All UNSW staff are welcome to join the EF CoPs. There are no prerequisites - aside from a passion for education and an interest or experience in the learning & teaching topic area. You will find more information on the CoPs SharePoint sites here or you can get in touch with the Education Focussed Development Team to learn more or join ef@unsw.edu.au
If you are external to UNSW and would like to connect with the EF CoPs we invite you to complete an EOI here. We look forward to hearing from you!
The Course Design and Development CoP have developed and actively maintain a guide to help UNSW academics design and develop new courses and redesign existing courses; the guide consolidates the numerous existing resources at UNSW and orders them chronologically in three phases. The CoP is currently working on new projects related to course design and development with special focus on the student voice.
UNSW staff can learn more about this CoP here
EF Academic Leads: Mark Duffy, Anne Galea and Caitlin Healy
Project Officer: Melanie Cross
The Clinical Teachers CoP was established in 2021 and is currently working to develop a range of educational resources in alignment with Continuing Professional Development (CPD) for clinical medical professionals, that will support the development of educational practice and create opportunities to engage in reflective practice and peer learning. These resources will take the form of tips and tricks for good teaching on the run and will be disseminated to clinical teachers and conjoins at UNSW in a bite-size, readily accessible format.
UNSW staff can learn more about this CoP here
EF Academic Leads: Alison Seccull, Megan Kalucy and Melanie Fentoullis
Project Officer: Megan Rose
The Enhancing First Year Experience CoP brings together educators and professional staff from all faculties and divisions, to imagine and to lead a more holistic approach to enhancing the first-year student experience at UNSW. With an acknowledgement that many first-year courses manage large cohorts of students (>200), the CoP will enable educators and professional staff who work with students in their first year at university to share practice, experience, and ideas, and to collaborate on outcomes that will have positive impacts on the whole student experience at UNSW, for both students and educators.
UNSW staff can learn more about this CoP here
EF Academic Leads: Sandeep Kirpalani, Diana Perche, and Inma Tomeo-Reyes
Project Officer: Megan Rose
The Evaluation of Teaching and e-Portfolios CoP is developing exemplar profiles for the myEducation Portfolio that align with the Academic Expectations Framework, and will assist academics in showcasing teaching excellence by demonstrating the types of evidence which might contribute to a strong Education case for academic promotion.
UNSW staff can learn more about this CoP here
EF Academic Leads: Gary Velan and Rebecca LeBard
Project Officer: Mimi Nieberl
The New EF Support CoP is a supportive and inclusive community for staff who are new to the EF role from across all UNSW faculties, to learn from each other, share experiences, voice their needs and develop a sense of community. The CoP has established a Buddy System and developed a suite of resources designed to support New EF academic staff.
UNSW staff can learn more about this CoP here
EF Academic Leads: Janis Wardrop and Simon Kozlina
Project Officer: Felipe Balotin Pinto
The Online Learning and Innovation CoP works to support remote learning and teaching by identifying and developing resources that will assist academics to enhance student learning such as the Directory of Expertise. The Directory provides access to academics with experience in particular areas of online learning, as well as resources that you're able to use and adapt to support you in remote learning and teaching. The CoP is also looking at the future of Online Learning and how innovative practice and technologies might be utilised authentically.
UNSW staff can learn more about this CoP here
EF Academic Leads: Lynn Gribble and Vanessa Honson
Project Officer: Angela Sidoti
The Student Wellbeing CoP explores creative ways to monitor and enhance student wellbeing at
different stages of learning and in various teaching environments. The CoP is an inclusive community that shares practice, supports one another and collaborates to identify student wellbeing resources at UNSW and across the sector, evaluate their practical application and scalability and where appropriate to integrate these resources into the curriculum and community.
UNSW staff can learn more about this CoP here
EF Academic Leads: Chris Maloney and Jessica Macer-Wright
Project Officer: Melanie Cross
The Student Feedback & Digital Assessment CoP is working to provide innovative solutions to the challenges of digital assessment and effective student feedback. The CoP shares examples of best practice from members and invited academics through regular presentations, and develops resources, sharing exemplars with the wider education community at UNSW. The CoP is also interested in looking at the future of assessment and where innovative assessment and feedback practices might be leading.
UNSW staff can learn more about this CoP here
EF Academic Leads: George Joukhadar and Siobhan Wills
Project Officer: Alana Clifton-Cunningham
In many courses, sessional academics have the majority of direct student contact and deliver a considerable proportion of the university’s teaching. There are opportunities to develop new, and improve existing, training and support resources, and build a stronger community amongst sessional academics and the wider university. The Supporting Sessional Academic Staff Community of Practice (SSAS EF CoP) is in the process of developing methods to support and up-skill sessional academics and academics that manage sessional staff. Our objective is to identify, collate, develop, and disseminate resources to support sessional academics in their varying roles. Resources that our CoP develops will be distributed across the university to support sessional staff to enhance teaching performance, educational experience, and student and staff wellbeing.
UNSW staff can learn more about this CoP here
EF Academic Leads: Kate Jackson and Emma Peters
Project Officer: Alana Clifton-Cunningham
The student cohort enrolled in courses at UNSW is richly diverse, representing many different cultural and linguistic backgrounds, as well as diverse prior educational experiences. The need to share and discuss ‘good’ educational practices with regard to teaching inclusively for diverse cohorts has become a key indicator of success in universities. TED CoP is committed to recognising educational, cultural, and linguistic diversity within UNSW as strengths that enrich the learning environment rather than seeing these as deficits to be reduced to a minimum.
UNSW staff can learn more about this CoP here
Academic Leads: Ben Kelly, Jason O’Neill, Joyce Wu and Sebastian Sequoiah-Grayson
Project Officer: Melanie Cross
Imagine all those eyes rolling in your course introduction when you mention there will be a group or team assessment task. Right? We know that students (and probably staff) find teamwork frustrating, while appreciating the ability to work in teams is an increasingly crucial graduate capability. The Teamwork CoP share ideas, methods and exemplars of teamwork in action across the different faculties of the university. The CoP is working to develop resources that cover the ‘cradle to grave’ of teamwork, from developing assessment tasks to member selection, to management for students and staff, to assessment of both product (the task) and process (the team itself).
UNSW staff can learn more about this CoP here
Academic Leads: Peter Neal and Nirmani Wijenayake
Project Officer: Melanie Cross
The WIL CoP is an education focused community who work together to support the design and delivery of WIL through collaboration to share best practice, co-design artefacts that can be applied to WIL courses and co-design professional development for WIL staff.
We have regular meetings to share successes and challenges, hear from guest speakers from within and external to UNSW and identify projects to work on as a CoP to provide resources to the wider UNSW community. Student feedback is used to identify barriers and opportunities for WIL across UNSW ensuring the student voice is heard in everything we do.
It is our mission as a CoP to strive to support UNSW’s 2025 Strategy to further advance UNSW’s contribution in academic excellence, social impact and global engagement. WIL CoP have recognised the value of meaningful WIL experience in Career Enhanced Education & Employability. Equity in Learning, Accessibility, Student Motivation & Partner Engagement are all areas we are exploring moving forwards to ensure we continue to provide authentic, equitable and meaningful experiences for our students.
UNSW staff can learn more about this CoP here
Academic Leads: Natalie Oh, Suzanne Schibeci and Sara Shirowzhan
Project Officer: Melanie Cross
The World Citizen CoP aims to enable UNSW strategies, resources and programs to shape world citizenship capacities in students and staff. We plan to serve as a conduit and sounding board for topics related to world citizenship.
UNSW staff can learn more about this CoP here
Academic Leads: Eva Lloyd and Lisa Zamberlan
Project Officer: Mimi Nieberl
