Welcome to the CRADLE 2021 Development Partners team!
6 May 2021
The 2021 Development Partners scheme is now underway, focussing on Inclusive Assessment. With the support of our PVC Learning & Teaching Helen Partridge, and DLF, five unit teams across the Faculties will build and expand upon the work I started in the NCSEHE research grant on Re-imagining Exams, in collaboration with Deakin & CQUniversity colleagues. Our aim is to develop assessment designs and processes which do not disadvantage students with a diverse range of background characteristics, and apply them in units at Deakin.
Collectively, we have a wide and varied range of interests. We thought the best way to demonstrate this was to share a short bio from everyone involved. Here’s the team so far who will be working together, in alphabetical order by last name. While some of us have mentioned our student partners already, we are still in the process of getting everyone on board so you will probably hear more about our student partners later!
Dr Jessamy Gleeson is a Senior Lecturer in Indigenous Knowledges at the National National Indigenous Knowledges Education Research Innovation (NIKERI) Institute. She is also acting as the Associate Director, Teaching and Learning (IND), and the course director of the Graduate Diploma of Indigenous Knowledges. Jess is working with Chris Rawson and Darci Taylor from CloudFirst on this project, and is looking to build inclusive assessment tasks for IND203: Caring For Country. In developing inclusive assessment tasks for a unit that examines and explores Indigenous Knowledges, we are looking to facilitate both digital spaces, and the real-world locatedness of students: how they can draw on their location on Country to reflect and evaluate the knowledges being discussed in the digital spaces.
Dr Luke Heemsbergen is an Early Career Researcher in the School of Communication and Creative Arts, and a member of the Alfred Deakin Institute for Citizenship and Globalisation. Luke’s research and teaching is at the intersection of digital media and politics, including new forms of transparency and publicness, as well as how technologies like 3D printing, Augmented Reality and NFTs are changing how we live. Luke looks forward to working with Alex Hudson and the CRADLE team to innovate assessment in ALC703 ‘Digital Curation’ in order to effect more inclusive learning communities, engaged students, and equitable empowerment of student skillsets.
Danni McCarthy is a Lecturer of Inclusive Education in the Teaching Capabilities Team at Deakin University and Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy. She has a background in Education, Learning Design, the Arts and is currently undertaking a PhD in the School of Communication and Creative Arts, Deakin University. As a practicing visual artist and presenter, she has convened many local and international conferences over the past decade. She is also the Convener for the Women’s Arts Register (WAR), advocating for women’s art and artists, and has been serving in this capacity since 2016. Her research interests include philosophies of difference, theories of affect and the virtual, extended mind theory, and embodiment.
Dr Kevin Murfitt is a Senior Lecturer in the Disability and Inclusion pathway in the Bachelor of Health Sciences. Kevin and the inclusive assessment team will be focusing on a 3rd year undergraduate unit HDS310, Human Rights and Advocacy, a core unit in the Disability and Inclusion Major. This unit aims to develop a human rights perspective and appreciate the role of advocacy for people with disability in upholding their rights and achieving inclusion. Current assessment tasks include: an annotated bibliography, an essay on a current human rights topic, and an advocacy case study.
Dr Micaela Spiers is the Course Director of the Bachelor of Commerce and a lecturer with Deakin Business School in the Work Integrated Learning (WIL) Team. She is a Senior Fellow of the HEA, a 2019 recipient of the WJ Banks Vice Chancellor’s Award for Teaching and Learning and a 2020 recipient of an AAUT Citation for outstanding contributions to student learning. She is passionate about improving student engagement, the student experience and student employability outcomes. Micaela is excited to be part of this project with a student partner and to work with both CRADLE and cross University teams to improve the accessibility and inclusivity of assessment design. The pilot of this project in the Faculty of Business and Law will be Professional Insight (MWL101) a first-year core foundation WIL/employability unit in the Bachelor of Commerce.
Darci Taylor is a Senior Lecturer in curriculum design at Deakin University with key responsibilities of providing academic and scholarly leadership to strategic innovation projects in online learning, and most recently blended learning designs for the post-coronial future. She also designs and delivers capability building activities to support the transition of innovation projects into normal teaching practice. Darci is a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy, recipient of multiple Vice Chancellor’s Awards for Teaching and Learning Excellence and a current PhD candidate with the Centre for Research in Assessment and Digital Learning (CRADLE) at Deakin University. Her research interests include constraints and enablers of student’s personal goals in higher education, Students as Partners, the changing nature of the higher education workforce and the impact of teaching and learning innovations.
Dr Nilupa Udawatta is a Senior Lecturer in Construction Management in the School of Architecture and Built Environment. She is also the School of Architecture and Built Environment’s representative for Gender, Equity, Diversity and Inclusion. She is working with Mr. Nick Jahnecke (a Teaching Scholar at School of Architecture and Built Environment) and Ms. Georgia Thompson (a final year undergraduate student of Bachelor of Construction Management (Honours)) on this project in developing inclusive assessments for SRQ301 – Building Cost Planning unit. They have selected female students in non-traditional fields as their equity group for this unit. They are excited to work with CRADLE and other unit teams across the faculties to develop more inclusive assessments.
