Zhao, N., & Stretton, T. (2024, 10 July). What's my role? Implementation of professional development modules for academic roles. Higher Education Research and Development Society of Australasia (HERDSA) Annual Conference 2024, Adelaide, Australia.

Format: Work-in-Progress

Focus of the work-in-progress: Design and implementation of self-selected professional development modules for academic roles.

Context/background: Responses to reenvisaging learning and teaching pedagogy and structural changes have prompted opportunities to reenvisage how staff access and are supported in professional development for their academic roles. While literature supports online resources for learning and teaching development (Eradze et al., 2023; Hossein et al., 2024), there is limited research to guide the development of resources supporting day-to-day academic activities.

In a faculty with 956 academics (including approximately seven new starters a month), the aim of the project was the development of an interactive, self-paced set of professional development modules based on academic roles.

Description: In collaboration with the university’s teaching and learning unit, academic leads and faculty staff, an online learning environment was developed. Each role aligns with a set of self-paced modules that guide the academic in pedagogical approaches as well as day-to-day tasks and activities. While focusing on an appropriate curriculum and assessment design, the modules also attend to policy and procedures to link staff to resources and contacts. The site has been developed with interactivity to maintain active engagement, a sense of "do-ability", and "check-ins" to promote achievement and identification of potential gaps in practice. Future roles are being considered based on initial findings and feedback which will be shared.

Intended outcome and contribution to scholarship/practice: The development of the learning management system site directly contributes to academics' sense of belonging, roles and responsibilities and confidence in learning and teaching scholarship and practice. Insights into the design principles of this academic learning and teaching site will be highlighted.

Engagement: Participants will be invited to share design principles and insights from respective professional development initiatives, as well as interact with a slim version of the site and resources.

References: Eradze, M., De Martino, D., Tinterri, A., Albó, L., Bardone, E., Sunar, A. S., & Dipace, A. (2023). After the Pandemic: Teacher Professional Development for the Digital Educational Innovation. Education Sciences, 13(5), Article 432. https://doi.org/10.3390/educsci13050432

Hossein, C., Hossein, T., Maryam, H. L., & Shahnaz, A. (2024). A systematic review of online teaching competencies in higher education context:a multilevel model for professional development. Research and Practice in Technology Enhanced Learning, 19, 14. https://doi.org/10.58459/rptel.2024.19014