Perhaps after finishing not-much for the Budget, the Department of Education tweeted news yesterday that UNSW, National Computational Infrastructure, and the BoM are “working to understand Australia’s firestorms and predict when and where a catastrophic bushfire will strike.” It will have to stop raining first.

In Features this morning

Everybody talks about teaching university teaching – but on the Q.T. there’s a practical way to do it with, “self-reflection, course and assessment design, peer review of teaching and the work of communities of practice.” Sally Patmore (Uni Newcastle) and colleagues, explain HERE. New in Commissioning Editor Sally Kift’s celebrated series, Needed now in teaching and learning

plus It’s Open Access week, with climate research the theme. Ginny Barbour,Fiona Bradley and Clare Thorpe make the case for, “openly sharing research findings in order to drive rapid responses and solutions to the climate crisis,” HERE.

and Maree Meredith (Poche SA+NT) on why universities need more Indigenous leaders HERE.

Problem is, AI isn’t prejudice proof

An expert group is advising the Australian Research Council on a “modern, data driven assessment model” to replace Excellence in Research for Australia – the iteration scheduled for 2023 is ditched, (CMM September 28).

But “modern” may not turn out to be a synonym for superior, if AI is driving the data.

In a new paper for data analytics provider Clarivate, Martin Szomszor, warns, “the research system and the data we collect about it capture many forms of prejudice relating to gender, ethnicity, nationality, sexuality, age and more.

“Without proper consideration of these, machine learning solutions will only propagate these existing biases.”

But at least a data based research ranking might reduce workloads. Curtin U’s Open Knowledge Initiative has a pilot ranking using public datasets which could do that (CMM September 21).

The combination of segmentation and self-explanation to enhance video-based learning from Active Learning in Higher Education

The received wisdom when it comes to the use of video in education has long been bite-sized chunks to give learners breathing space between concepts. Over time I have read assertions that these chunks should be a maximum of 20/15/7/3 minutes, depending perhaps on how distracted writers feel students can be. Zheng et al. don’t go into chunk size but do make the valuable point in this pre-test/post-test based study of 121 participants that segments definitely appear to lead to better learning outcomes than continuous viewing of a long video. More importantly, they observe that building in activities between segments – even simple summarisation tasks – is more helpful than not.

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Higher Education Leaders’ Perspectives of Accessible and Inclusive Online Learning from Distance Education (pre-print)

Addressing the barriers experienced by disabled students in on-line learning is work that is commonly acknowledged by universities as vitally important but which sometimes lands in the too-hard basket. Gradually things have improved but there is still work to be done. This paper from Lomellini et al. discusses their interviews with nine HE on-line learning leaders about the current state of play and how to do things better. More agency for learning designers, better faculty development, quality standards and accessibility checkers are all identified as ways forward. Most interesting for me though was the small note that while the literature suggests pushing the learning gains in advocating for support from the executive level, they pragmatically suggest that legal obligations, recruitment, retention and satisfaction are more likely to get their attention.

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Accessible IT Procurement from CAUDIT (and co.)

From an operational perspective, working smarter to ensure that institutional technologies are accessible is clearly an important step. Last week, this guide was launched, part of a collaborative project involving a number of high level sector bodies from IT, Disability and Education. It offers detailed guidelines and some useful sample clauses for tender documents for better IT procurement. Anyone with an interest in how Higher Ed IT really works would be well served by looking over this valuable guide.

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A journey through time and space – Mixed reality media in teaching (Webinar – Thursday 27/10 12 noon AEDT) from ASCILITE TELedvisors Network

One of the greatest benefits of technology for learning and teaching is the opportunity to do things that would simply not be possible in person. Augmented/Virtual/Mixed Reality, 3D models, video games and simulations and even simpler tools such as Light Boards extend our ability to share experiences and ideas. This webinar showcases two innovative examples of the use of these teaching tools in practice from Greg Dorrian (Uni New England) and Carmen Vallis (U Sydney)

Colin Simpson has worked in education technology, teaching, learning design and academic development in the tertiary sector since 2003 at CIT, ANU, Swinburne and Monash University. He is also one of the leaders of the ASCILITE TELedvisors Network. For more from Colin, follow him on Twitter @gamerlearner

As the nation debates the merits of a Voice to Parliament, a new conference asks whether the sector is ready for First Nations voices in HE

Are you ready Australia?, an on-line conference, 10-11 November, is by organised by Poche SA+NT in partnership with Twig Marketing, to provide an opportunity for all staff to engage in fresh perspectives into the role and relevance of Australian universities in future.

New and emerging Indigenous leaders will join panels alongside sector leaders, students and community members, promising fresh insights.

Tickets are available at http://indigenoushe.com.au/

They beat waiting for the university to provide a scholarship, or top-up a miserable stipend

Christopher Pepin-Neff (Uni Sydney) suggests the ways HERE.

He divides them into four categories, publishing, engagement, media, and money. The ideas range from the obvious to the optimistic but they are empowering, “while no one does their PhD alone, you are the CEO of your PhD,” he writes.

Worth a go. As a CMM friend once put it, “action ceases terror.”

ANU announces 2022 H C Coombs Creative Fellowships to artist, writer and curator Julie Gough and composer and pianist Andrea Keller.

State Library of NSW announces its 2023 fellows * Patricia Curthoys (Macquarie U) * Peter Gibson (Nanjing Uni and Uni of Wollongong) * Effie Karageorgos (Uni Newcastle) * Martyn Lyons (UNSW) * Deborah Lee Talbot (Deakin U) * Monique Rooney (ANU) * Penny Russell (Uni Sydney).