An image of a post-it note with a light bulb

Design Thinking to foster empathy for victims of crime

Academic and researcher in Victoria University’s College of Law and Justice, Ruth Liston is applying the principles of Design Thinking, an approach commonly used in the design world for software development, to a law setting instead. At VU’s recent Learning and Teaching Symposium, Ruth explained that Design Thinking focusses heavily on the empathy of the […]

Read More
An image of a tree branch

How do you teach something as complex as clinical reasoning?

Clinical reasoning is considered a core skill in healthcare and this is a skill that is difficult to teach using traditional teaching methods. Amy Lawton, Academic in Victoria University’s College of Health and Biomedicine explains that there is no ‘cookie-cutter’ approach when it comes to teaching clinical reasoning. It it is a combination of areas […]

Read More

Student Project: Creative Outdoor Space for Campus Life

In the unit NEA2102 Architectural Design and Theory, students from different disciplines come together to work on real-life projects. For this project, students worked together to design an outdoor space for VU’s Werribee Campus. The collaboration between design and engineering students provided a unique experience for students to gain hands-on industry experience without even leaving […]

Read More
An image of a child running through a water sprinkler.

No placement: Early childhood students getting creative with pop-up playground

When Victoria University’s early childhood students couldn’t go to childcare centers for placement, they decided to take the matter into their own hands. The Mini Maddern pop-up playground in Melbourne’s West is a collaboration with Public Realm Lab and Maribyrnong City Council and is providing a place for children to play and connect with the […]

Read More
An image of a country road

The road to Learning Design Part 1

Since the global pandemic, the profound role of Learning Designers has been widely recognised (Bellaby & Sankey 2020). But who are these people and where do they come from? And if you are interested in this type of role, how do you become a Learning Designer? We reached out to our network and asked Learning […]

Read More
An image of VU fix your content day 2021

VU Accessibility Fix Your Content Day

VU has a commitment to increasing accessibility for all​. All universities are required to provide accessible learning resources and websites under Disability Discrimination Act (1992).​ Next Friday 28th of May we are holding workshops at VU in line with the Worldwide Accessibility Fix your Content Day! On this day, we will be running a series of short […]

Read More
An image of the 10 recommandations

Alternative credentials: 10 recommendations for universities from Emeritus Prof. Bev Oliver

Micro, macro, alternative, badges, certificates & short courses – it’s hard to keep track of the trends (and hype) in this area. What we know is that demand for learning outside of the traditional bachelor or postgraduate degree is up (Oliver 2020), and that Australian universities, especially given the recent opportunities to provide commonwealth supported […]

Read More

Teaching with tech in 2021

It is a new year with new possibilities, yet for many of us, it looks like 2021 is going to be another year of remote and blended learning. The difference? This year, with hours of practice and peer collaboration under our belt, we are going to do it better. Why not try some new tools […]

Read More

Students as Partners and the power of the VU Block Model

In this episode of the Student Experience podcast Trish McCluskey (Interim Pro-Vice-Chancellor Learning & Teaching at Victoria University) explains how the transition away from traditional university teaching to the VU Block Model, has set VU up for success during COVID-19. Trish also describes how their Students as Staff (SAS) have been a crucial part of […]

Read More
Image of feedback process

“Effective feedback requires effect”

At Victoria University’s recent Learning and Teaching Symposium, keynote speaker Associate professor Phillip Dawson presented ‘Developing students feedback literacy for study, work and life’. Together with over 300 staff, we gained insights and debunked some myths around feedback. Phill’s four key takeaways from the keynote are: We need to focus more on what students do […]

Read More
An image of a microphone

Digital Pedagogies: industry leading live performance events

In this video, we get to meet Nick Cooper, the Unit Convenor of Live Performance Management at Victoria University. Nick explains how he helped his students to deliver real live music events online during COVID-19, including local emerging and established artists and superstar DJ’s! “Student feedback has been overwhelmingly positive, with many serious they considering […]

Read More
Hairdresser spraying customer's hair in a hair salon

Digital Pedagogies for Remote Learning: Hairdresser Apprentices

How do practical disciplines like hairdressing adapt to the new online study environment? In this short video, we meet Veronica Di-Girolamo, a teacher in Certificate III Hairdressing at Victoria University Polytechnic. It turns out that this challenge has led to new and better ways of teaching and engaging with industry. Watch the (3:45 min) video […]

Read More

2019 is coming to an end

There have been a number of highlights this year, including: Hitting the 400 block unit mark with our revolutionary VU Block Model. We are particularly proud of this in the Connected Learning team at VU. In 2020, we’re looking forward to starting on designing block units for our post grad courses too! Investing more time into performing […]

Read More

VU@TEQSA

Trish McCluskey, Miriam Gelotte & Aleksandra Trifkovic. The VU Connected Learning team attended the 4th annual TEQSA conference last week. The theme of the conference was ‘Partnerships driving quality’. Trish McCluskey, Miriam Gelotte and Aleksandra Trifkovic spoke about ‘Partnering with Students to Co-Design Quality Learning on the Block’. The presentation emphasised how the Student-as-Staff program […]

Read More

What is Design Thinking?

In its most basic form, Design Thinking is a problem-solving process, but it is much more than a set of rigid steps. It is a skill-set that involves unique abilities like empathy, integrative thinking, and a tolerance for risk and ambiguity. Design Thinking has been called a ‘mindset’ or an ‘attitude’ or ‘worldview’. David Kelly, […]

Read More

Reimagining tertiary education for our future

What’s the state of policy in the Australian tertiary education sector and how can we re-imagine it for the future? Professor Peter Noonan of Victoria University’s Mitchell Institute recently presented for CEDA (Committee for Economic Development of Australia) discussing: Background to the current tertiary system The case for comprehensive tertiary reform (quick overview) Why the […]

Read More
decorative

VU finalists for Academic Development Award

Victoria University has been recognised as a finalist in the Australasian Advancing Academic Good Practice Awards for 2019 for Students as Partners in Academic Development. Winners will be announced mid November. Let Connected Learning students as staff tell you about how they contribute to academic development in the video below, or at their presentation at HERSDA 2019. […]

Read More

VU in the spotlight at ATEM Awards night

Victoria University won 5 categories at the recent Best Practice Awards in Tertiary Education Management with a 6th High Commendation. In Learning and Teaching, Director of Connected Learning, Trish McCluskey won Outstanding Achiever for her leadership contribution to VU’s Block Model. In addition, the Connected Learning team got a High Commendation in Excellence and Innovation […]

Read More

The 2019 Learning and Teaching Symposium

On the 26th of September, VU saw over 200 delegates attend the 2019 Learning and Teaching Symposium. With 60 presentations in concurrent streams, as well a students, industry partners and University leadership involved in panels and demonstrations, it was a fantastic opportunity to share practice and innovation. Chancellor George Pappas attended and said: “In my […]

Read More

VU Polytechnic wins outstanding award!

At the 65th anniversary of The Victorian Training awards night, VU Polytechnic won the Inclusive Training Provider of the Year Award! Amazing work VU Polytechnic, well done. The award recognises exceptional training providers within the Victorian Government’s vocational education and training system. Winners have demonstrated outstanding improvements in the achievement, engagement and well-being of students […]

Read More

Eric Mazur visits VU to deliver workshop on assessment

Assessment For and not Of Learning The challenge of breaking the shackles of the Assessment paradigm in the Sciences and Engineering to empower our students with 21st Century skills was the focus of a thought-provoking workshop delivered by Harvard University’s Professor Eric Mazur. Assessment informs the way we teach and dictates the way we learn, […]

Read More

Do you flip?

Are you familiar with ‘Flipped Learning‘? Flipped Learning is a great approach for academics that are teaching in the Block Model, as it encourages a dynamic and interactive learning environment for students! Martha Ramirez explains in the video below how she flips her classes. One important take away from this video was that Martha raised […]

Read More

Website accessibility is everyone’s business

Hey Learning Designers/Developers: do you format VU Collaborate resources with a view to their accessibility?   Accessibility is complicated. The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG vs 2.1) distills a set of thirteen guidelines for designing web pages for people with blindness and low vision, deafness and hearing loss, limited movement, speech disabilities, photo-sensitivity, and learning and cognitive restrictions – but at twenty thousand words, it’s a pretty hefty read.   Here’s […]

Read More

VU Students @ HERDSA 2019

During the first week of July, our students as staff (SAS) Jodie Gibbons and Aleksandra Trifkovic presented at the Higher Education Research and Development Society of Australasia (HERDSA) conference held in Auckland, New Zealand. The topic of their presentation was ‘Students as Co-creators of Curriculum’ which was based upon the unique SAS contribution to each […]

Read More

Victoria University App wins Australia’s coveted Good Design Award

The Victoria University App received a prestigious Gold Accolade in the Digital Design category for outstanding design and innovation. An innovative mobile ‘super app’ created by a student-led team of Victoria University technologists and designers was given Australia’s highest honour for design and innovation at the peak industry Good Design Awards. Big congrats to our awesome colleagues for […]

Read More

David Helfand visiting VU

This week David Helfand visited Victoria University to discuss the Block Model with staff and students at our Footscray Park campus. Who’s David Helfand? David Helfand is the pioneer behind block teaching and learning. In 2005, David became involved with creating Canada’s first independent, non-for-profit, secular university, Quest University in Canada. He was appointed as […]

Read More

How to improve your MCQs

6 takeaways from a session with Brett Vaughan from Melbourne Uni on how to improve your MCQs: BLUEPRINT – map your learning outcomes, to your content, to your MCQs Focus one ONE concept per question with significant meaning and consequence Don’t use not, double negatives or all/none of the above The cover test. Can you […]

Read More