Research: Dr Prasad Chunduri
Researcher
First year higher education in biomedical sciences
This research theme aims to identify issues related to first year higher education especially as they pertain to first year biology courses. As coordinators of large first year biology courses, we are continually trying to improve teaching & learning outcomes for our students through conducting research into new ways of teaching & learning. Broadly, the projects in this theme include inquiry-based practicals and scientific writing, including appropriate referencing habits and academic integrity, identifying and improving student understanding of threshold concepts, flipped classrooms and active learning approaches to learning, and new ways to assess students in large first year courses including the grading matrix approach.
Staff: Lesley Lluka
Current projects: An evaluation of flipped classroom approach to T&L in a large first year biology course.
Internationalisation of the curriculum
The word “Internationalisation”, as it pertains to a university, will include in its broadest definition the collection and interaction of staff and students from all around the world, teaching and learning that is of international standards and relevance, and the conduct of research that is of international quality and significance. The “Internationalisation of the Curriculum” research group aims to find ways to achieve a curriculum that is suitable to all domestic and international students, with content and form that is easily transferrable and applicable to any country in the world. This is especially of importance in the current times when most of university graduates will inevitably enter a globalised workforce and deal with multinational networks and companies.
Staff: Lesley Lluka
Current projects: An analysis of the current internationalisation strategies of Australian universities specifically within the biomedical sciences curricula.
Assessment and feedback
Assessment plays a number of roles in university, while its primarily used for grading students, it is also important in both encouraging learning and enhancing students’ ability to judge their own performance. It is in these latter roles that providing feedback to students is vital, but evaluating the actual extent to which students engage with and utilise feedback can be difficult. We recently developed a ‘multi-modal’ marking system, to aid provision of timely, detailed and situated feedback, with in-built learning analytics to track marker and student interactions with that feedback, and are using this system to evaluate strategies for effective feedback provision. In addition, we have a strong focus on creating effective and equitable methods to assess the development of scientific and research skills of students, particularly within large cohorts.
Staff: Kay Colthorpe, Kirsten Zimbardi, Lesley Lluka, Andrea Bugarcic (IMB), Phil Long (CEIT), Andrew Dekker (ITEE)
Current projects: UQMarkUp: Effective feedback and consistent assessment in diverse settings with e-learning enabled ‘in situ’ multi-modal commenting.