To provide some context and further validation of the TiPs outlined on these pages:
In 2021, my teaching was recognised by a UNSW Vice Chancellor’s Award for Outstanding Contributions to Student Learning. Several of the TiPs presented on this education profile were acknowledged as having made significant improvements to learning outcomes and the student experience.
In 2022 and 2025, I was part of the Faculty of Science judging committee for the initial ranking of UNSW Vice Chancellor teaching awards. There are so many wonderful educators at UNSW, and yet only a subset take the time to nominate themselves for university awards. You don't have to be an Education-Focussed (EF) academic to be competitive for these awards, and you deserve to be recognised.
In 2023, I won the UNSW Exemplar Teaching Practice award for ‘linking learning to context’. This is part of UNSW's Teaching News You Can Use repository and provides a wonderful means for you to convey your ideas on effective practice. Everyone has something new to contribute, so please consider entering your TiPs for inclusion in the repository.
In 2024, several TiPs on this education portfolio are designed to improve equity, inclusion and wellbeing in student education and were recognised by a UNSW Teaching Award for Outstanding Contributions to Student Wellbeing. In particular, this award highlighted the benefits of:
- Including captions and subtitling to lectures for improving accessibility of content to all students, but especially students who don't have English as their first language.
- The development of interactive lectures that improve engagement, comprehension and flexibility for all students, but especially neurodiverse students.
- How simple strategies like a course care statement, pre-course questionnaire, weekly check-in emails and one-on-one drop-in sessions can reduce anxiety and allow personalised intervention for all students, but especially those experiencing mental health or personal challenges.
In 2025, I won an Australian Awards for University Teaching (AAUT) citation and the Penny Bernstein Distinguished Teaching Award for national and international excellence in education. In particular, both awards recognised my development of authentic educational resources for engaging and elevating students to reach their true learning potential, regardless of background or personal circumstances. Again, many of the strategies recognised by these awards are presented here as TiPs.
Point being, the TiPs on these pages do work, are recognised to work and will hopefully give you similar success.
When I first came to UNSW Sydney back in 2010, I took the Foundations in University Learning & Teaching program (FULT). This program was hugely influential in how I subsequently approached teaching and designed my course materials. For example, I developed Lecture Pictionary as part of my learning activity for this program, which is a technique I still use today (see 'TiP: Lecture Pictionary prompts reflection and deep learning'). Consider enrolling today. Alternatively, if you're more advanced in your teaching, consider the UNSW Course Design Institute, which is arguably one of the best education courses available, and its right here at UNSW!