For those of you unfamiliar with the UTS Teaching & Learning Forum — it’s an annual forum where close to 90+ staff from across UTS present their work and innovations in learning and teaching. It’s a day for all staff, including casual academics, to get together to share ideas and learn from colleagues.
We chat with Adam Morgan and Katrina Waite, forum organisers from the Institute for Interactive Media and Learning (IML), about this year’s submissions and the themes behind the program.
1. How many submissions did you receive for the forum?
Each year we call out to staff to submit their presentation proposals. This year we received 44 submissions from staff across UTS – that’s 38 paper presentations and 6 poster presentations. It’s an interesting set of submissions.
2. Are there any themes in the program this year?
Yes, there were some logical groupings from the submissions, which we have put together into various themes for the day.
For the morning session (the event is split into morning, afternoon and final sessions) there will be a number of presentations around engaging students, such as ‘what to do if no one turns up for your lectures?’, understanding millennials, motivating students etc. In the morning, there will also be a stream showcasing the work in the area of flipped and online learning, as well as some great presentations related to English language support.
For the afternoon, there is a significant Indigenous Graduate Attribute theme. It’s fantastic to see so many contributions in that space! In the afternoon, there will also be presentations related to various in-class engagement activities. Some really important work coming out of the Connected Intelligence Centre (CIC) is also being showcased in the afternoon, plus some fantastic work done by our colleagues in HELPS (Higher Education Language and Presentation Support).
Some of the presentations are going to be quite provocative, such as “The demise of rubrics as a marking method”, with Darrall Thompson. Others will showcase the work that UTS is doing in the area of professional practice. There is just too many to showcase.
Each submitter was also asked to provide some keywords, and here are just some of them:
- Flipped learning
- Engagement
- Motivation
- Benchmarking
- Authentic assessments
- Online tools
- Board games
- Feedback frameworks
- Academic support
- Communication skills
- Professional communication
- Employability
- English language
- Design
- Transdisciplinary
- Self-help
- Professional readiness
- Technologies
- Team teaching
- Study skills
As you can see, we’re in for a great day!
3. Why should I attend the forum?
This is a fantastic opportunity to see and hear all of the things that are happening across the university. In one day, you get a snapshot of lots of fantastic, innovative things taking place in the UTS community where you have a designated time to sit down, listen to the presentations and see how other people are doing it. You may come across innovations and teaching and learning that you wish to adapt into your own practice.
You should come along and get ideas and inspiration. Take the opportunity to approach people that you ordinarily would not, to have a conversation, especially during the breaks. It’s a unique opportunity to not just hear what the presenters say, but also follow up with questions and discussion.