Higher education
For nearly a decade, I’ve worked in higher education across a range of roles, specifically within the Portfolio of the Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Education) – a central portfolio at Monash University that’s responsible for implementing strategic, and often dynamic, education-focused initiatives at the university.
I’ve collaborated with world-leading educators and led high performing teams to produce fully online post-graduate and non-award courses, award winning professional development courses and for-credit microcredential pathways.
Selected highlights
CPD MOE professional development online courses (various)
The Monash Centre for Professional Development and Monash Online Education (CPD MOE) was a high performing team within the Portfolio of the Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Education).
Between 2019 and 2022, CPD MOE released professional development courses and microcredentials across a range of areas, including civics and citizenship teacher training, translating and interpreting, design thinking, compassion training for healthcare works, and more.
What I did.
For the courses where I as the project lead, I was responsible for:
- scoping, scheduling and sequencing the course development from end to end
- providing guidance and leadership to educators on educational design approaches to best suit the needs of their unique cohort
- providing direction to team members on prototypes, storyboarding, development, produced media, and visual aesthetic.
Watch a series of walk throughs of a selection of fully online courses that were developed and delivered on our learning management system (LMS) – a modified variant of Moodle Workplace.
Compassion training for healthcare workers
With over 20 years experience in healthcare working as a social worker, Dr Debbie Ling approached CPD MOE for help in designing a practical course for healthcare professionals and anyone working in community and social service roles. Placing the healthcare worker experience at the centre, Debbie and I worked closely to design a learning experience that gives healthcare workers bitesize tools and techniques they can then go away and practise – the course had to be practical and useful.
Like many other courses, we used video to deliver content. The videos in this course generally featured Debbie presenting by herself, but also with other course contributors – videos featuring more than one presenter had a conversational and reflective style.
This video style was informed by my previous experience with leading the Monash mindfulness courses, which featured contributions from Professor Craig Hassed and Dr Richard Chambers.
Establishing an appropriate tone for the course was crucial, which is why we wanted to intentionally shift the presentation of learning away from the ‘academic on a pedestal’ to an approach of still being the expert but being relatable, real and encouraging.
Together, we conceived the idea of a ‘Fridge Magnet’ approach that helped us focus discrete ideas and pull out easy takeaways, downloadable materials and end of week summaries for participants, which they could literally print out and place nearby for easy reference. We made sure to offer carefully curated high quality related links where participants could ‘Find out more’, if it was of interest to them – doing this enabled participants to further explore a particular topic, but also provide evidence to support claims made in the course.
Debbie and I intentionally designed the course to be a social experience. With this social aspect in mind, we designed for participant reflection and discussion – we gently invited participants to ‘Tell us how you went’ and ‘Reflect and connect’ with other participants. These discussions are also managed by the course educator Debbie – these responses make the course extremely personal, attentive and intimate, much like a community of learners.
Compassion training for healthcare workers has been a success and has run five times throughout 2022, with plans for it to run again in 2023. It was also awarded the 2022 MNHS Dean’s Awards for Excellence in Education in the category of ‘Excellence in Education – Industry and Community Education Programs (Team)’.
Watch a walk through of the compassion course delivered on our LMS.
Find out more about my work on compassion training by making your way through the // deep dive
Indigenous Australian Voices – module enhancement
Monash University is committed to providing its students with an opportunity to learn more about Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australia and fully understand the university’s values. To help achieve this, Monash launched Indigenous Australian Voices, a compulsory online module designed especially for undergraduate students new to university life.
What I did.
There was a desire to do more while ensuring the module best reflects the goals and priorities specified in the university’s 10 year strategic plan. I was tasked by the head of Monash Centre for Professional Development to lead a project that:
- proposed and communicated the module enhancements
- carried out these enhancements by the start of the semester.
It was crucial that the proposed enhancements were clearly and concisely documented and made readily shareable with key stakeholders. The goal was to communicate all this in a ‘one-pager’ style enhancement brief – something that clearly and succinctly explains why we’re doing it, what we’re (not) delivering, and when.
To prepare the enhancement brief, I worked closely with the director of the William Cooper Institute to:
- ensure the proposed changes align with the university’s initiatives to support Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students, staff and culture
- clearly define the proposed changes and their positive impacts specify allowances
- set deliverables, milestones and due dates.
The completed enhancement brief was issued to project stakeholders to increase their awareness and understanding of the changes and provide opportunities for them to provide further input and feedback.
Although it was a high-level document, it served as a literal and figurative guide for our decision making, and eventual build-out and release of the enhanced cultural safety module for students.
Monash x FutureLearn – MOOCs and microcredentials
In 2014, Monash University partnered with FutureLearn, a UK-based digital education platform, to boost the university’s digital education strategy and explore how MOOCs might:
- grow Monash’s brand and reputation
- offer opportunities for lifelong learning to alumni
- act as a pathway for for-fee online courses
- drive innovation and enhancement of the online teaching and learning experience.
Monash’s first two MOOCs had been released by the time I joined the project as an educational designer. From then, I was responsible for the design, development and ongoing delivery of a series of MOOCs relating to urban design and water use, food as medicine, fundamentals of law, and mindfulness.
Building on the success of Food as Medicine MOOC and as an exploration of how they might act as a paid-for pathway, we released a series of five nutrition related courses designed especially for healthcare professionals – endorsed by various bodies within the healthcare sector these courses could be completed individually or as a collected healthcare practice program.
My role was to work with the academic and project lead to design the course, and then lead the multimedia development and eventual delivery on the FutureLearn platform.
Find out more about my work on Food as Medicine by making your way through the // deep dive
The concept of pathways was further explored with the ‘Introduction to Psychology’ and the ‘Data Science: Data-Driven Decision Making’ microcredential – with 12 hours of learning over 12 weeks, graded assessments and 6 credit points at Postgraduate level from the university, these courses marked a drastic departure from MOOCs.
Leaning into the social learning approach of FutureLearn and the goals of Monash’s MOOC project to innovate and enhance online teaching and learning, our courses were intentionally designed to be experiential, gently guided by mentors, feel personal at scale and be immediately practical – you’d leave each course with a relevant artefact of learning and foundational skills that you could then continue to practise and build on in your personal and professional life.
All courses were boosted with an elementary social media presence that enabled in-course content to be made available outside of the course and support marketing and discoverability. This approach to course design led to high rated reviews from learners for our MOOCs and ’The Best Free Online Courses of All Time’ by Class Central.
Watch a selection of walk throughs of Monash courses delivered on the FutureLearn platform – the design challenge was to work creatively within (and sometimes outside) the constraints of the platform.
Vocational
For over a decade, I worked as a multimedia developer, instructional designer and learning designer in the vocational education and training (VET) sector.
As a member and lead of high performing teams, I was responsible for the design and development and deployment of web-based and blended learning resources for students within the registered training organisation (RTO) and more broadly across the VET sector.
Many of the resources we produced were funded and recognised by Australian Government national education strategies e.g., Australian Flexible Learning Framework (AFLN), National e-Learning Strategy, VET Development Centre, etc.
Selected highlights
Mobas
Mobas (Mobile checklists enabling authentic workplace assessment) is a web application that enables vocational education students and teachers to create, complete and submit formative and summative authentic workplace-based assessments from their smartphone or other Internet enabled device – it was funded by the E-learning for Participation and Skills project for the National e-Learning Strategy and released in 2012/2013.
As the learning designer, I was responsible for:
- determining and scoping assessment templates most relevant to workplace and industry, and units of competency
- creating template mock-ups and working with developers and infrastructure team to design user interface elements, functionality and user experience
- writing instructional copy for web application and learning management system
- testing and evaluating templates throughout production cycle and providing feedback as required
- facilitating training sessions for students, teachers and co-presenting information sessions for project stakeholders and management.
AFLF Toolboxes (various series)
Toolboxes were a series of high quality web-based learning materials to support the online delivery of qualifications from recognised training packages – the series was funded over a number of years by the Australian Flexible Learning Framework (AFLF). Designed to be flexible, customisable and user-friendly as self-paced standalone learning experiences or installed on an organisation’s server, the toolboxes were developed for a range of subject areas.
As the multimedia developer and learning designer, I was responsible for:
- mapping units of competency to determine formative and summative assessment and content requirements
- writing instructional copy and designing learning sequences communicating multimedia requirements to developers via written scripts and storyboards
- evaluating and testing authored resources and submitting feedback to developers and designers
- planning and preparing documentation for student-testing and review interpreting and responding to client and industry feedback on completed resources and communicating change requests to developers.
VET Development Centre Specialist Scholarship – AR for automotive
In 2013 I was granted a ‘Specialist Scholarship’ by the VET Development Centre – the scholarships are available to non-teaching staff who wish to develop their skills, capability and professional standing within the vocational education and training (VET) system in Australia. The scholarship enabled me to pilot a very simple augmented reality (AR) experience with automotive students and teachers – the AR experience guided pre-apprentices through an authentic workplace task of disassembling and reassembling the components that make up a rear brake calliper from a motor vehicle.
As the project lead, learning designer and developer, I was responsible for:
- designing concepts and documentation for the AR experience engaging with automotive teaching staff to design an authentic workplace task
- scoping, authoring, publishing and testing AR technologies
- capturing 3D point cloud information for tracking object of interest
- conducting usability trials with automotive students and teachers
- reporting and presenting on project outcomes.
Operational
Working within a central portfolio may increase the likelihood of being operationally involved in a breadth of rich experiences. Occasionally adjacent, but mostly directly related, the operational aspects of my role have allowed me to increase my knowledge, understanding and skills in efficiently engaging with many of the systems, processes and programs that underpin the projects I lead or work on within the portfolio.
Selected highlights
Supervision of direct reports
Supervision of direct reports has always been part of my role, even as an educational designer. As my role progressively transitioned from adviser to then senior adviser, the number of direct reports has increased as the team grew in response to restructures and a new strategic direction within the portfolio. As a supervisor, my goal is to:
- provide support, direction and escalation, as needed.
- guide planning of annual work goals and performance development
- cultivate an energetic, positive and productive workplace culture.
Monash University x FutureLearn – operational manager
Many things in the digital education ecosystem have changed since Monash University first partnered with FutureLearn in 2014. These changes meant my focus moved from educational design to the operational manager for the partnership prior to the cessation of the partnership at the end of 2022. As the operational manager, I was responsible for:
- reconciling quarterly revenue share statements and passing on to the university’s finance department for processing
- conducting fortnightly catch-ups with the local FutureLearn partnership manager to identify and cultivate new opportunities
- scheduling, refreshing and releasing event-based professional development courses
- monitoring and managing the always available ‘on-demand’ courses.
CPD MOE showcases
Throughout 2022, the Monash Centre for Professional Development and Monash Online Education (CPD MOE) presented a limited series of showcases to stakeholders within the university to demonstrate our capability to produce high-quality learning designed especially for working professionals and to invite the stakeholders to work with us.
The showcases were intentionally formatted to personalise the people and processes the stakeholders will engage with along the production pipeline, if they chose to work with us – this meant every team member had their moment to shine.
My role at the showcases was to speak about our value proposition, what’s different about what we do, how we design our learning for our ‘end users’, and how we’ll work with the educators to design and develop their professional development course, and also to reassure them.
Better Teaching, Better Learning student-led projects
The Better Teaching, Better Learning student-led projects were a series of research projects initiated by the Monash University Office of Learning and Teaching (MU-OLT), but led by students under the direction of a project sponsor.
The projects were open to later-year undergraduate students and coursework postgraduate students and operated outside of semester. They ran for three seasons between 2016 and 2017 and piggybacked on the university’s Summer and Winter Vacation Research Scholarship Program. Participating students received a scholarship, and successful completion of the project were recorded on their academic transcript. These projects aligned with the University’s Better Teaching, Better Learning program and promoted learner-centred experiences at Monash.
As the project lead, I was responsible for:
- promoting research project opportunities, recruiting students for project team and connecting with MU-OLT sponsor
- scheduling and project management
- reporting and presenting on weekly and project outcomes
- planning and administering the end of the project showcase event.
