PhD Scholarships

Dr Anastasiya Umarova

Thesis title: The influence of feedback histories on feedback processes in postgraduate courses

Anastasiya explored the influence of feedback histories on subsequent feedback practices. The project found that students feedback histories were accumulated over time and were not stable but changed as participants gained new feedback experiences. Students’ dispositions to feedback and their actions in feedback practices in postgraduate courses were shaped by prior feedback experiences that took place in a range of formal, non-formal, and informal learning contexts.

Anastasiya’s research was supervised by Professor David Boud, Professor Phill Dawson, and Dr Jack Walton. Anastasiya graduated in February 2026.

Associate Professor Martin Potter

School of Communication and Creative Arts, Faculty of Arts and Education / Deakin Institute for Citizenship and Globalisation

Project: A-Eye TechTales – Co-creating films with and about AI to foster AI Literacies*

Dr Colin Simpson

Learning Futures, Deakin Learning Futures / Faculty of Business and Law

Project: Sustainable ePortfolio initiatives in higher education

Associate Professor Katrina Clifford

School of Communication and Creative Arts, Faculty of Arts and Education

Project: Reflective Assessment as Evidence of Learning in Communication WIL

Dr Brandi Fox

School of Education, Faculty of Arts and Education / Research for Educational Impact

Project: Understanding casualised, fixed-term and education-focused academics’ experiences of teaching and learning in online / hybrid space: A higher education equity imperative

Associate Professor Darci Taylor

Thesis title: Enablers and Constraints to Student Becoming in Higher Education

Darci aimed to elevate student voices of becoming and identify constraints and enablers to becoming to generate insights into what a university for becoming could look like.

Darci suggests that students’ narratives of becoming are embodied and emotive, and that students conceptualise becoming as fluid, ongoing and relational: becoming happens with, and is influenced by, significant others.

Darci’s research was supervised by Deakin Distinguished Professor David Boud and Professor Phill Dawson. Darci graduated in September 2025.

Honorary Fellow: Dr Jess Lees

Dr Jess Lees was appointed Honorary Fellow in January 2026. Dr Lees is Senior Lecturer in Physiotherapy at the University of Melbourne, and holds a PhD from CRADLE and the University of Copenhagen.

For her PhD Dr Lees investigated how clinical educators navigate the integration of digital technologies while teaching the embodied, touch-based practices of physical examination.

Dr Lees’ research continues to focus on health professions education and she holds a Senior Research Fellowship within the Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health Sciences at the University of Melbourne.

Dr Jessica Lees

Thesis title: Exploring How Digital Technology Features in the Teaching of Physical Examination Practice for Health Professional Students

Jess investigated how clinical educators navigate the integration of digital technologies while teaching the embodied, touch-based practices of physical examination. Jess completed her PhD in partnership with the University of Copenhagen.

Jess’s research was supervised by Professor Margaret Bearman, Professor Linda Sweet and Professor Torsten Risor.

Dr Juan Fischer Rodriguez

Thesis title: Evaluative judgement in undergraduate physics: A Practice Architectures perspective

Juan received a CRADLE strategic scholarship in August 2018 and since then has successfully completed research in the area of evaluative judgement. Juan argued that evaluative judgement needs to be understood in terms of what students do and not solely in terms of formative assessment design.

Juan’s thesis was overseen by supervisors Dr Joanna Tai, Professor Margaret Bearman and CRADLE Co-Director Alfred Deakin Professor David Boud. Juan graduated in 2022.

Dr Bianka Malecka

Thesis title: The role of ipsative feedback processes in developing students’ feedback literacy

Bianka’s thesis was completed by publication of four papers and supervised by Professor Rola Ajjawi, Dr Joanna Tai and CRADLE Co-Director Alfred Deakin Professor David Boud.

Bianka argues that ipsative feedback design facilitates students’ engagement in productive feedback practices. Bianka graduated in 2022.

Dr Sarah Lambert

Thesis title: Open Education as Social Justice

Sarah’s thesis investigates how recent innovations in open, online education can act as social justice for socio-economically disadvantaged learners. Recommendations are made on how to design open education programs to overcome histories of disadvantage for many learners who are traditionally under-represented in or excluded from higher education.

Sarah was supervised by CRADLE Co-Director Alfred Deakin Professor David Boud, Dr Joanna Tai, CRADLE Co-Director Professor Phillip Dawson, and Dr Nadine Zacharias. Sarah graduated in 2020.

Dr Olsi Kusta

Thesis title: Digitization of Pathology: Exploring the implications of digital technologies in routine work, research, and medical education

Olsi’s thesis explores the shift to digital pathology in the medical specialty of pathology.

Olsi suggests that implementing and using digital pathology in primary diagnosis or the virtual microscope in pathology education is not unproblematic but requires attention to tensions and uncertainties across research, routine work, and education.

Olsi was supervised by by Professor Klaus Lindgaard Høyer, University of Copenhagen, and CRADLE’s Professor Margaret Bearman. Olsi graduated in 2023 cotutelle with the University of Copenhagen.

Dr Lasse X Jensen

Thesis title: Feedback in online higher education

Lasse examined feedback processes in online higher education using digital ethnography, revealing three types of feedback encounters: elicited, formal, and incidental. Outcomes indicate that productive feedback encounters challenge students’ assumptions and occur when they are open to such challenges. This research contributes to understanding feedback as a contextual process, offering insights applicable to both online and campus education.

Lasse was supervised by Professor Margaret Bearman and CRADLE Co-Director Alfred Deakin Professor David Boud. Lasse graduated in 2023.

Dr Christoffer Haase

Thesis title: Datafying Diagnosis: Data Work in General Practice

Christoffer investigated how, in the current data surge, data interacts with diagnostic work in general practice, and to reflect on how to better prepare general practitioners to work in data-intensive environments.

Christoffer was supervised by by Professor Klaus Lindgaard Høyer, University of Copenhagen, and CRADLE’s Professor Margaret Bearman. His co-supervisors were Professor John Brandt Brodersen and Associate Professor Torsten Risør of the University of Copenhagen, and Professor Rola Ajjawi of CRADLE.

Christoffer graduated in 2023 cotutelle with the University of Copenhagen.

Dr Damian Castanelli

Thesis title: How can assessment for learning meaningfully contribute to programmatic assessment?

Damian’s thesis explored supervisors’ and trainees’ difficulties in implementing ‘assessment for learning’ in postgraduate anaesthesia specialty training.

Damian suggests emphasising the coaching role and encouraging supervisor trustworthiness provide possible foci for interventions to enhance the contribution of assessment for learning to programmatic assessment.

Damian was supervised by Professor Margaret Bearman of CRADLE and Professor Elizabeth Molloy of the University of Melbourne. Damian graduated in 2022.

Professor Jaclyn Broadbent

Thesis title: Self-regulated Learning Strategies in Online Higher Education

Jaclyn’s PhD was completed by publication and she was supervised by CRADLE Co-Director Alfred Deakin Professor David Boud and Professor Ernesto Panadero.

Through a series of publications Jaclyn explored self-regulated learning and how it affects learning. Jaclyn graduated in 2021.

Dr Abbas Mehrabi Boshrabadi

Thesis title: Developing First Year Students’ Evaluative Judgement of Academic Writing

Abbas’s thesis was supervised by Professor Rola Ajjawi and CRADLE Co-Director Alfred Deakin Professor David Boud.

The thesis explored how assessment activities in the first-year academic writing context can be designed more effectively to set up situations for students to develop their own writing evaluation skills. Abbas graduated in 2022.

Dr Rebecca Awdry

Thesis title: A criminological approach to understanding assignment outsourcing in higher education

Dr Rebecca Awdry’s doctoral thesis was completed by publication and was supervised by CRADLE Co-Director Professor Phill Dawson, CRADLE Honorary Fellow Associate Professor Wendy Sutherland-Smith and Dr Andrew Groves of Flinders University.

Rebecca’s research investigated student engagement in assignment outsourcing using an international survey released in 22 languages. Rebecca graduated in 2023.

Dr Amanda Edgar

Thesis title: Professional Capabilities and Inclusive Virtual Simulation in Health Professional Education

Amanda explored how virtual simulations can help future health professionals build the professional capabilities they need, especially in ways that support inclusion and diversity.

Amanda was supervised by CRADLE’s Professor Margaret Bearman, and Dr Ryan Wood-Bradley and Professor James Armitage from Deakin’s School of Medicine.

Amanda’s PhD was completed by prior publication and she graduated in June 2025.

Honorary Professor: Yan Zi

Professor Yan Zi was appointed Honorary Professor in December 2020. He is a Professor, Head of the Department of Curriculum and Instruction and Executive Co-Director of the Centre for Excellence in Learning and Teaching at The Education University of Hong Kong.

Professor Yan Zi’s research focuses on two related areas: (i) educational assessment in the school and higher education contexts, with an emphasis on student self-assessment; and (ii) Rasch measurement, particularly its application in educational and psychological research. His research aims to advance the understanding of assessment processes and how to optimise them to enhance students’ learning effectiveness and lifelong development.

Honorary Fellow: Jiming Zhou

Dr Jiming Zhou was appointed Honorary Fellow in November 2019. She is an Associate Professor at Fudan University, China, and holds a PhD in education from the University of Hong Kong.

During her year-long stay at CRADLE, Dr Zhou delivered a seminar on Chinese international students’ first year experiences in Australian universities.

Dr Zhou’s current research interests include assessment and learning, educational innovation, and students’ school-university transition.

Honorary Professor: Naomi Winstone

Professor Naomi Winstone was appointed Honorary Professor in February 2020. She is Director of Surrey Institute of Education and Director of the Surrey Assessment and Learning Lab at the University of Surrey.

Professor Winstone is a cognitive psychologist specialising in learning behaviour and engagement with education research. Her research focuses on the processing and implementation of feedback, educational transitions, and educational identities.

Honorary Adjunct Associate Professor: Wendy Sutherland-Smith

Wendy Sutherland-Smith was made an Honorary Adjunct Associate Professor in late 2023. Associate Professor Sutherland-Smith was working in academic integrity at Deakin’s Faculty of Health.

Associate Professor Sutherland-Smith is interested in higher education policy; constructing academic identities; assessment practices and innovation; cyberethics and intellectual property and plagiarism, cheating and issues of academic integrity.

Honorary Associate Professor: Edd Pitt

Dr Edd Pitt was appointed Honorary Associate Professor in 2022. He is the Programme Director for the Post Graduate Certificate in Higher Education and Reader in Higher Education and Academic Practice at the University of Kent, UK.

Dr Pitt’s principle research field is assessment and feedback, with a particular focus on students’ emotional processing during feedback situations. His research outcomes include peer-reviewed journal articles, international conference papers, book chapters, and a book. Dr Pitt has participated in two CRADLE international symposia.

Honorary Professor: Ernesto Panadero

An outstanding researcher, Ernesto Panadero was CRADLE’s first Honorary Professor, appointed in January 2016. Ernesto is the Ikerbasque Research Professor at Universidad de Deusto in Bilbao, Spain, and Director of CARPE at Dublin City University.

Ernesto has an excellent publication record, including well-regarded English and Spanish journals, book chapters, and international conference papers. He is also the convenor of the Special Interest Group 1 of the European Association for Research on Learning and Instruction (EARLI), which is the major international research association for assessment.

Ernesto’s research interests include understanding how to employ educational psychology methods and theories to better understand the effects of educational assessment.

Honorary Fellow: Beverley Oliver

Emeritus Professor Beverley Oliver was appointed Honorary Fellow in 2019. She is a higher education consultant and was formerly Deputy Vice-Chancellor Education and Alfred Deakin Professor at Deakin University.

Honorary Fellow: Lasse X Jensen

Dr Lasse Jensen was made an Honorary Fellow in late 2023. Dr Jensen is an education researcher and graduated cotutelle from CRADLE and the University of Copenhagen in 2023. Dr Jensen is an Assistant Professor at the University of Copenhagen.

Dr Jensen is primarily working on the NNF programme Partnership for the Education of Health Professionals (PEP). PEP is a collaborative educational research and capacity development project bringing together nursing and medical colleges in India, Kenya, and Denmark. Dr Jensen’s research focuses on digital education; higher education, feedback; and health professions education in low-income settings.

Honorary Associate Professor: Karen Gravett

Dr Karen Gravett was appointed an Honorary Associate Professor in 2023. Dr Gravett is an Associate Professor of Higher Education and Director of the PGCLTHE and AFHEA pathway at the University of Surrey.

Dr Gravett focuses on the theory-practice of learning and teaching in higher education. Dr Gravett is Co-Director of the Language, Literacies and Learning Research Group and is on the editorial board for Learning, Media and Technology and Teaching in Higher Education.

Honorary Associate Professor: Sarah Eaton

Dr Sarah Eaton was appointed Honorary Associate Professor in January 2023. She is a Professor at the Werklund School of Education, University of Calgary.

Dr Eaton has received research awards of excellence for her scholarship on academic integrity from the Canadian Society for the Study of Higher Education (CSSHE) in 2020 and the European Network for Academic Integrity (ENAI) in 2022. Dr Eaton has written and presented extensively on academic integrity and ethics in higher education and is regularly invited as a media guest to talk about academic misconduct.

Honorary Fellow: Mollie Dollinger

Professor Mollie Dollinger was appointed Honorary Fellow in early 2024. She is the Director of Assessment 2030 at Curtin University.

Professor Dollinger’s research focuses on improving equity and inclusion for university students, often drawing upon participatory design and co-design approaches. Her current projects with CRADLE span topics such as inclusive assessment, contract cheating, and student belongingness.

Honorary Professor: Sue Bennett

Professor Sue Bennett was appointed a CRADLE Honorary Professor in June 2018. She is the Executive Dean, Arts, Social Sciences and Humanities at the University of Wollongong, Australia.

An internationally recognised researcher, Professor Bennett investigates how people engage with technology in their everyday lives and in educational settings. Professor Bennett’s current research interests include: learning design for supporting teachers’ educational design practices; sociological perspectives on educational technology, investigating young people’s creative practices with technology; and functional brain imaging and multimedia based problem solving.

Honorary Fellow: Rebecca Awdry

Dr Rebecca Awdry was appointed an Honorary Fellow in early 2023. Dr Awdry is a senior education consultant and graduated from CRADLE in 2022.

Dr Awdry has researched and written extensively on academic integrity, student outsourcing and contract cheating, and how this aligns with thinking about assessment and contextual elements of the student experience. As part of her research, Dr Awdry led and managed an international project on essay mills and outsourcing. She has extensive experience in reviewing university quality, policy, integrity and student experience processes, to embed more effective and improved systems for the university.

Honorary Professor: Rola Ajjawi

Professor Rola Ajjawi was appointed Honorary Professor in mid-2024. She is Professor of Medical Education at the University of British Columbia’s Department of Surgery and the Centre for Health Education Scholarship. She was previously a Professor at CRADLE.

Professor Ajjawi’s research seeks to create learning environments that support health professional trainees to succeed. She is particularly interested in the messiness of practice and workplace learning, examining how supervision can be embedded into clinical practices, how feedback processes unfold, and how to create equitable assessment in the workplace.

Dr Chris Hughes

Associate Professor Supervisor Development, Researcher Development Academy

Project: Doctoral learning, supervision and assessment in the GenAI context – Changing digital conditions of/for learning

Juuso Nieminen

Juuso Nieminen is a Senior Research Fellow with CRADLE and has been collaborating with CRADLE since his PhD candidature in 2018 at the University of Helsinki.

Juuso focuses on the social, cultural, and political dimensions of educational assessment. This includes student agency, assessment design and student identity formation. Juuso’s work also covers inclusion, diversity, and belonging in higher education. He is particularly interested in examining how assessment takes shape, and shapes people, in a social world.

Dr Bhavani Sridharan

Deakin Business School, Faculty of Business and Law

Project: Evidencing learning outcomes a multi level multidimensional course alignment model

Paige Mahoney

Dr Paige Mahoney is a Research Fellow at CRADLE. Paige has a Doctorate of Philosophy and holds a first-class honours degree in Professional and Creative Writing and History.

Paige has worked on a range of research projects examining pedagogical and professional issues in higher education, including sessional academic staff, assessment feedback, inclusive pedagogies, and academic identity. Her own research explores the complex intersections between history and fiction, gender and memory, and regional and national identities.

Associate Professor Laura Gray

School of Medicine / Institute for Mental and Physical Health and Clinical Translation, Faculty of Health

Deputy Director – Damion Drapac Centre for Equity in Health Professions Education

Project: Masks on or off? Are workplace-based assessments a tool for professional identity development or a setting for identity dissonance, for neurodivergent medical students?

Dr Maria Rae

School of Humanities and Social Sciences, Faculty of Arts and Education

Project: Voice, diversity and digital audio in assessment for inclusion

Professor Jaclyn Broadbent

Pro Vice-Chancellor Sessional Academic Experience and Professor in Psychology

Project: Applying formative practices to summative assessment: A case study of a large class in the pursuit of sustainable assessment

Thomas Corbin

Dr Thomas Corbin is a Lecturer with CRADLE. Prior to joining us Tom taught critical thinking at Macquarie University, where he was a lecturer in the Philosophy Department.

His main research focus is on Education and Assessment Design at the intersection of Generative Artificial Intelligence and Work. Tom’s background in philosophy and critical thinking shapes how he approaches complex questions about AI’s role in education – focusing on both practical challenges and deeper implications for teaching and learning. In his spare time, he conducts research on Australian species of Cicada.

Nicole Crawford

Nicole Crawford is a Senior Research Fellow, currently working on several research projects at CRADLE. She was an Equity Fellow at the National Centre for Student Equity in Higher Education (NCSEHE) and an educator in pre-degree programs at the University of Tasmania.

Nicole’s research interests include equity and inclusion in higher education, student and staff mental wellbeing, and enabling education.

Laura Hughes

Dr Laura Hughes is an Associate Research Fellow and has a background in biomedical sciences, psychology and addictions.

Laura has research interests in feedback literacy, behaviour change and broadly higher education teaching and learning. Laura is currently working on the ARC Discovery Project Feedback literacy for effective learning at university and beyond.

Jack Walton

Jack Walton is a Lecturer within CRADLE. He holds a Bachelor of Music, and his PhD developed a theorisation of assessment in university music education.

His main research interests include assessment, judgement, and creative practice. Jack is fascinated by how people come to know quality, how they express themselves in situations where quality matters, and how education helps (and sometimes totally hinders) these ways of knowing and creating.

The question that interests Jack most right now is this: How can assessment practices value divergence in students’ expressions of achievement?

Kevin Dullaghan

Kevin Dullaghan is an Associate Research Fellow with CRADLE. Kevin assists the team with their research and manages the CRADLE Blog, website, and newsletter.

Kevin is interested in all areas of higher education research, particularly conducting surveys and interviews, identifying trends, and managing data. He first started with CRADLE looking into the murky world of contract cheating.

Dr Jemma Skeat

School of Health and Social Development, Faculty of Health

Project: Co-designing effective feedback: working with students and academics as collaborators to purposefully design feedback from clinical assessment

Associate Professor Kelli Nicola-Richmond

School of Health and Social Development, Faculty of Health

Project: Identifying barriers to assessment completion and submission as well as investigating solutions

Honorary Associate Professor Wendy Sutherland-Smith

School of Psychology, Faculty of Health

Project: Teaching and learning integrity

Associate Professor Jonathan Robertson

Deakin Business School, Faculty of Business and Law / Institute for Physical Activity and Nutrition (IPAN), Faculty of Health

Project: Assessing the effectiveness of assessment in virtual environments in sport management

Associate Professor Darren Palmer

School of Humanities and Social Sciences, Faculty of Arts & Education

Project: Student integrity: ‘techniques of neutralisation’ in the tertiary sector (SIToNiT)

Dr Bryony McNeill

School of Medicine, Faculty of Health

Project: Investigating assessment feedback in medical education

Associate Professor Fiona McKay

School of Health and Social Development / Institute for Health Transformation, Faculty of Health

Project: How international students enrolled in a Masters program in the School of Health and Social Development engage with Deakin’s mode of delivery, assessment, and feedback

Dr Shane McIver

School of Health and Social Development, Faculty of Health

Project: Identifying barriers to assessment completion and submission as well as investigating solutions

Dr M. Reza Hosseini

School of Architecture and Built Environment, Faculty of Science, Engineering, and the Built Environment (SEBE)

Project: Enriching collaborative problem solving assessment tasks: A focus on learning in digital networks

Associate Professor Danielle Hitch

School of Health and Social Development, Faculty of Health

Project: Experiences of disadvantaged allied health students and their clinical educators regarding assessment fairness during clinical placement

Associate Professor Matthew Dunn

School of Health and Social Development, Faculty of Health

Project: Drug use among university students and perspectives of teachers

Dr Tim Chambers

School of Psychology, Faculty of Health

Project: Can rethinking authentic assessments for first-year students foster their psychological wellbeing and social connectedness

Associate Professor Kerrie Bridson

Deakin Business School, Faculty of Business and Law

Project: Business schools’ assessment design and practice: The role of professional accreditation bodies

Dr Ros Black

School of Education, Faculty of Arts & Education

Project: Belonging, joy and imagined academic futures in the move to online teaching

Dr Kate Anderson

School of Health and Social Development, Faculty of Health

Project: Online self-reflection

Jaclyn Broadbent

Professor Jaclyn Broadbent is Pro-Vice Chancellor, Academic Experience, a Professor of Psychology and a member of CRADLE. Jaclyn’s background is multidisciplinary, with PhDs in Psychology (2011) and Education (2021).

Jaclyn’s leadership has been acknowledged through prestigious awards for innovative teaching practices, including Deakin Teacher of the Year (twice), an AAUT Teaching Excellence Award, and a Citation.

Jaclyn’s research focuses on online self-regulated learning as well as the development, evaluation, and translation of effective online teaching strategies to ensure student success.

Helen Walker

Dr Helen Walker is CRADLE’s Research Manager. Helen is responsible for the coordination of all internal and external research practices including compliance, governance, funding and contracts, reporting impact, and data management.

Rola Ajjawi

Professor Rola Ajjawi has a Bachelor’s Honours Degree in Physiotherapy and worked as a physiotherapist and clinical educator before moving into academia full-time.

Rola conducts research into work-integrated learning, assessment and feedback, evaluative judgement, professional identity formation, and student engagement, failure and persistence. Rola is one of the top Australian researchers in these fields.

Rola is Deputy Editor of the journal Medical Education and on the editorial board of Teaching in Higher Education.

Joanna Tai

Associate Professor Joanna Tai has a background in higher and health professions education.

Joanna’s research interests include student perspectives on learning and assessment from university to the workplace, peer-assisted learning, feedback, assessment literacy, developing capacity for evaluative judgement and research synthesis.

Margaret Bearman

Professor Margaret Bearman is CRADLE’s Professor of Research. Margaret holds a first class honours degree in computer science and a PhD in medical education.

Margaret’s interests are broad ranging and include assessment in university education, feedback in healthcare contexts, simulation and learning in a digital world.

Recognition for her work includes Program Innovation awards from the Australian Office of Learning and Teaching and Simulation Australasia.

Phill Dawson

Professor Phill Dawson is Co-Director of CRADLE.

Phill is most known for his research on feedback, cheating and artificial intelligence in assessment. His work is highly cited, and he ranks 6th internationally in the field of higher education research over the past five years (ScholarGPS).

In his feedback research, Phill is currently leading an ARC project into supporting students to make the most of feedback through developing their feedback literacy. This longitudinal study uses behaviour change techniques from the health and social sciences to help students develop and use feedback capabilities not just at university, but also in their graduate working lives.

In his cheating and artificial intelligence research, Phill is currently collaborating with Deakin colleagues on a major project on how to design assessment that is valid and appropriate for a time of artificial intelligence. This project builds on work Phill co-led that was funded by TEQSA.

David Boud

Deakin Distinguished Professor David Boud is Co-Director of CRADLE.

Professor Boud is also Emeritus Professor at the University of Technology Sydney. He is Australia’s most internationally renowned educational researcher in higher education. He is a global leader in the fields of higher education, workplace learning, and assessment and feedback.

His work is used both by researchers and scholars committed to the development of teaching and learning and he has changed the foundations of assessment practice through pioneering research and development.

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