Merry Christmas and Happy New Year from the PVC L&T

Dear Colleagues,

There have been many achievements across the Learning and Teaching portfolio in what has been a challenging time for the University. You and your teams should be extremely proud of these successes, a selection of which are shared below.

• We finalised the “Learning and Teaching Strategic Framework 2020-2024 – Enhancing student learning to maximise future success” with extensive feedback from you and your teams and will be launched in the New Year. We all have a role to play in its success.
• A revitalised Learning and Teaching Awards program was celebrated on the 18^th and 21^st November. This included the introduction of a new “Student Nominated” award, which received over 2,000 student nominations for 700 academics across the Macquarie University community.
• Dr Karen Pearlman and Dr Iqbal Barkat from the Faculty of Arts won the Outstanding Contributions to Student Learning award at the Australian Awards for University Teaching (AAUT) for their unique Screen Production intensive program;
• The Global Leadership Program won the International Award for Progressive Education Delivery at the PIEoneer awards in London;
• Shamim Joarder won the Innovation Award at the 2019Australasian Society for Computers in Learning in Tertiary Education Conference in Singapore for leading the development of the iLearn Insights application.
• A process to select an ePortfolio enterprise solution, which will be implemented University-wide in Semester 1 2020, has been successfully led by Program Illuminate team members Arda Tezcan and Sumedha Kamat. This tool will be used by students and staff to collect digital resources and evidence of learning, achievements, extra-curricular activities, photos and videos.
• The final draft of the Professional Learning and Capability Enhancement (PLaCE) framework has been completed. The PLaCE framework provides a map of the professional capabilities for all staff who are teaching or supporting learning. This resource will be a key guide to inform the development and provision of professional learning and recognition of staff. Further development of the framework will continue through to the end of Q1 2020.
• Work has commenced on the Program Illuminate microcredentials project. This project will allow Macquarie University to provide further specialised learning opportunities to study-interested workers and students. The aim is to commence with a pilot suite of microcredentials in 2020.
• Significant progress has been made by the TEDS team to move student feedback surveys to a fully online environment (i.e. no more paper-based surveys) from Session 1 2020. Several Departments, new and experienced in conducting surveys online, have participated in transition activities, providing valuable feedback to enhance teacher resources and support mechanisms.
• This year we have worked closely with Students as Partners on many initiatives. We involved students in the assessment process for all our Vice-Chancellor’s Learning and Teaching Awards – that included six separate categories. As well as a series of student focus groups which enabled students to provide feedback on many key issues around their experience and interactions at Macquarie University.

Even though 2019 is coming to an end I am already thinking about the new year ahead. I am looking forward to our Educating for Success event on 6 February 2020 which will be an opportunity to further showcase excellence in learning and teaching across the University. There will be additional consultation with all staff for the Learning and Teaching review and an update will be sent in the New Year. Further work will take place in relation to the enablers for the Learning and Teaching strategic framework including finalising a digital strategy, implementing an academic PLaCE initiative, conceptualising an employability framework and establishing the principles for a Macquarie University Distinctive Pedagogy.