
2019 Deakin Learning and Teaching Conference
It was a great experience attending 2019 Deakin University Learning and Teaching Conference hosted by the Deakin Learning Futures on 13th November. The conference had an energetic atmosphere with a successful turnout. Noami Winstone, senior lecturer, University of Surrey, was the keynote speaker and highlighted the importance of effective feedback.
Deakin Business and Law school staff presented to the eager audience at various sessions throughout the day.
- Micaela Spiers and Amanda McPherson discussed the approach of taking a Bold LEAP into Active and Collaborative Learning with first-year commerce units to combat didactic teaching style and dominance of knowledge acquisition over other skills.
- Digital Innovation through virtual WIL programs, presented by Harsh Suri and Friederika Kaider, highlighted how students can interact and work with real-life projects and problems without the time and geographical boundaries.
- Sharon Pittaway raised the question about engagement and participation: what are the implications for the unit design of one being a proxy for the other?
- Van Hau Trieu and Craig Parker talked about exploring the potential of in-class group assessment tasks in motivating international students and overcoming loneliness.
- Simone Tyrell and Leanne Ngo discussed designing differently with designing digital and professional literacy in business education to give students digital literacy and employability skills.
- Craig Parker and Harsh Suri focused on improving employment outcomes for large cohorts of postgraduate international students.
- Lincoln Then James and Robyn Barallon presented taking a strategic approach to supporting academics’ design of 1st-year units.
- A panel discussion by Michael Cohen, Alister Air, Jesse Mcmeikan, Daniel Steen, and Rahul Masakorala provided an insight into engaging collaboration for campus and cloud students with Microsoft teams.
The event was a success with positive feedback. It wasn’t limited to only presentations but great conversations and interaction both during and after the sessions. Twitter was buzzing with people live-tweeting about the event using the #DeakinLT2019.
Colleagues at CRADLE (Director David Bowen) along with Naomi Winstone also launched their book on the impact of Feedback; ‘Designing Effective Feedback Processes in Higher Education’.
If you missed the event, you can go to twitter and search #DeakinLT2019 to read tweets and see images from the conference. You can also access the presentation slides here. Please note that Deakin credentials are required to log in.

