These dimensions and associated criteria have been benchmarked against existing institutional (UNSW Academic Expectations, Peer Review of Teaching), national (Australian University Teaching Criteria and Standards – AUTCAS; Australian Professional Tertiary Teaching Standards - APTTS) and international (UK Higher Education Academy Professional Standards and Universitas 21 Teaching Standards) frameworks for evaluating teaching effectiveness.

In 2018, the project team scanned the environment for existing ePortfolio tools that might be employed to implement the above-mentioned dimensions and criteria in an education portfolio for UNSW academic staff. No existing software met all the requirements for proposed portfolio. The UNSW Engagement and Transformation team were subsequently engaged to develop a proof of concept (PoC) for the education portfolio. Members of the project team entered evidence against criteria to test usability and functionality of the PoC.

Following the successful proof of concept, UNSW IT have developed a production version of myEducation Portfolio.To assist academic staff in developing their education portfolios, myEducation Portfolio contains resources on collecting evidence as well as a Guide to indicative standards and associated evidence applicable to each academic level of promotion.

The Scientia Education Academy are currently working towards incorporating myEducation Portfolio in career development, teaching awards and academic promotion at UNSW.

 

References

Abbas, A., Abbas, J., Brayman, K., Brennan, J., & Gantogtokh, O. Teaching excellence in the disciplines. York: Higher Education Academy.

Beckmann, E. A. (2016). Teaching excellence: Recognising the many as well as the few. Research and development in higher education: The shape of higher education, 39, 13-22.

Chalmers, D., Cummings, R., Elliott, S., Stoney, S., Tucker, B., Wicking, R., & Jorre de St Torre, T. (2014). Australian University Teaching Criteria and Standards Project. Final Project Report. Sydney: Australian Government Office for Learning and Teaching.

Crisp, G., Sadler, R., Krause, K.-L., Buckridge, M., Wills, S., Brown, C., … Brougham, B. (2009). Peer review of teaching for promotion purposes: A project to develop and implement a pilot program of external Peer Review of Teaching at four Australian universities. Final Project Report. Sydney: Australian Learning and Teaching Council.

Devlin, M., and Samarawickrema, G. (2010). The Criteria of Effective Teaching in a Changing Higher Education Context. Higher Education Research & Development 29 (2): 111–124.

Fan, Y., Shepherd, L.J., Slavich, E., Waters, D., Stone, M., Abel, R., & Johnston, E.L. (2019). Gender and cultural bias in student evaluations: Why representation matters, PLoS ONE, 14 (2) e0209749. Available from: http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0209749

Gibbs, G. (2008). Conceptions of teaching excellence underlying teaching award schemes. York: Higher Education Academy.

Gibbs, G. (2016). Teaching, in Response to the Higher Education Green Paper. Higher Education Policy Institute (HEPI Report 81). Oxford: Higher Education Policy Institute.

Gunn, V., and Fisk, A. (2013). Considering Teaching Excellence in Higher Education: 2007–2013. A Literature Review Since the CHERI Report 2007. York: Higher Education Academy.

Higher Education Academy (2011) The UK Professional Standards Framework for teaching and supporting learning in higher education. York: Higher Education Academy. Available from: http://www.heacademy.ac.uk/ukpsf

MacNell, L., Driscoll, A., & Hunt, A.N. (2015). What’s in a Name: Exposing Gender Bias in Student Ratings of Teaching. Innov High Educ 40: 291. doi:10.1007/s10755-014-9313-4

Marsh, H.W. (1982). SEEQ: A reliable, valid, and useful instrument for collecting students’ evaluations of university teaching. British Journal of Educational Psychology 52: 77–95.

Marsh, H.W., & Roche, L.A. (1994). The use of students’ evaluations of university teaching to improve teaching effectiveness. Canberra: Australian Government Publishing Service.

Marsh, H.W. (2007). Students’ evaluations of university teaching: Dimensionality, reliability, validity, potential bias and usefulness. In R.P. Perry and J.C. Smart. (Eds.), Scholarship of teaching and learning in higher education: An evidence-based perspective (pp. 319–383). Dordrecht, The Netherlands: Springer.

Ramsden, P., Margetson, D., Martin, E., & Clarke, S. (1995). Recognising and rewarding good teaching, Canberra: AGPS.

Turner, N., Oliver, M., McKenna, C., Hughes, J., Smith, H., Deepwell, F., & Shrives, L. (2013). Measuring the impact of the UK Professional Standards Framework for Teaching and Supporting Learning (UKPSF). Available from: http://www.heacademy.ac.uk/assets/documents/ukpsf/UKPSF_Impact_Study_Report.pdf

Wood, M., & Su, F. (2017). What makes an excellent lecturer? Academics’ perspectives on the discourse of ‘teaching excellence’ in higher education, Teaching in Higher Education, DOI: 10.1080/13562517.2017.1301911


Gary Velan

Gary Velan

I am a multi-award winning medical educator with more than 25 years of experience at UNSW. I am currently Senior Vice Dean (Education) in Medicine and a Scientia Education Fellow.

The Scientia Education Academy project team includes Alex Steel, Benson Lim, Cathy Sherry, Chihiro Thomson, Chinthaka Balasooriya, Chris Tisdell, Emma Robertson, Gigi Foster, Louise Lutze-Mann, Michelle Langford, Richard Buckland, Sami Kara and Simon McIntyre.