All UNSW staff are welcome to join the EF CoPs. There are no prerequisites - aside from a passion for education and an interest or experience in the learning & teaching topic area. You will find more information on the CoPs SharePoint sites here or you can get in touch with the Education Focussed Development Team to learn more or join ef@unsw.edu.au
If you are external to UNSW and would like to connect with the EF CoPs we invite you to complete an EOI here. We look forward to hearing from you!
We have entered the Age of AI, requiring a transformation in learning and teaching in the higher education space. Now is the time to do what we do best at UNSW in sharing practice to increase individual and institutional confidence in how AI changes the way we educate and to help our students navigate the space. With that in mind, a new AI Community of Practice – open to all UNSW academic and professional staff - is commencing on 9 May with the first monthly meeting. The inaugural speaker will be Prof. Alex Steel, the UNSW Director of AI Strategy, Education.
We meet from 10-11am on the second Thursday of each month until November. This CoP is open to all interested in addressing the challenges and opportunities generative AI creates in higher education learning and teaching.
The current goals of the AI EF CoP are to disseminate, collaborate & advocate through our meetings, newsletters, and virtual spaces for members to share expertise and resources while learning from each other.
EF Academic Leads: Lynn Gribble and Carol Oliver
To join the CoP, email Project Officer Melanie Cross
The Assessment & Feedback CoP EF is working to provide innovative solutions to the challenges of digital assessment and effective student feedback. The CoP shares examples of best practice from members and invited academics through regular presentations, and develops resources, sharing exemplars with the wider education community at UNSW. The CoP is also interested in looking at the future of assessment and where innovative assessment and feedback practices might be leading.
UNSW staff can learn more about this CoP here
EF Academic Leads: Pranit Anand and Jeffrey Black
Email Project Officer Alana Clifton-Cunningham to join the CoP
The Clinical Teachers CoP was established in 2021 and is currently working to develop a range of educational resources in alignment with Continuing Professional Development (CPD) for clinical medical professionals, that will support the development of educational practice and create opportunities to engage in reflective practice and peer learning. These resources will take the form of tips and tricks for good teaching on the run and will be disseminated to clinical teachers and conjoins at UNSW in a bite-size, readily accessible format.
UNSW staff can learn more about this CoP here
EF Academic Leads: Megan Kalucy and Melanie Fentoullis
Email Project Officer Angela Sidoti to join the CoP
The Course Design and Development CoP have developed and actively maintain a guide to help UNSW academics design and develop new courses and redesign existing courses; the guide consolidates the numerous existing resources at UNSW and orders them chronologically in three phases. The CoP is currently working on new projects related to course design and development with special focus on the student voice.
UNSW staff can learn more about this CoP here
EF Academic Leads: Caitlin Healy and Dhanushi Abeygunawardena
Email Project Officer Melanie Cross to join the CoP
The Digital and Online Learning Innovation CoP works to support remote learning and teaching by identifying and developing resources that will assist academics to enhance student learning such as the Directory of Expertise. The Directory provides access to academics with experience in particular areas of online learning, as well as resources that you're able to use and adapt to support you in remote learning and teaching. The CoP is also looking at the future of Online Learning and how innovative practice and technologies might be utilised authentically.
UNSW staff can learn more about this CoP here
EF Academic Leads: Vanessa Honson and Chris Campbell
Email Project Officer Angela Sidoti to join the CoP
The Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) EF Community of Practice is a collaborative space that brings together academic staff, students, and members from external institutions to promote sustainability in education. Open to anyone passionate about embedding sustainability into learning, this community focuses on sharing resources, exchanging ideas, and developing impactful projects. By fostering partnerships and research initiatives, we aim to advance both lifelong and life-wide learning, creating meaningful change in educational practices and beyond.
EF Academic Leads: George Joukhadar and Emma Mills
To join the CoP, email Project Officer Melanie Cross
The Enhancing First Year Experience CoP brings together educators and professional staff from all faculties and divisions, to imagine and to lead a more holistic approach to enhancing the first-year student experience at UNSW. With an acknowledgement that many first-year courses manage large cohorts of students (>200), the CoP will enable educators and professional staff who work with students in their first year at university to share practice, experience, and ideas, and to collaborate on outcomes that will have positive impacts on the whole student experience at UNSW, for both students and educators.
UNSW staff can learn more about this CoP here
EF Academic Leads: Inma Tomeo-Reyes, Sandeep Kirpalani, and Nicola Kozlina
Email Project Officer Melissa Nyholm to join the CoP
The Evaluation of Teaching and e-Portfolios CoP is developing exemplar profiles for the myEducation Portfolio that align with the Academic Expectations Framework, and will assist academics in showcasing teaching excellence by demonstrating the types of evidence which might contribute to a strong Education case for academic promotion.
UNSW staff can learn more about this CoP here
EF Academic Leads: Daniela Castro de Jong and Jacqueline North
Email Project Officer Angela Sidoti to join the CoP
A community of practice for new UNSW educators including talks, forums and mentoring. The key aim is to enhance student experience through teaching excellence and connecting to EFs across the University.
UNSW staff can learn more about this CoP here
EF Academic Leads: Simon Kozlina and Deborah Turnbull Tillman
Email Project Officer Felipe Balotin-Pinto to join the CoP
The Student Wellbeing CoP explores creative ways to monitor and enhance student wellbeing at
different stages of learning and in various teaching environments. The CoP is an inclusive community that shares practice, supports one another and collaborates to identify student wellbeing resources at UNSW and across the sector, evaluate their practical application and scalability and where appropriate to integrate these resources into the curriculum and community.
UNSW staff can learn more about this CoP here
EF Academic Leads: Chris Maloney and Jessica Macer-Wright
Email Project Officer Melanie Cross to join the CoP
In many courses, sessional academics have the majority of direct student contact and deliver a considerable proportion of the university’s teaching. There are opportunities to develop new, and improve existing, training and support resources, and build a stronger community amongst sessional academics and the wider university. The Supporting Sessional Academic Staff Community of Practice (SSAS EF CoP) is in the process of developing methods to support and up-skill sessional academics and academics that manage sessional staff. Our objective is to identify, collate, develop, and disseminate resources to support sessional academics in their varying roles. Resources that our CoP develops will be distributed across the university to support sessional staff to enhance teaching performance, educational experience, and student and staff wellbeing.
UNSW staff can learn more about this CoP here
EF Academic Leads: Kelsey Burton and Emma Peters
Email Project Officer Alana Clifton-Cunningham to join the CoP
The student cohort enrolled in courses at UNSW is richly diverse, representing many different cultural and linguistic backgrounds, as well as diverse prior educational experiences. The need to share and discuss ‘good’ educational practices with regard to teaching inclusively for diverse cohorts has become a key indicator of success in universities. TED CoP is committed to recognising educational, cultural, and linguistic diversity within UNSW as strengths that enrich the learning environment rather than seeing these as deficits to be reduced to a minimum.
UNSW staff can learn more about this CoP here
Academic Leads: Jason O’Neil, Joyce Wu and Sebastian Sequoiah-Grayson
Email Project Officer Melanie Cross to join the CoP
Imagine all those eyes rolling in your course introduction when you mention there will be a group or team assessment task. Right? We know that students (and probably staff) find teamwork frustrating, while appreciating the ability to work in teams is an increasingly crucial graduate capability. The Teamwork CoP share ideas, methods and exemplars of teamwork in action across the different faculties of the university. The CoP is working to develop resources that cover the ‘cradle to grave’ of teamwork, from developing assessment tasks to member selection, to management for students and staff, to assessment of both product (the task) and process (the team itself).
UNSW staff can learn more about this CoP here
Academic Leads: Peter Neal, Nirmani Wijenayake, Gee Chong Ling, and Helen Parker
Email Project Officer Melanie Cross to join the CoP
The WIL CoP is an education focused community who work together to support the design and delivery of WIL through collaboration to share best practice, co-design artefacts that can be applied to WIL courses and co-design professional development for WIL staff.
We have regular meetings to share successes and challenges, hear from guest speakers from within and external to UNSW and identify projects to work on as a CoP to provide resources to the wider UNSW community. Student feedback is used to identify barriers and opportunities for WIL across UNSW ensuring the student voice is heard in everything we do.
It is our mission as a CoP to strive to support UNSW’s 2025 Strategy to further advance UNSW’s contribution in academic excellence, social impact and global engagement. WIL CoP have recognised the value of meaningful WIL experience in Career Enhanced Education & Employability. Equity in Learning, Accessibility, Student Motivation & Partner Engagement are all areas we are exploring moving forwards to ensure we continue to provide authentic, equitable and meaningful experiences for our students.
UNSW staff can learn more about this CoP here.
Academic Leads: Siobhan Ryan, Suzanne Schibeci and Sara Shirowzhan
Email Project Officer Melanie Cross to join the CoP
The World Citizen CoP aims to enable UNSW strategies, resources and programs to shape world citizenship capacities in students and staff. We plan to serve as a conduit and sounding board for topics related to world citizenship.
UNSW staff can learn more about this CoP here
Academic Leads: Eva Lloyd, Zoran Vulovic and June Kim
Email Project Officer Angela Sidoti to join the CoP
