ALTC Awards & Funding 2011

Jessica Schumann

After receiving feedback from the University community to hold more events celebrating learning and teaching successes, the Office of the DVC(E) hosted celebratory drinks on Friday 7th October to toast the recent achievements of this year's ALTC Citation and Funding recipients. 

The Australian Learning and Teaching Council Awards recognises teaching excellence and outstanding contributions to student learning, while the extension grants and funding recognise, reward and support outstanding teaching and practice in higher education. 

The University had four awardees from the Citation for Outstanding Contribution to Student Learning, three extension grants and just under $1 million in funding awarded to several innovation and development projects.

Their work reflects the University's focus of the five signature themes for its courses and disciplines: research-led education, work-integrated learning, greater student access, choice and flexibility, interdisciplinarity and internationalisation. 

Joined by Associate Deans of Education, teaching staff and those from the Teaching & Learning Centre, the Office of the DVC(E) celebrated the success of the following people:

ALTC Citations for Outstanding Contribution to Student Learning 

  • Dr. Christine Kilham ~ for opening the doors to higher education through teaching and scholarship that foster inclusion for people with disability.
  • Dr. Linda Li ~ for supporting Higher Degree research (HDR) students in their journey to successful thesis writing through skilled advising, empathetic guidance and developing productive writing skills. Read more about Dr. Linda Li's success.
  • Assoc. Prof Mary Walsh ~ for inspiring undergraduate and postgraduate politics students to achieve career-enhancing outcomes beyond their expectation through a research and publications-based portfolio. Read more about Assoc. Prof. Mary Walsh's success.
  • Ms. Sarah St Vincent Welch ~ for taming the terror of the bare page: devising playful writing spaces that surprise, stimulate and support creative writing students to write and keep writing. Read more about taming the bare page terror.

ALTC Extension Grants

  • Prof. Gerlese Akerlind & Assoc. Prof. Anna Wilson ~ $10,000 to embed a curriculum design to enhance student understanding of professionalism as a threshold concept in professionally oriented disciplines.
  • Dr. Thea Vanags, Dr. Amanda George, Dr. Tricia Brown, Dr. Sarah Ailwood & Assoc. Prof Coralie McCormack ~ $5,000 for their project to encourage greater participation in peer review of teaching in the Faculties of Law and Health.
  • Dr. Bruce Stevens ~ $5,000 for his work in enhancing student learning in the workplace through developing leadership capabilities in clinical supervisors in the nursing disciplines.

ALTC Conference Sponsorship

  • "Moodleposium" ~ Prof. Gerlese Akerlind & Ms. Sue DeMoor were awarded $5,000 for an ACT region "Moodleposium" forum enabling the sharing of innovations and practice amongst ANU, CIT and UC.

ALTC Innovation & Development Funding 

  • $204,000 ~ Augmented Reality Studio: led by Senior Lecturer Danny Munnerley in collaboration with Prof. Rob Fitzgerald, Matt Bacon, Assoc. Prof Anna Wilson and Dr. John Hedburg from Macquarie University.
  • $182,000 ~ T.R.E.A.S.U.R.E: Assoc. Prof Anna Wilson leads this project and will collaborate with Prof. Gerlese Akerlind (UC), ANU and UWS to improve learning outcomes for students engaged in research projects as part of their degree. 
  • $220,000 ~ Work-Integrated Learning Project: UC partners with project leader Griffith University who will work collaboratively in assessing the impact of WIL on student work readiness. Assoc. Prof Jackie Walkington, Dr. Monica Kennedy, Assoc. Prof Laurie Grealish and Prof. Gerlese Akerlind will represent UC. 
  • $220,000 ~ Building leadership with the Sessional Staff Standards framework: Macquarie University leads this project, partnering with UTS, UTAS and Assoc. Prof Coralie McCormack from UC. 
  • $50,000 ~ NSW/ACT Promoting Excellence in Teaching Network: Led by UNSW, Assoc. Prof Coralie McCormack will represent UC in this excellent opportunity to extend the benefit of the Promoting Excellence program conducted through TLC.
  • $114,000 ~ Virtual World interview skills training for health professionals: Dr. Amanda George, Assoc. Prof Lynne Magor-Blatch and Ms. Toni Green will represent UC alongside researchers from the University of Sydney and ANU.
View the presentation here, (PPT 5.6Mb).