ASCILITE NEWS

Call for Recommendations: 2026 Conference Invited Speaker

We’re currently planning our 2026 Conference and are seeking your input on selecting our third keynote speaker. We would love to hear from you:

Who would you like to hear from?
Why do you think they would be a great fit for our society and conference theme?
What format would you find most engaging? (Traditional keynote, Interview-style, panel discussion, structured debate, workshop or interactive session or something different?)

Your feedback will help us shape a program that reflects the interests and priorities of our members.

Please share your suggestions and presentation preferences on our Padlet here: ASCILITE Keynote Padlet

We encourage you to include a short note explaining why your suggested speaker would add value to the conference.

Submissions close on 16 March 2026 COB
We look forward to hearing your ideas and building an inspiring 2026 program together!

Elaine Huber, Karine Cosgrove, Thom Cochrane, Vickel Narayan & Rebecca Scriven
Conference Management leads

ASCILITELive! March Webinar: Inside the Winners’ Circle: Insights from the 2025 ASCILITE Award Recipients

What does it take to create award-winning work in learning and teaching? Join the recipients of the 2025 Innovation Award, Best Paper Awards, and Emerging Scholar Award for a special panel-style webinar. Each winner will briefly showcase their recognised work, followed by a facilitated discussion exploring their insights, reflections, and journeys to success.

Panellists will share practical advice on developing impactful projects and publications, navigating the awards process, and what they are doing now to extend their work. Whether you are considering a future submission or simply want to be inspired by leading practice in the field, this session offers a rare opportunity to hear directly from this year’s standout scholars and innovators.

Webinar details: Mar 30, 2026 12:00 PM – 1:00 PM AEST

Register : here

Karine Cosgrove, Lisa Bugden & Justine Maldon
ASCILITELive! Webinar leads

Leading digital learning? Make the quality visible with TELAS

TELAS (Technology Enhanced Learning Accreditation Standards) provides structured peer review of online and blended learning at unit, course, program, or institutional level.

A TELAS review enables you to:

Evidence quality against national benchmarks
Strengthen continuous improvement processes
Provide external validation for internal quality assurance
Recognise excellence through a TELAS digital badge

Institutions use TELAS to move beyond compliance toward demonstrable quality in digital learning.

Whether you’re reviewing a single unit or scaling quality across a program, School, or institution, TELAS offers a credible and developmental pathway.

If you would like to explore how TELAS could support your context, contact admin@telas.com for a confidential conversation with the TELAS team.

Elaine Huber, Chris Campbell, Lisa Jacka & Lisa Budgen
TELAS Lead

TELall Blog latest post: What’s Next for Business Education?

In this insightful post, Lynn Gribble (UNSW Business School) and Danielle Logan Fleming (Torrens University) argue that as entry level roles evolve, graduates must learn to work with AI—supervising, verifying and ethically declaring its use—rather than competing against it.

Lynn and Danielle call on business educators to move beyond teaching with technology and focus on how AI is reshaping professional practice across disciplines. A must read for anyone committed to preparing graduates for an AI enabled world of work.

Read the blog post here

Sandy Barker
TELall Blog lead

OTHER NEWS

Implementing Interactive Oral Assessments: “What have we learned so far?” Symposium 27th March at the University of Melbourne.

The “Implementing Interactive Oral Assessments – What have we learned so far?” Symposium will be held at UniMelb 27th March 2026 hosted by the Centre for the Study of Higher Education. Interactive oral assessments (IOAs) have come to be seen as an effective means of securing assessments in higher education in response to the challenges posed by generative artificial intelligence. Proponents suggest that IOAs, done well, can provide clearer evidence of individual learning, can be more authentic and more human, and can support deeper learning and the development of communication skills. But have these potential benefits been realised in practice? And how do we address concerns about scalability, validity, and equity? This symposium brings together educators involved in developing, delivering and evaluating new IOA models, in order to build an evidence base to support good practice.
The Symposium will include several parallel streams of presentations, grouped thematically. Presentations should be no longer than 15 minutes, with 10 minutes for Q&A.

We invite proposals (500 word abstracts due 16th February 2026) for the presentation of research aligned with the Symposium theme, including studies of higher education policy and management, teaching, learning and assessment, student experience and outcomes, and equity and inclusion. More info here

Let’s Talk About ATEC and the Future of Teaching

Date: Thursday, 19 March
Time: 12:00 AEST | 1:00 AEDT

The Australian Teaching and Education Focused Academic (TEFA) Network invites ASCILITE members to hear from Professor Barney Glover AO, Acting Interim Chief Commissioner of the Australian Tertiary Education Commission (ATEC).

ATEC is the new national body established following the Universities Accord to provide long‑term stewardship of Australia’s tertiary education system. It will play a central role in coordinating policy advice, system planning, and long‑term reform across the sector. In this session, we will explore what ATEC means for the future of higher education in Australia and how educators, leaders, and researchers can engage with and contribute to this next phase of reform.

Register here

CRADLE Seminar Series – Unknowable futures: Preparing graduates for an AI-evolving world (of work)

When: Wednesday 18 March 2026
Time: 2.00-3.30 pm (AEDT)
Where: Deakin Downtown (Level 12, Tower 2, 727 Collins Street, Melbourne) or online
Cost: This is a free event
Register here

In this seminar, Dr Danni Hamilton, Associate Professor Lauren Hansen and Professor Phillip Dawson share six curriculum-wide recommendations to prepare graduates for the AI-evolving world (of work).

AI is reshaping professional work, creating ethical, technical, and creative challenges that higher education must address or risk leaving graduates unprepared. Curricula need to go beyond safeguarding assessments to actively develop the capabilities students will need to succeed in the AI-evolving workplace.

To address this challenge, we propose six curriculum-wide recommendations, developed through a 16-month collaborative process involving seven disciplinary partnerships, engaging nine senior academics and 11 industry partners. The recursively structured recommendations prioritise cultivating the emerging professional self by enabling students to develop a personal, professional AI-evolved practice informed by their discipline and by scaffolded cross-disciplinary engagement.

Relational and critical encounters with AI are embedded across programs, often implicitly, positioning technology as a changing professional context within which enduring capabilities are developed, rather than as an endpoint in itself. These recommendations respond pragmatically to sector and employer needs and offer a roadmap for curriculum transformation, ensuring higher education fulfils its core purpose while preparing graduates for an unknowable future world (of work).
Join us in person at Deakin Downtown or online to hear more about how the proposed recommendations can help us prepare graduates for the AI-evolving world (of work).

Presenters

Dr Danni Hamilton, Deakin University
Associate Professor Lauren Hansen, Deakin University
Professor Phillip Dawson, CRADLE, Deakin University

Outback Writing retreat

The Outback Writing Retreat is an opportunity to bring people to the heartland of rural Australia, allowing time to connect with nature and offering you a chance to develop your writing craft.

Nature writing matters. Painting landscapes with words allows readers to see the dancing sunlight on a forest floor, to breathe in the scent of earth after rain, to feel the stillness of a morning when jewels hang from spider webs. Nature writing is a critical artform that connects people to the natural world and raises awareness of environmental issues. In illustrating the magnificence woven in the fragility of the environment, readers often feel moved to look after our precious planet. Beyond the purposeful prose it is also an opportunity for creative mindfulness. Nature writers observe the natural world with deep introspection, and in doing so may experience their stress dissipating with a southerly breeze and their pulse slowing to the melodious song of a pied butcherbird.

During the retreat you will have time to write and work on personal projects, take part in activities to prompt new creative thoughts, enjoy conversations with other writers, and immerse yourself in the outback environment. In summary, this is a supportive and creative opportunity to spend time with nature and learn about sharing its story.

Facilitator: Dr Anika Molesworth, a passionate writer, communicator, author and 3x TEDx speaker
Location: Broken Hill, NSW
Dates: Wednesday 22nd April to Friday 24th April 2026

For more information please visit: https://www.anikamolesworth.com/writing-retreat.html