Encouraging academics to think outside the box has earned the University of Southern Queensland’s new recruit Professor Mike Keppell an ascilite Innovation and Excellence Award.
Professor Keppell, who joined USQ two months ago as the Executive Director of ADFI and Director of the Digital Futures CRN Program, received the award for his work in designing and implementing The Flexible Learning Institute’s Teaching Fellowship Scheme which focused on curriculum design, distributive leadership and design-based research.
Professor Keppell designed the program during his previous time at the Charles Sturt University to provide ‘time and space’ for busy teachers and academics to develop strategies and innovative methods in learning and teaching.
“I established the project in 2007 and since then it has engaged 26 Fellows across four faculties, 23 schools and nine different campuses,” Professor Keppell said.
“I was quite chuffed to receive the award, as ascilite (Australasian Society for Computers in Learning in Tertiary Education) are a vibrant professional community of innovators, leaders and scholars engaged in exemplary research within Australasia.
“The award was excellent recognition of the leadership, research and outcomes of the project.
“It was a major strategic project over five years and involved substantial mentoring of the fellows, as well as redesign of the curriculum through blending and flexible learning.”
Professor Keppell said he expected the project to succeed in achieving its goals as all ground work was put in place and the strategic intent of the project was foregrounded throughout the project.
“The lasting legacy of the project is one of the most satisfying aspects, particularly in the area of developing leadership and research capacity building,” he said.
“One of the unexpected side-effects of the program was the development of leaders through their individual projects who transitioned into formal leadership roles across the University.
“These leaders will influence policy and practice in the future.
“Academics undergoing the program also engaged in research into learning and teaching across all disciplines of the university. The approach of the project focussed on the research-teaching nexus and achieved some quality outcomes.
“This was unexpected but a fantastic result.”
The ascilite Innovation and Excellence Award is given “in recognition of outstanding innovation and excellence in the development of a major professional development initiative that promotes the exemplary and research informed use of technologies for teaching and learning in tertiary education.”
Media contact:
Jim Campbell, jim.campbell@usq.edu.au, 07 4631 2977
Callum Johnson, email: callum.johnson@usq.edu.au, Phone: 07 4631 1856
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