ASCILITE NEWS

TELAS Reviewer Certification workshop (online)

The Technology Enhanced Learning Accreditation Standards (TELAS) are a set of internationally benchmarked standards designed to assess the quality of online learning, particularly in relation to the tertiary sector. They provide institutions with the means to assess and evaluate the affordances of their online learning environments and thereby guide quality enhancements. For more information about TELAS visit our website.

Our workshop supports your knowledge of the standards and is the first step to being a certified TELAS reviewer. No matter what your role is at your institution you will find these workshops informative and interactive.

Our next workshop will be online in Zoom (split across two half days);
Dates: March 3 and 4 (9am – 12.30pm AEDT)
For fees and registration, go here.
Any questions feel free to email TELAS Admin.

Elaine Huber, Chris Campbell, Lisa Jacka, Lisa Budgen
TELAS leads

Expressions of interest (EOI) are now open for the Community Mentoring Program

Are you looking for a mentor in 2026? The Community Mentoring Program (CMP), including the Research Mentoring Program for Third Space, is a 12-month program for professional and academic staff, who want to partner with a mentor to work towards professional goals (such as research experience, building a professional profile or career development). You can apply for the CMP as a mentee or mentor here. Applications close on Friday 20 February 2026.

If you would like more information about the CMP, please join our upcoming webinar. You will have the opportunity to hear from previous mentees and mentors talking about their experience of the program.

Date: Monday 16 February
Time: 1:00pm AEDT
Zoom Link

Alternatively, more information is available on our webpage. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact CMP leads Pennie White, Lisa Bugden or Justine Maldon.

Pennie White, Lisa Bugden, & Justine Maldon
CMP Leads 

Women in Professional Leadership Program Open for EOI

The Women in Professional Leadership (WiPL) Program is now open Expressions of interest (EOI) for our 2026 intake from the 2 – 20 February 2026. You can apply as a mentor (here) or mentee (here).

WiPL is a 2-year mentoring program and is for women who are professional staff, and in roles HEW/HEO level 7 and above. The WiPL program provides emphasis on leadership development. The mentors are often in leadership positions with their own professional staff, and who understand the opportunities and challenges in these roles.

For more information about WiPL, you are welcome to attend our upcoming webinar:

Date: Tuesday 17 February
Time: 1:00pm AEDT
Zoom Link

Alternatively, more information is available on our website.

If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact WiPL co-leads Karine Cosgrove, Lisa Bugden or Justine Maldon.

Karine Cosgrove, Lisa Bugden, & Justine Maldon
WiPL Leads

Open Educational Practice Special Interest Group Monthly Meetings for 2026

The Open Educational Practice Special Interest Group (OEP SIG) is open to practitioners of any level of engagement or experience. New members are always welcome.The monthly meetings are an opportunity to share practice, find new collaborators, trouble-shoot your challenges, and connect with current research and practice.

The SIG is focused on practical outcomes, and fostering community.

View the 2026 meeting dates, agendas and register in advance for these meeting:

Claire Ovaska, Jenny Wallace, Steven Chang, & Ash Barber
OEP-SIG leads

TELAS in the Age of AI

It has been five years since the operationalisation of the TELAS framework. In that time, the emergence of generative AI has transformed many aspects of learning and teaching in higher education. The TELAS team is now exploring how the framework might evolve to reflect these changes and ensure its continued relevance in an AI-enhanced educational landscape.

Our work began with a session at the conference to gather feedback and ideas for an updated version of the framework. Thank you to those who came along and contributed.

We now invite anyone with a working knowledge of TELAS to join us in an online consultation session to contribute your feedback. Registration details:

Date: Monday 23 February 2026
Time: 2pm AEDT
Format: Online (Zoom)
Register – here

The revised TELAS framework is scheduled for publication by April 2026.

Elaine Huber, Chris Campbell, Lisa Jacka & Lisa Bugden
TELAS leads

Contextualising Horizon 2026

The Contextualising Horizon Report for 2025 is now live on the ASCILITE website
here.

We encourage you to read, use and share the report widely through your networks. The strength and impact of Contextualising Horizon rests on shared responsibility across the sector, and the more this work is circulated, discussed and applied, the more powerful it becomes in shaping learning, teaching and educational technology futures.

This fourth edition reflects another year of collective horizon scanning, sense-making and generous contribution. Looking ahead to 2026, we warmly invite the community to get involved by signing up for the Technologies & Practices scanning sessions in February and March. We look forward to continuing this shared work together in 2026 and would love to see as many people as possible help us build the report for this year.

Technology and Practice Trends Workshops
3 Mar, 12pm – 2pm AEDT  (11am -1pm AEST) https://bit.ly/4oYqh0g
5 Mar, 12pm – 2pm AEDT  (11am -1pm AEST) https://bit.ly/457skYv

Dani Logan-Fleming, Simone Poulsen, Rachel Fitzgerald, Keith Heggart & Henk Huijser
Contextualising Horizon leads

OTHER NEWS

ALT-ELESIG Scholar Scheme – Reciprocal Mentoring in Digital Education Research

The ALT-ELESIG Scholar Scheme is a facilitated reciprocal mentoring programme for learning technology professionals, led by ALT’s Evaluating Learner Experience in E-Learning SIG. It aims to build research and evaluation capacity in digital education by pairing emerging researchers (Scholars) with experienced professionals (Advisors).

Who can participate?

• Scholars: Learning technology professionals seeking to develop research and evaluation skills (programme is free and intended for those who have limited local support for their research goals and are not nearing the end of a doctoral degree or have an extensive publication history).
• Advisors: Experienced practitioners in the LT field keen to support emerging researchers.

How it works:

• Paired Scholar–Advisor mentoring (minimum four one-to-one meetings)
• Group workshops using the Change Laboratory model to explore SoTL challenges and solutions
• Approximate commitment: six group sessions (optional) plus four mentoring meetings; 6-9 months

Benefits include:

• Strengthened research and evaluation capability
• Professional development planning
• Expanded professional networks
• Support towards CMALT or SFHEA
• Opportunities to disseminate work through ALT events

How to apply:

EoIs invited via this online form (places are limited).

Deadline: 23 February 2026 5pm GMT

Enquiries: For more information or any issues with meeting the deadline.

Email Jess Humphreys or Denise Sweeney

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

Wednesday 18 March 2026 – 2.00-3.30 pm (AEDT)

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

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

Contemporary Approaches to University Teaching MOOC Semester 1

The CAUT MOOC was awarded the inaugural 2024 CAULLT/HERDSA Award for Outstanding Leadership in Research and Development in Higher Education. If you missed out on this MOOC last year then Semester 1, 2026 enrolments have opened for the Contemporary Approaches to University Teaching MOOC. There are 24 modules to choose from!

This course is for those who:

•  teach in higher education anywhere in the world
•  are sessional, contract or continuing teachers.
•  want content designed by learning and teaching experts
•  want to reflect on your teaching and enhance your students’ learning
•   want to evidence your professional learning
•   are interested in scoping the course for their institution’s professional development program

You can choose which modules you explore and when, but we recommend one of the four pathways: new to teaching, enhancing student learning, enhancing your teaching practice or leading learning and teaching. Study is self-paced in two-hour modules that can be completed over a semester.

MOOC content is available to universities to share and adapt under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike license. The course is presented under the auspices of the Council of Australasian University Leaders in Learning and Teaching (CAULLT) and is led by Professor Agnes Bosanquet (Torrens University) and A/Prof Marina Harvey (Macquarie University).

16 February 2026 – 28 June 2026

Enrol here.

Enquiries: mooc@caullt.edu.au