HigherEd Heroes - Different ways of using simulations and role plays

In this episode, we talk to Dr Roma Forbes. Roma is a Senior Lecturer in Physiotherapy in the School of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences at UQ. And one of motivations that drive her teaching is the question of how to enhance the students’ experience, in particular, how to get them better prepared for the uncertainties they will face once they join the workforce. 

In this episode, we talk to Dr Dan Levy who teaches courses in quantitative methods, policy analysis, and program evaluation in the John F Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University.

There are lots of worries, discussions, and myths surrounding generative Artificial Intelligence (AI), such as ChatGPT, and the impact it has on our teaching. While acknowledging these, Dan identifies the possibilities generative AI can bring to our classrooms, in particular to the way we as faculty teach and the way our students learn. 

In this episode, we talk to Dr Poh Wah Hillock. Poh is a senior lecturer in the School of Mathematics and Physics here at The University of Queensland. Facing high failure rates in her first year mathematics course, Poh has responded by specifically designing a support tutorial for her students and by using forms of community building and peer to peer support which help students bond over common struggles and, ultimately, succeed.  

In this episode, we talk to UQ’s Shakira Moss and Russell Richards about how they integrate educational board games, digital escape rooms, and online scenario games into their courses, and even design these games for learning themselves. 

In this episode, we talk to Jo’Anne Langham (UQ Ventures) about how to design your slides in the right way and why it really matters to design with the mind in mind. If you want to avoid death by PowerPoint and move towards designing your visuals or slides like a pro, this is the episode for you! It offers you small, practical steps that will make a big difference.

In this episode, we talk with A/Prof Zala Volcic (School of Media, Film and Journalism at Monash University, Australia) about how student learning can be enhanced through care, compassion, and a sense of belonging. By talking about what we would call ‘compassionate pedagogy’, Zala shares many practical ideas of how teachers can build cohorts and generate connections that ultimate help their students learn. 

Peter Lewis teamed up with colleagues from 18 unis across the world to co-teach one common course, in real time and online, for the benefit of cross-cultural learning on topics ranging from COVID to climate change. In this episode, Peter recounts how his team built this course step by step, how it has evolved, and what anyone can do to replicate elements of this in their own classroom. Peter is an Associate Professor in the School of Nursing, Midwifery and Social Work at The University of Queensland. He has won several awards for his innovation around cross-cultural pedagogy and online learning.

In this episode, Dr Seb Kaempf (usually one of our podcast co-hosts) turns interviewee to share with us how he integrates regular, 3-hour-long practical, self-experiential spaces (called ‘MediaLabs’) into his course to deepen student learning. It’s about enabling students to ‘get their hands’ dirty, to collaborate, research, discuss, and ultimately learn through practice. 

Our guest in this episode is Dr Sarel Gronum (Business School at the University of Queensland), whose Masters students get thrown into proper, several week long, consultancy projects with real world business clients. Besides the challenge of building this flagship course and how he had to fine tune his own teaching role within it, Sarel talks about the centrality of ambiguity and ‘trench warfare’ for student learning. 

In this episode, we talk to A/Prof Allison Mandrusiak (School of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences at The University of Queensland). 

Coordinating a cardiorespiratory physiotherapy course, Allie has built a model hospital to replicate real clinical practices and even lets her student play cardio karaoke. But central to Allie’s teaching are the ideas of building scaffolding and safety nets into her course that help reassure her students, reduce uncertainty, and build their confidence and competence. Tune in and listen to the tips and tricks from Allie whose teaching was recognized with a UQ excellence award last year.