Teaching Resources
At the University of Adelaide, learning is designed to be active, student-centred, and to foster a sense of community.
These resources offer both evidence-based principles and practical guidance for designing and delivering effective learning experiences. They will be constantly updated as needed.
Please email teachexcellence@adelaide.edu.au if you have any feedback or suggestions for content.
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Videos of teaching practice
The videos below illustrate the passion of our teachers and provide insights into student learning in some of the courses at the University.
- Good practice ideas in 2 minutes - Colleagues share successful approaches for engaging students.
- What makes a good teacher?
- Studying the Australia Wine Industry
- Human Biology at the University of Adelaide
- Flipping the Public Law Classroom
- Putting Human Rights into Practice
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Inclusive and accessible teaching practices
The Higher Education Standards Framework requires the design of learning and teaching to ensure students of all backgrounds have the opportunity to succeed academically. When we make choices about learning activities, including assessment, we need to take an equity-informed approach and apply inclusive education principles. The following resources provide support for an inclusive approach.
Course design series: Inclusive practice
A one-page guide to Universal Design for Learning for course coordinators.
Inclusive practice guidance
The Australian Disability Clearinghouse on Education and Training (ADCET) provides excellence guidance and resources on inclusive practice including course design and delivery, assessment, and considerations for laboratories and workshops.
The Gonski Institute for Education (UNSW) have written an overview of the literature related to Inclusive Teaching for Equity and Diversity in Higher Education.
Connect and learn with colleagues
If you are interested in sharing ideas about inclusive teaching, you may want to join the Diversity and Inclusion in Teaching Community of Practice (DITCOP).
Universal Design for Learning (UDL)
UDL is a framework for designing learning activities and assessments that account for learner diversity based on the science of how we learn. You can use the framework to create meaningful and challenging learning for all students.
In this online, self-paced course you can learn practical ways to apply UDL in your course design and/or teaching. It takes about 90 to 120 minutes and the best piece of advice focuses on how to apply UDL to one element of your teaching at a time.
Creating accessible content
If you create learning materials for students to be used in MyUni, practical support is available to ensure the design of your learning experiences is inclusive and accessible.
The self-enrol Introduction to MyUni resource includes a page on how you can ensure your course materials are accessible to learners, which is a legal requirement and enhances learning for all students.
For further guidance on creating accessible content, the Australian Disability Clearinghouse on Education and Training (ADCET) is a great source.
ADCET also provide guidelines for supporting blind and vision impaired students online and have a free online self-paced course.
University resources, strategies and support
The University of Adelaide has produced a guide to inclusive language to help us ensure our interactions (including the way we address others) are accurate, fair and respectful.
There are a number of institutional level plans for addressing structural and cultural impediments to diversity and inclusion which could also inform your approach.
Some learning and teaching provisions to address diversity have a basis in legislation such as reasonable adjustments in assessment and access to assistive technologies. Disability Support can help academic and professional staff to understand the guiding legislation and University policies.
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High impact approaches for the online learning environment
The Online programs team have developed principles and guidance for online learning informed by the Technology Enhanced Learning Accreditation Standards (TELAS), Quality Matters (QM) and the TEQSA Higher Education Standards Framework (HESF).
The following guides are for educators who would like to enhance the online portion of their blended courses.
Community of inquiry approach for designing learning environments
Five ways to increase the effectiveness of instructional videos
Looking for ways to design effective online lectures? This journal article outlines the evidence and theories behind five techniques for the creation of effective instructional videos: dynamic drawing; gaze guidance; generative activity; perspective; and subtitles. It also warns against the use of seductive details that do not contribute to learning.
Online Learning Consortium (OLC)
The mission of the OLC is to create community and knowledge around quality online, blended, and digital learning while driving innovation and you create your own account and affiliate it with the University of Adelaide institutional membership. In April 2020 the OLC recently held an event designed to address the challenges of teaching during the pandemic. You can access the nearly 50 OLC Ideate recorded sessions covering topics such as building inclusive learning environments, radical openness, caring for students, and humanizing online learning. Access a full list of the sessions and descriptions.
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Reflective practice and the evaluation of teaching effectiviness
Student feedback plays an integral role in the continuous improvement of student learning experiences and outcomes.
One of the major evaluation tools used at the University is the Student Experience of Learning and Teaching Surveys (SELT).
SELTs are conducted for the majority of courses in each Semester and programs annually.The getting and using student feedback document provides a brief overview of the primary ways student feedback can be used to improve teaching and learning, discusses the various types of student feedback available to staff, offers some recommendations for best practice, and raises some questions for discussion.
- SELT Use and interpretation Guide 2020
- SELT promo slide deck for staff
- Top Tips for increasing your SELT response rates
How do you check for learning during class?
You can use the methods outlined in this Vanderbilt University resource on CATS (Classroom assessment techniques) like minute papers to get feedback on student progress as well as the effectiveness of your teaching approach.
You might like to register for the ADEPT program sessions on Reflective practice and writing to hear how peers approach evaluating and gaining recognition for excellence in teaching practice.
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Building rapport and community in the online environment
Students at the Western Sydney University describe their experience in this ‘Zoom is the new classroom’ video, including why they turn their videos off, what they like, and the one thing they really look for.
The Appalachian State University has created this graphic guide to help you decide why video cameras need to be on when you are teaching via Zoom and what alternatives exist to creating engagement and a sense of community.
7 strategies to promote community in online courses
The Director of Teaching and Learning at RMIT Online explains the why and how on topics such as communication, engagement, and feedback links, and provides examples.
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Maintaining staff and student wellbeing
Course design series: Supporting wellbeing
A one-page guide to reviewing how courses support student wellbeing.
The eSafety Commissioner has created two resources for academic and teaching staff which provide core tools for identifying, preventing and responding to online abuse of students. They also provide advice on how academics can protect themselves online.
Staff Guide - Student mental wellbeing
This Guide to Supporting Students' Mental Wellbeing, produced by the National Centre for Student Equity in Higher Education provides practical strategies for educators.
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Group work good practice
This good practice guide was created by colleagues in the Learning and Teaching CoPs and provides an overview of evidence-based principles and practices for effective and efficient design, implementation, and management of group work.
The guide includes potential scenarios and approaches, links to resources, templates, and samples to support the various aspects of group work design, implementation and assessment.
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Enabling engagement
AdvanceHE student engagement toolkit
Each of these 52 cards provides practical high-impact, low technology ideas for engaging students designed for face to face, online and blended learning environments. The accompanying guide explains ways to use the cards as well as proving prompts for inclusive and reflective practice.
Achieving learning in online practicals
The department of Multidisciplinary Engineering Education at the University of Sheffield have developed a playbook of tactics for when practicals need to be taught without access to the laboratories on campus.
Promoting critical thinking in online discussions
A review of the literature that identifies evidence-based approaches to instructional design and facilitation for fostering critical thinking in asynchronous online discussions (summary table in conclusion).
Online learning beyond the technology: Reconceptualising online engagement
Using an evidence-based online engagement framework, this webinar hosted by the UK’s Association for Learning Technology (ALT) with presenters from USQ, provides practical strategies for enabling engagement.
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Student Partnerships
The University is committed to working in genuine partnership with students to ensure the high quality and the continuous enhancement and innovation of our curriculum, learning and teaching, and wider student experience. Our approach is informed by our Student Partnership Values.
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Mixed cohort learning
Are you teaching classes that have mixed cohorts of on-campus and online learners?
These resources address the teaching approaches that facilitate learning in this delivery mode. The resources vary in the names they use for this mode, for example hyflex, hybrid etc.
This 2-page guide produced by LEI outlines three aspects of successful mixed mode learning experiences: preparing students for learning, delivery and engagement, and continuous evaluation.
This collection of resources includes advice from experienced academics teaching in mixed mode internationally.
If you are interested in informed sharing among practitioners, the Learning and Teaching in Higher Education Twitter chat, (#LTHEchat), discussed hybrid/hyflex/dual mode and collected resources in a Padlet including pedological models, practical tips and lesson plans.
The University of Sydney provides a comprehensive set of teaching tips in this blog.
You can access practical strategies for engaging students in this blog on active learning in hybrid and socially-distanced classrooms from Vanderbilt University.
If you would like to learn about how teaching in a mixed mode is being practiced internationally, you can join the online HyFlex Learning Community. Dr. Brian Beatty, who has been teaching with and writing about hybrid approaches at San Francisco State University for over 20 years has launched the community as a place for educators to ask questions and share ideas.
Social Learning and Communities of Practice researchers and practitioners, Etienne and Beverley Wenger-Trayner, have been running hybrid training since 2011. They share principles and methods for meaningful connection for learning on this blog some of which could be transferred to the higher education context.
One of the challenges in teaching in mixed mode (and when facilitating sessions online) is the issues of students turning off their camera. This infographic will help students understand the benefits of turning their video on. We need to be aware of the reasons why students may not turn their video on. For insight into this and options for practice, this guide summarises findings from a research article.
After accessing the above resources to investigate approaches to mixed cohort learning, you can find further guidance through the services provided by Learning Enhancement and Innovation.
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Creating and curating learning materials
Preparing well-presented documents can greatly enhance the student learning experience. The following links provide some basic guidelines for publication design using standard University-installed software and also cover some of the issues to consider in the preparation of resources for presentation in both print and on-screen format.
- Copyright advice
- How to use Microsoft Word
- What makes a good document
- 10 ways to make your PowerPoints more engaging
Are your resources accessible?
The Introduction to MyUni resource (Self-enrol) includes a page on how you can ensure your course materials are accessible to learners, which is a legal requirement and enhances learning for all students.
Freely available resources can be embedded easily into MyUni to inform and demonstrate assumed or desirable study skills sought to optimise individual student success and concurrently provide a foundation of practical knowledge for each cohort. Resources include, but are not limited to, group work, presentation skills and technology use, for example, Excel.
More information about accessing and using LinkedIn Learning for Educators
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Opportunities for development
The ADEPT program offers a range of professional development sessions focused on enhancing learning in the online and on-campus environments.
If you are new teaching, or would like a refresher, the fully online Introduction to University Teaching course is always available.
The courses and resources from external providers in this curated list provide a wide choice of learning experiences, both for those at novice and advanced levels.
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Develop your Teaching Philosophy
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Further support
After accessing the above resources to investigate approaches to enriching learning which are evidence-based and appropriate for your context, you can find further guidance on the University of Adelaide supported technologies through the services provided by Learning Enhancement and Innovation or by accessing the MyUni Learning Centre.