Elsevier-owned Scopus announces its award winners (scroll down). The prize pack includes A$1000, any book published by the company and a hamper to share with the team. Generous indeed given owner RELX’s Scientific, Technical and Medical division (which covers Elsevier) had a first half 2022 adjusted operating profit of $A902m.

In Features this morning

Sarah Carr (Uni Otago) on supporting student engagement now that there are multiple learning environments. Commissioning Editor Sally Kift’s new selection for her celebrated series, Needed now in learning and teaching.

plus Merlin Crossley makes the case for teaching and/or research, “the idea that every academic should be expected to both create and transmit knowledge was never sound … good teams consist of batters, bowlers, and all-rounders – and always have.”

and in Expert Opinion

Sue Cunningham from the Council for Advancement and Support of Education talks about her new book on the present and future for fundraising, HERE

Stuck for the mot juste to headline your Australian Research Council Review submission? Muck not around, tomorrow midnight is deadline.

But probably not for long

The Werribee-based facility is set to shut as part of the breakup of the Faculty of Vet and Ag Sciences, the constituent schools of which are moving into  Science.

When, or formally if, until process is complete, the hospital goes, vet students will move to “a distributed model for clinical teaching,” (prac training in vet practices).  Uni Melbourne has been looking to cut costs at the vet hospital for a while, savings there as part of the university’s Pandemic Reset Programme, attracted ire 18 months ago (CMM February 22 2021).

When the present proposal was announced last month Uni Melbourne said it was looking for a commercial vet business to take over the hospital, (CMM November 9). But the possibility of closure did not go down well with staff, or community members – it made Nine TV news,  with a reporter asking, “how will it affect the wider community, including anyone who loves pets” (CMM November 23).

An announcement this week is  seven days earlier than some staff expected and there is now an appeal to the Fair Work Commission, asking it to intervene.  The university’s likely response will be that it has met Enterprise Agreement consultation requirements. Management said yesterday that it “has reluctantly decided to postpone announcing the outcomes of its proposal” … until Wednesday.

QUT joins universities topping up Commonwealth HDR student to $32 500 in the new year (CMM Friday) with surely others to come. The feds pay $29 800.

Question is how many universities will not follow and leave HDRs on less than a less than basic wage.

The university is world number one for sports sciences – again

Deakin U came first in the Academic Ranking of World Universities in 2016 and proving it wasn’t a fluke, in 2017 as well. It dropped back to third in the ARWU for 2018 and 2020 but returned to first place, last year and this (for reasons that CMM can’t remember there was no 2019 ranking).

Back in 2016 a learned reader suggested that DU’s win was then the first ever Australian number one in a major discipline ranking – having managed it four times must be even more of a record.

DU does not have all the glory in this year’s ARWU – Victoria U is seventh and Curtin U is tenth. All up there are 13 Aus universities in the world top 50.

Learned readers ask how can it be that only some institutions are specifying GST for courses on the new MicoCred Seeker site (CMM yesterday)

It can’t.

The NSW Universities Admission Centre which built the site says it is on to providers who haven’t to include the goods and services tax

The AI future for lesson plans is already here from EduResearch Matters

Unsurprisingly, one of the hot topics for discussion (if not papers, given how new this is) at the ASCILITE conference last week was the impact of AI tools on teaching and learning. Much of this has centred around student use of tools and how we may need to rethink the very idea of knowledge. The use of AI tools by educators is also getting some attention and this interesting post from the Australian Association for Research in Education explores AI generated lesson plans. Currently they seem a little basic, but we have to assume they will quickly become more sophisticated.

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The College Essay Is Dead from The Atlantic

The ramifications AI are being seen in mainstream journalism as well. This thoughtful piece from Stephen Marche uses a decent overview of the current state of play to springboard into a reflection on the larger rift between the humanities and sciences that it represents. It also offers some interesting possibilities for ways that this new technology might strengthen the humanities in the long run.

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Non-academic providers take over credential landscape from EdScoop

I went to a Noam Chomsky lecture once and the one thing that he said that stuck with me the most was that he always reads the business news to get the most accurate information on the state of the world. This post is brief but telling – describing an analysis of more than a million educational  credentials offered and noting that the majority of them now come from non-traditional education providers.

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Top 10 IT Issues, 2023: Foundation Models from Educause

This is a deep dive into the way that IT works in Higher Education, and some may not necessarily see the relevance to learning and teaching – or feel concerns that these issues take undue priority over the core purpose of the university. For an institution to function effectively though, I would suggest that getting IT right is as fundamental as solid buildings. This article captures insights from more than 20 HE tech leaders and ranges from having a meaningful seat at the decision making table to creating a frictionless student experience.

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3 ways to use Mozilla Hubs, a VR platform that’s accessible and private by design from Dist://ed

And after all that seriousness, something fun to play with over the break. Mozilla Hubs lets you build and share 3D virtual spaces in a web browser and/or VR headset. It’s open source and this post showcases some wonderful examples of use in education, from building art galleries to exploring the human heart.

I hope you have a safe and relaxing break and I look forward to sharing more things in the New Year.

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 (or @[email protected] on Mastodon)

Jane Hansen becomes chancellor of Uni Melbourne on Jan 1. She is now deputy chancellor.

Laura Parry will be PVC Research Excellence at Uni Adelaide from January.  She has been Interim PVC R this year.

Elsevier-owned abstract and citation database Scopus announces its 2022 ANZ researchers of the year, whose “outputs draw on a broad spectrum of skills and research disciplines to make significant contributions to research for the benefit of humanity,” * Mark Adams (Swinburne U) *Hannah Badland (RMIT) *Meghan Bohren (Uni Melbourne) *Abel Dadi (Charles Darwin U) * Wenshan Guo (UTS) * Graeme Hays (Deakin U) * Tammy Hoffmann (Bond U) * Tuan Ngo (Uni Melbourne) * Helena Yuan Wang (Deakin U)

Ken Wyatt, indigenous affairs minister in the previous Commonwealth Government, becomes chair of the UWA Public Policy Institute’s International Advisory Board.