The Education Research Group of Adelaide (ERGA)

ERGA is a cross-disciplinary community of educators promoting high quality University learning through evidence-based, practical approaches to teaching.

ERGA is currently comprised of members representing several universities. At the University of Adelaide, members are from the five Faculties of the University of Adelaide and the divisions of the Deputy Vice-Chancellor and VP (Academic and Research).

Our aim is to disseminate the outcomes from our research and teaching initiatives to all members of the University Community.
 

ERGA Conference 2009: Feedback and Flexible Learning

24-25 September: University of Adelaide

The 2009 ERGA conference will be addressing the theme of Feedback and Flexible Learning. The aim of the ERGA Conference series is to bring together colleagues from the higher education sector to discuss best practice and new approaches in the tertiary environment.

Our keynote speakers this year will be Professor Marica Devlin and Professor Susan Jones.

Professor Marcia Devlin holds the inaugural Chair in Higher Education Research at Deakin University, Victoria. Marcia's research interests and expertise span higher education policy, equity, Indigenous higher education, university teaching improvement and student engagement and learning. Current and recent national work includes contributing to federal policy development in Indigenous higher education and equity, the Universities Australia-funded national study of student finances, sitting on the National Advisory Group of the Australian Survey of Student Engagement managed by the Australian Council for Educational Research and serving as an Assessor for the Australian Learning and Teaching Council. Marcia co-authored the Australian Universities Teaching Committee Assessing Student Learning website and resources. She writes regularly on higher education matters for newspapers including The Australian and Campus Review.

Professor Susan Jones is Head of the School of Zoology at the University of Tasmania. She has taught at the University since 1986, beginning as a casual senior demonstrator in first year practical classes. She has a special interest in the first year transition, embedding generic skills into the science curriculum, and in providing authentic research experiences for undergraduate students. Her teaching is strongly evidence-based: her portfolio includes several major faculty-wide or national teaching development projects, and she is a Fellow of the Higher Education Research and Development Society of Australasia (FHERDSA). The quality of Sue's teaching has been recognised with three University of Tasmania Teaching Excellence Awards (individual awards in 1997 and 2007, and a team award in 2004). At the national level, she won a Carrick Citation for Outstanding Contributions to Student Learning in 2007, and an ALTC Award for Outstanding Contributions to Student Learning (Biological and Biomedical Sciences) in 2008. Her disciplinary research area is vertebrate reproductive biology and endocrinology, focussing on viviparous reptiles and marsupials.

Topics which will be addressed at the conference include:

• Providing effective feedback
• The nature of feedback
• Benefits and challenges of flexible learning approaches
• Student-teacher/student-student dynamic
• Feedback from peer and self assessments
• Teaching "out of the classroom"
• Online learning

SUBMISSION GUIDELINES

Paper submissions are due on the 31st of July.

• To register for the conference as an attendee click here
• To register for the conference as a potential presenter click here
• To submit an abstract click here

Attendance at ERGA 09 is free for members of the University of Adelaide and approved delegates from UniSA and Flinders University. Other delegates are welcome with a registration cost of $160.

Recent Events

Workshop by Professor Trevor Anderson, Head, Science Education Research Group, University of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa

Assessment in Higher Education

Tuesday 26 May
The Education Research Group of Adelaide (ERGA) invite you to attend this seminar and workshop. Prof Anderson will be discussing assessment from a variety of perspectives and will discuss the benefits of cross-disciplinary interactions to support assessment.

Download Presentation here (pdf 839kB)

Workshop by Dr Margaret Kiley - Australian National University

The Role of Honours in Contemporary Australian Higher Education

Friday 22nd of May
The Education Research Group of Adelaide (ERGA) and The Australian Learning and Teaching Council (ALTC) Honours Project Team invite you to attend this interesting workshop. Dr Kiley will present the major findings and resources produced by the project, and then facilitate discussion between the participants. The event provides an opportunity for cross-institutional, intra-disciplinary and cross-disciplinary conversations on Honours. The team is inviting all universities in the region to participate and would like to see all levels of colleagues with a stake in Honours represented.

Download Presentation here (pdf 229kB)

Prizes Workshop

This workshop was for those interested in applying for faculty teaching prizes, University teaching prizes or an ALTC citation. ERGA members who have successfully applied for these types of prizes provided tips, examples and other useful information on how to maximise the chances of success when you next apply.

Download Workshop PowerPoint slides (pdf 222kB)

Dr Jan Harrow, Discipline of English

Do Creative Writers Have Anything to Teach You?: Facilitating Creative Process in a Research-Centred University

Teachers of creative writing face a number of challenges in trying to facilitate artistic process and the development of writing craft within a content-centred research environment. This workshop explores pedagogical responses to standardised expectations of student load, research practice, evaluation, and measurements of "industry outcomes" that are often counter-productive to creative process and the production of creative work. In an effort to move beyond the division between "research" writing and "creative" writing, this workshop will present workshop participants who require their students to write in any academic field to experience, first-hand, practical methods to move student writing from concept to draft through the process of pre-writing (conceptualising); free-writing (discovery); focusing (finding meaning); re-writing; peer review; revision; and editing. In addition, peer review and structured workshop guidelines will be discussed and demonstrated with the help of two postgraduate students, Rachel Hennessy and Carol LeFevre.