's presentations showcased innovative and practical approaches for re-engaging students on campus and remotely.
Hosted by UNSW Business
Day: Thursday 24 November
Format: Hybrid - Colombo Building + livestream link
The theme of ‘Values in Action’, hosted by the Faculty of Law & Justice, speaks to key attributes developed within students participating in programs delivered by the faculty. This theme has applicability across educational boundaries, and as is the case for all the other festival events, colleagues from across disciplines were welcome to attend.
This event was delivered in two interconnected sessions:
The first session kicked off with an interactive panel discussion on experiential learning in legal education, showcasing experts who deliver the clinics, internships, and competitions that embed real-life practice into our curriculum and provide our students with the skills they need to succeed in practice. The session concluded with a keynote - 'Building an Employability Ecosystem: A Whole of Program Approach' from a renowned Visiting Teaching Fellow, A/Prof. Kate Galloway from Griffith Law School. Kate focused on how we, as educators, can teach the skills and competencies sought after in graduate employment generally, and in the legal profession in particular.
The second session showcased how educators within the Criminology program – a unique cross-faculty offering – embed ‘lived experience’ into learning and teachingpractice to instill in students a deeper understanding of the impact of criminal justice policies. The session explained why focusing on the experiences and expertise of those affected by the criminal justice system is an essential pedagogical approach for students learning about, and later working in, criminology. It also explored the wider implications and recommendations for lived experience pedagogy in law and justice education.
Participants who visited this session had a chance to engage with fellow colleagues, including A/Prof. Elizabeth Angstmann and Dr Anne Galea, as well as some student presenters, who discussed teaching practices or educational projects using a simple visual stimulus or a discussion provocation. From informal digital posters and simple drawings on whiteboards, to snippets from Immersive & VR outputs, the event encouraged interaction and exchange of ideas. While the theme is open, the overarching focus was on the future. How do we keep enhancing the educational experience at UNSW?
Format: Hybrid - Venue: Colombo Theatre A & livestream
Keynote: 24 ways to address cheating
Cheating has always been a problem, and it has recently gotten worse: harder to address, and more sophisticated. Age-old cheating approaches like plagiarism and outsourcing have been supercharged by the Internet and joined by new threats like exam hacking and artificial intelligence. Cheating is a problem that defies simple solutions, a wicked problem, a complex social mess.
This presentation asked: what approaches are there to address cheating, and how can we compare them? The talk consisted of building a ‘tier list’ diagram, which is a way to compare or rank things. At least 24 different approaches to addressing cheating will be discussed and ranked in terms of their effectiveness at addressing cheating. The final diagram will be shared, along with a bibliography.
About Prof. Phillip (Phill) Dawson
Professor Phillip (Phill) Dawson is the Associate Director of the Centre for Research in Assessment and Digital Learning (CRADLE) at Deakin University. Phill has degrees in education, artificial intelligence and cybersecurity, and he leads CRADLE’s work on cheating, academic integrity and assessment security. This work spans hacking and cheating in online exams, training academics to detect contract cheating, student use of study drugs, the effectiveness of legislation at stopping cheating, and the evaluation of new assessment security technologies. His two latest books are Defending Assessment Security in a Digital World (Routledge, 2021) and the co-edited volume Re-imagining University Assessment in a Digital World (Springer, 2020).
The keynote presentation was followed by Teaching Awards, Ceremony, announcements and celebration with drinks and nibbles.
Ed-Tech Activations
Throughout the week, colleagues interested in Educational Technology, Hybrid Learning & Teaching and Media & Immersive technologies for education joined Demos, Drop-ins and Open Door activations on the Kensington campus. Click on each of the below titles for more information on what was on show.
Better Engagement Adaptive Studio Trolley (B.E.A.S.T): Demo
Tuesday 22 November
Showcased during the 'Learning by doing' theme, hosted by UNSW Engineering
The B.E.A.S.T has been designed and configured to allow the hybrid delivery of labs for the School of Mechanical Engineering. This equipment allows for a well produced, high quality, engaging live online meeting production. It can also adapt to multiple configurations and its portability allows it to be used across many different spaces.
Participants joined in for a hands-on demonstration of the Physics Digital Teaching Hub (DTH) followed by a tour of the Science Education Team (SET) Recording Studios.
The Physics Digital Teaching Hub centred around the ‘Vibe digital whiteboard’, has had a positive effect on student life and learning, and how we create a teaching environment. Where ‘Hybrid’ can not only be considered but, dare we say it, enjoyed!
The SET studios (Robert Webster 128) are designed for science academics who want to record high-quality videos and audio without hassle, these purpose-built rooms are bookable and offer possibilities for flipped content and digital content creation.
PVCESE VR LITEroom -immersive technologies for education (Simulation and Virtual Reality)
Participants tried out a wider array of experiences and simulations for screen and headset, and discussed with the team about how immersive technologies are being used in teaching and the overall student experience. Participants saw first hand what is being created in collaboration with academics across UNSW and had the opportunity to talk with the PVCESE Immersive Technologies team about being involved and using immersive technology in their own teaching.
Examples: Ophthalmology EyeSim, Language Learning Taster, Race to the South Pole, Student Wellbeing VR and more.
PVCESE M2C Studios - filming, editing and streaming for education
The Course videos, Interviews, Lightboard Videos, Demonstration Videos, PowerPoint Presentations, and Live streaming are just a few examples of the digital media that can be created in the PVCESE Media Studios. Participants were able to see how the Media team can assist in developing this type of content, as well as discuss with the team about further media options.
The demonstrations were led by experienced teaching academics. Each one covered a different topic and included an interactive session on sharing tips and good practice insights, student experience outcomes, as well as audience participation in Q&A discussion.
With a huge increase in courses being delivered on campus using livestreaming with Echo360, participants in this session had an opportunity to learn what options are available with this synchronous delivery. Many courses are successfully using polling and Q&A in Echo360, to engage both the in person and online students, in a single class. The session also explored the very powerful Analytics feature in Echo360, which enables academics to understand how students are engaging with their learning.
Equally, Echo360 easily allows for the recording of lectures, which can then be offered asynchronously, in your Moodle course. Capturing both the camera feed and shared screen, this option gives you control on what and how to include in your video resource.
Whether your recorded lecture is part of a synchronous or asynchronous delivery, Echo360 is your best video repository option, making it easier and consistent for you and your students.
