ASCILITE NEWS

ASCILITE Spring into Excellence Research School 2026

We are very happy to announce that the 2026 ASCILITE Spring into Excellence Research School will be held at RMIT Melbourne campus, (124 La Trobe Street, Melbourne VIC 3000)

Dates: 7 – 9 September 2026 (Tuesday lunch time through to Thursday Lunchtime)
Cost: $300 (members), $450 (non-members – includes 12 months membership) +GST

More information about the Research School can be found here.

Register & payments here.

Michael Cowling
Research School Lead

New issue of AJET now available

The first AJET issue of 2026 has been released.

Full of interesting new research on inquiry-based learning patterns, virtual reality (VR), student workload in online microcredentials, and lots of AI-related work too. Too much AI, we hear you ask? Well, you’ll have to read our editorial led by Henk Huijser to find out whether or not we’ve reached our AI saturation point…

Access the new issue here.

Linda Corrin, Chris Deneen, Feifei Han, Henk Huijser
AJET Lead Editors

TELedvisors April Webinar – Who Shapes AI in Education? Capability, Confidence, and Women Leading the Way

Date: Thursday, 30 April 2026
Time: 12:00 pm – 1:00 pm AEDT
Register here

In this month’s TELedvisors Network webinar, we will be joined by Juliana Peloche (ECU) and Nikki Meller to discuss the topic of AI and education with a focus on empowering women and underrepresented voices.

AI is rapidly transforming education, but the question is no longer if we use it, it’s who is shaping its direction. Women in AI Australia presents a practical and thought-provoking session designed for learning designers, educators, and EdTech professionals working across higher education. Moving beyond awareness, we will share strategies for embedding responsible AI into teaching, learning design, and institutional practice. With a focus on empowering women and underrepresented voices, this session explores how educators can influence not just how AI is used, but who gets to lead in an AI-enabled future, ensuring it is not only effective, but equitable and representative.

Dr. Juliana Peloche is a Senior Curriculum Designer at Edith Cowan University and co-founder of Women in AI Australia. Originally from Brazil, she has taught across three countries and holds a doctorate in AI in education. She is driven by a commitment to equity, rigorous scholarship, and work that genuinely reaches people.

Nikki Meller Nikki Meller is a female tech founder, strategist, and former higher education leader shaping Australia’s AI and data capability landscape. Founder of CREDuED and creator of DocuCRED.Ai, and co-founder of Women in AI Australia, she champions human-centred transformation, capability building, and inclusive innovation, bridging education, technology, and real world impact.

Colin Simpson, Wendy Taleo, Penny Wheeler, Olivia Rajit
TELedvisors SIG Leads

LA-SIG Grand Challenge: Finding the Learning in the Data

Grand Challenge: Finding the Learning in the Data 
The ASCILITE Learning Analytics SIG has now launched its 2026 Grand Challenge — and there is still time for you to be involved.

AI platforms for learning are generating more data than ever. But what does that data actually reveal about how learners learn? That’s the question we’re challenging you to explore.

What’s the challenge?
We have four real-world challenges to choose from, under the broad topic of Human-AI Co-Regulation Across Learning Contexts. Each challenge features a dataset from an AI-based learning platform. Working in small groups throughout the year, you’ll investigate what learner interaction data can tell us about learning itself. We welcome educators, researchers, practitioners, HDR students, etc. to work within a team on their chosen challenge. More detail on each of the challenges and what is involved will be provided in the kick-off meeting to help you choose your preferred challenge.

What’s involved?

• Pick one of four challenges — find the one that excites you most
• Collaborate with a small group of SIG colleagues over the year
• Be guided by a dedicated mentor throughout
• Join regular online catch-ups from April to October 2026 to share and receive feedback
• Share your findings with the wider community at a dedicated session at ASCILITE 2026

The recording of our kick-off session is now available, which provides information on each of the four challenges, and you can sign up using this Google Form. The deadline for signing up has been extended to 17th April 2026.

Srecko Joksimovic, Lisa-Angelique Lim, Marion Blumenstein, and Linda Corrin
LA-SIG leads

Call for Expressions of Interest (EOI) for the role of Associate Editor for AJET

Due date: 17th April 2026 (extended)

We invite applications for new Associate Editors to join the existing editorial team of the Australasian Journal of Educational Technology (AJET). Associate Editors work with the Lead Editors to oversee the article review process and other work of the journal. This is a global call. EOIs from Associate Editors in all regions, including outside of Australasia are welcome. We are looking for experienced educational technology researchers with a well-established track record of high quality journal publications, preferably in the field of educational technologies in post-school contexts; a strong track record of reviewing articles for  educational technology journals (including prior reviewing experience for AJET); excellent English language written communication skills; knowledgeable of a range of research methods; and with the time and commitment to dedicate to the role of an Associate Editor.

For further information on how to submit an expression of interest visit our AECALL2026 webpage here.

Linda Corrin, Chris Deneen, Feifei Han, Henk Huijser
AJET Lead Editors

OTHER NEWS

The International Federation of National Teaching Fellows “Symposathon”: The Way We Work – The Way We Learn

Date:  16th April 2026Join in the seventh annual international summit/symposium held by IFNTF.

The IFNTF First World Summit in 2017 in Birmingham, UK, featured the theme Defining Teaching Excellence across Disciplines. The IFNTF Second World Summit in Halifax, Canada, in 2018, was themed Nurturing Teaching Excellence across Disciplines. The IFNTF 2021 Symposium held in conjunction with the Canadian STLHE conference featured Shaping Teaching Excellence across Disciplines. In 2022, IFNTF held its first “symposathon” themed RE-Shaping Teaching Excellence: Pandemic and the New Now. The second symposathon themed Augmenting Teaching Excellence: Embracing the future of education with AI and Emerging Technologies was held in December 2023. The third symposathon themed Transforming Teaching Excellence for the future was held in December 2024.

More information here.

CRADLE Seminar Series: Entangled intelligence – Distributed cognition, AI agents, and assessment validity

In this seminar, the University of Queensland’s Professor Jason Lodge will consider whether generative AI is fundamentally restructuring how students think, and ask what this might mean for assessments and assessment validity.

The proliferation of generative AI has sparked a crisis of inference in higher education. To date, and for good reason, the sector’s response has settled on a binary choice: secure the assessment by removing the tool (i.e., “Lane 1”) or permit the tool within existing frameworks (i.e., “Lane 2”). Both approaches, however, often rely on an outdated “internalist” model of learning that views cognition as a solo performance occurring strictly within the individual mind.

This seminar argues that the emergence of sophisticated AI agents necessitates a shift toward a distributed cognition framework. Drawing on recent research into “performance paradoxes” (in which AI boosts immediate task achievement while compromising durable learning), this session will explore how students’ thinking infrastructure is being fundamentally restructured. When cognitive tools are genuinely integrated, they do not merely support thought; they constitute part of the thinking system itself.

This seminar they will move beyond the ‘AI as Oracle’ paradigm to consider ‘AI as Agentic Partner’, examining the implications for assessment. If the unit of analysis is no longer a single human but a hybrid human-machine entity, our trusted proxies for learning may no longer measure what we think they measure. The seminar will challenge participants to reconsider the hard question of assessment: how do we generate valid evidence of learning when the process of learning has itself been transformed?

Join in person at Deakin Downtown or online to learn more about distributed cognition, AI agents, and the implications for assessment.

Date: Wednesday 13 May 2026
Time: 2.00-3.30 pm (AEST)
Where: Deakin Downtown (Level 12, Tower 2, 727 Collins Street, Melbourne) or online
Cost: This is a free event

Register here.

Assessment design forum: Learning and assessing in the AI era

Join the University of Auckland for a fruitful forum featuring a keynote from Professor Phillip Dawson (co-director of CRADLE, Deakin University) on the topic “how can we design assessment that is great for learning and robust in a time when AI can do so much of what we used to assess?” This reflection will be followed by a panel discussion.

The discussion is intended to inform University‑wide thinking as programmes reconsider assessment purpose, balance, and sequencing in increasingly AI‑rich learning environments.

This event is organised by the Director of Learning and Teaching, and Ranga Auaha Ako | Learning and Teaching Design team as part of the Professional Learning Series for teachers.

Date: Monday 29 June 2026
Time: 9.30am–12.30pm (NZST)This event will be held in person and online, and will be recorded.

More information and registration here.