Disruption as a catalyst for change? Perceptions and approaches of teaching academics during COVID-19.
Contact: Associate Professor Chris Deneen
Research Stream: Complexity Leadership & Change in Complex Systems
Generating widespread, meaningful changes to higher education curricula is notoriously difficult in institutions where disciplinary ties and signature pedagogies are strong. The universal, severe and ongoing disruption to the sector owing to the COVID-19 pandemic has forced many academics to adopt new, often unfamiliar, practices in their teaching and curriculum. Although opportunities for sustained curriculum change have emerged, it is critically important to understand the nature of, and variation between, the specific experiences and responses of those teaching the curriculum.
We examined the experiences of academics and their approaches to teaching during early 2021. Utilising the relational 3P model of Trigwell and Prosser (2020) as a guiding framework, we analysed how the disruption may have impacted each part of the model across our study cohort.
Online assessments in tertiary music classes: A systematic review
Contact: Associate Professor Chris Deneen
Research Stream: Complexity Leadership & Change in Complex Systems
The challenge to teach music online is complex and multi-faceted; learning the creative art of music requires a supportive teacher and appropriate learning tasks and/or assessments. Research studies have identified that the use of technology is an effective tool to support student development of music knowledge and skills.
Prior to January 2020, less than 15% of Australian university music programs offered online music learning. The shift to online learning during COVID-19 resulted in many tertiary music instructors quickly adopting online music assessments.
Such transitions to online require an understanding of assessment alignment to learning objectives as well as appropriate technology adoption that supports inclusivity, curriculum differentiation and musically-supportive assessment and feedback. Given this context, understanding the degree to which specific online music assessments meet associated student learning outcomes is critical.
This project undertakes a formal systematic review with meta-analysis to identify research-informed online music assessments, enabling better-informed decision-making processes for instructors whose informed assessment choices can enhance the experiences for the students who complete them.
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The Modern Schooling Project
Contact: Associate Professor Chris Deneen
Research Stream: Complexity Leadership & Change in Complex Systems
The Modern Schooling project works with schools to explore effective approaches to technological innovation. Change management and leadership as well as models of teacher professional development are key, research-informed areas for working to achieve sustainable innovation at scale. Within these areas, researchers and experts will partner with the school, to focus on topics and approaches highly relevant to the school’s priorities. These may include: online pedagogies, technology innovations, assessment, leadership, professional development and contextually relevant school change. Modern Schooling will also involve project researchers working with school leadership teams to co-design strategically informed pathways for effective innovation in project- and school-relevant areas, such as flexible lesson delivery or exploring appropriate uses of AI (examples). Prior to commencing related research, activities will be fully agreed upon by all stakeholders and appropriate, formal ethical approvals obtained.
Creativity and Assessment in the age AI
Project Lead: Dr. Rebecca Marrone
Research Stream: Human and Artificial Cognition
A key challenge in creativity research is assessment. Objectively scored tests of creativity are highly reliable and valid but are slow and expensive to administer and score. As a result, many creativity researchers default to faster self-report measures of creativity, however, there are obvious weaknesses associated with both approaches. Recent research has begun to explore the use of computational approaches to address these limitations. This presentation will present research demonstrating that algorithms can assess creativity as accurately as human judges but with quicker speeds and at a fraction of the cost. Thus addressing the weaknesses associated with assessment and demonstrating the practicality of automated creativity assessment.
SAAGES (South Australian Academy for Gender Equity in STEM)
Contact: Dr. Florence Gabriel
Research Stream: Complexity Leadership & Change in Complex Systems
Delivered by the University of South Australia (UniSA) in partnership with leading South Australian companies and schools, the South Australian Academy for Gender Equity in STEM (SAAGES) enhances career pathways for women and helps them to reach their full career potential. It also assists STEM workplaces to become workplaces of choice for women. This project will design, develop and roll out a new program within the SAAGES portfolio that will provide high a high quality career development and mentoring program for women choosing to pursue a STEM career in the entrepreneurial or ‘start-up’ space.
Careers Compass
Contact: Associate Professor Simon Leonard
Preparing for careers is a cornerstone of education, but students now need to grapple with changing and complex futures. The University of South Australia Careers Compass project designs and delivers scalable and sustainable programs that assists young people in Years 6 to 9 to develop the competencies of the Australian Blueprint for Career Development.
ePortfolio Industry Partnership (ePIP)
Contact: Associate Professor Chris Deneen
Research Stream: Complexity Leadership & Change in Complex Systems
Effective representation of graduate achievement to external stakeholders is an essential but challenging goal of higher education. Achievement must be represented in ways that make sense to potential employers and align with their interests. It is essential, too that advancement and conferral of degrees accurately represent attainment, in relation to the aims of the program and mission of the university.
Authentic and meaningful achievement are aspirations for the main stakeholders being the student, university, and industry. But these three groups often lack understanding of the perspectives of the others and how they’re perspectives are made manifest. All three groups typically have little understanding of the needs of the other parties and what is meaningful to them. Therefore, there is a need for an approach that reflects a route to a) communication and aligned understanding of the three groups, b) serves the intentions of all three and c) is sustainable beyond a program.
SenseAI
Contact: Professor Maarten de Laat
Research Stream: Human and Artificial Cognition
The role of AI in the Education and Corporate sector. This project investigates the current and future impact of artificial intelligence (AI) on education and corporate sector. The aim of the project is to document current practices and provide likely pathways forward for the adoption of AI in organizations.
Analyzing the enablers and barriers of effective adoption of AI to support knowledge processes and learning & development in organizations in the corporate sector.
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The contribution of creative confidence to closing the gender gap in STEM
Contact: Maria Vieira
Research Stream: Futures Thinking
This research explores the role of creativity, and more specifically creative confidence, as a key mechanism to support the reduction of the gender gap in Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths (STEM. With the support of industry partners, we provide schoolgirls across South Australia with an authentic context to develop their creative confidence by rethinking real-world STEM problems applying the Design Thinking methodology. An important premise of this project is that creative confidence can be taught, providing substantial and measurable benefits to women along the entire STEM pipeline, from primary school to senior careers.
Mapping Landscapes of Expertise: Augmenting knowledge networking with AI
Contact: Professor Maarten de Laat
In this project we will prototype AI and digital technologies (data processing and visualisation) to map dynamic landscapes of expertise for the corporate sector. Katapult provides collaboration tools like a match-making map, to provide access to networks and help unlock organisational capability to promote innovation. However, high market volatility results in rapid changes of knowledge and expertise and in this project, we aim to augment these collaboration tools by prototyping AI and digital technologies (data processing and visualisation) to map dynamic landscapes of expertise as they develop over time. Such a data visualisation will reflect area’s of expertise and uses available public digital data to keep representations up-to-date. As a result, this prototype will bring together an overview of the demand for and supply of expertise and will serve as an input for an interactive match-making tool for Katapult to help organisations and professionals to build networks to effectively respond to new market opportunities.
AI Playground
Contact: Professor Maarten de Laat
Research Stream: Human and Artificial Cognition
Schools today are not ready to produce the future workforce capable of entering an AI driven market. The AI Playground is a digital learning environment that helps educators to bring AI into the classroom. The AI Playground offers students a way to learn with together with AI to solve complex problems that humans struggle to solve on their own. This is done by providing students with challenges. These challenges encourage students to take ownership over AI, play with it and develop AI to follow their imagination.
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Leveraging Data to Support Young People’s Education and Wellbeing
Contact: Professor Sally Brinkman
This project will create an enduring database linking education and wellbeing data from multiple databases, covering such areas as enrolment, attendance, behaviour management, academic achievement, and student wellbeing and will be made freely accessible to researchers. Over time, this will paint a fuller picture of the students’ journey throughout their school life. A collaborative, coordinated approach will maximise the comparability and use of all these data from different states and territories and will be made sustainable through FAIR data principles.
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THRIVE
Contact: Professor Sally Brinkman
THRIVE is a large-scale, multi-country research and policy programme which aims to build understanding of Early Childhood Development (ECD) service delivery models and how they can transform to significantly improve early childhood health, nutrition, education and wellbeing outcomes in low- and middle-income countries. THRIVE seeks comprehensive, practical answers about how ECD systems innovate, improve, and better serve children and communities.
For the team at UniSA, THRIVE represents an opportunity to improve the conditions for children in Kiribati through the implementation of carefully planned projects and upgrading of existing systems. The current pattern of increased globalisation, migration, and impact of climate change, coupled with ministries which are keen to improve child development conditions lends Kiribati to be a prime location for directed foreign aid. Most importantly, THRIVE will serve as an opportunity to flesh out and develop Kiribati’s capacity for investment activities.
