Higher Ed Heroes

Together with our guests, Dr Clara Sitbon and Dr Benjamin Miller (both from the University of Sydney), we talk about assessing students through interactive oral examinations. Teaching class sizes from 20 to 900 students, Clara and Benjamin share how they are using oral examinations as a means to understand, see, and assess the learning that sits behind the students’ work.

Mindfulness enjoys a lot of popularity these days. In this episode, we talk to Professor Karen Brounéus (Uppsala University) about how we can integrate mindfulness exercises into our classrooms and how mindfulness can assist student learning. Not only has Karen been using mindfulness in her own peace and conflict studies courses, but she also offers mindfulness training to Swedish members of parliament. Karen shows how a lay person can make of these techniques and even offers an example of how this can be done.

This episode is all about taking risks, not just as teachers, but also as something we can encourage in our students. To take risks and experiment can be liberating and extremely beneficial for learning. Our guest, Associate Professor Helen Marshall (School of Communication and Arts, The University of Queensland), shares with us how she fosters risk taking and a spirit of experimentation in her creative writing courses.

With most of us having had to already adjust our assessments to the age of AI, the next step on the agenda by universities is to find ways of integrating AI into our lectures, tutorials and overall learning activities. This is new territory for all of us, so we invited Dr Luke Zaphir, a former teacher in philosophy, who now is part of our faculty’s AI learning design team. Luke points to a number of helpful ways in which we can take first steps in this regard, from easy examples to more elaborate ones.

In this episode, we focus on the values that should guide our approach to supporting neurodivergent students. Our guests are Dr Toby Boyson (University of New South Wales) and Ms Eliza Barry (University of Queensland). Hosted by Al Stark and Seb Kaempf.

What learning challenges do neurodiverse students face? What simple, but extremely helpful, adjustments can we as teachers make to support them in their learning? Al and Seb talk about these and other questions with researcher and advocate Brooke Szucs and student Eliza Barry (both from The University of Queensland).

Al Stark and special co-host Kate Lee Koo talk to Dr Richard Murray (UQ’s School of Communication and Arts). Richard teaches social justice storytelling by taking his students to the court rooms. This enables them to encounter different voices, to transform their own views, and to better grasp how news media report on social issues, stereotypes, and crime.

Al and Lynda talk to Prof Kate O’Brien (Chemical Engineering, The University of Queensland) about how she draws on classical literature and storytelling as a central avenues for understanding and problem solving, even in the context of large engineering classes.

Al Stark and special co-host Katrina Lee Koo talk to Hassan Khosravi, an Associate Professor in Data Science and Learning Analytics at UQ. In response to ever bigger class sizes and the need for students to have learning tailored for their individual needs, Hassan decided to build RiPPLE, an app for in-class teaching. They also talk about other useful apps and tech that helps student learning in big or small classes.

In this episode, Al and Lynda talk to Associate Professor Morgan Brigg (from the School of Political Science and International Studies at The University of Queensland) about inviting feedback from students in class. Not at the end of a course, but while the course is running. Morgan talks about how it took courage to make himself vulnerable, but also how this practice enabled him to make changes to student learning, and how it positively changed the dynamic in his classroom. Listeners might also be interested in our 2021 recording with John Hattie, the guru on feedback (season 3, episode 3). You can also follow us on Bluesky now: https://bsky.app/profile/higheredheroes.bsky.social

In this episode, we talk to Associate Professor Katelyn Barney and Professor Tracey Bunda (both from The University of Queensland) about indigenizing the curriculum. We talk about the biggest challenges educators face when embarking on this this process as well as some practical and effective steps that can guide them along the way. With special co-host Lynda Shevellar.

In this episode, we talk to Dr Michael Thai, a Lecturer in Psychology at UQ and an award-winning teacher. Michael shares how he replaced his formal consultation hours with a weekly outdoor picnic. This format enables the breaking down of barriers and a different type of conversation between students and teacher that ultimately has enabled Michael to become a better teacher.

In this episode, we talk to Carrie Finn, an experienced educational designer (Business School, The University of Queensland), about the how to design courses. Carrie not only talks about the most common mistakes uni teachers do when designing their courses, but also how to get it right by following some easy-to-implement steps.

In this episode, Al and special co-host Lynda Shevellar talk to Lindy Andren and Prof Norm Sheehan (both from the University of Queensland). Their topic is about ‘teaching as theatre’ and how – from their respective student and teacher perspectives - a particular, traumatic, but deliberately staged event in the classroom profoundly changed students’ lives. Trigger warning: this episode contains references to violence, the brutality of settler colonialism, and traumatic indigenous experiences.

In this episode, we talk to Professor Jason Lodge (Educational Psychology and Deputy Associate Dean [Academic] in the Faculty of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences at The University of Queensland). Jason shares his way of allowing students to use AI as part of their essay writing which, in combination with the ‘show me your working’ concept, facilitates student learning.

In this episode, we talk to Paul Treschman, who teaches in the School of Human Movement and Nutrition Sciences here at UQ. Paul makes his students learn according to the motto ‘apply first – explain later’ and he illustrates this through the example of a photo treasure hunt his students do on campus.

In this episode, we talk to Associate Professor Peter Walters, who is an urban sociologist and an expert in urban community at The University of Queensland. Peter has won numerous awards for teaching excellence and has integrated film documentary making in his courses for both student learning and assessment.

In this episode, we talk to Dr Roma Forbes. Roma is a Senior Lecturer in Physiotherapy in the School of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences at UQ. And one of motivations that drive her teaching is the question of how to enhance the students’ experience, in particular, how to get them better prepared for the uncertainties they will face once they join the workforce.

In this episode, we talk to Dr Dan Levy who teaches courses in quantitative methods, policy analysis, and program evaluation in the John F Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University . There are lots of worries, discussions, and myths surrounding generative Artificial Intelligence (AI), such as ChatGPT, and the impact it has on our teaching. While acknowledging these, Dan identifies the possibilities generative AI can bring to our classrooms, in particular to the way we as faculty teach and the way our students learn.

In this episode, we talk to Dr Poh Wah Hillock. Poh is a senior lecturer in the School of Mathematics and Physics here at The University of Queensland. Facing high failure rates in her first year mathematics course, Poh has responded by specifically designing a support tutorial for her students and by using forms of community building and peer to peer support which help students bond over common struggles and, ultimately, succeed.