ASCILITE NEWS

ASCILITE 2025 Keynote

Professor Kelly Matthews

Professor Matthews is an expert on the student experience in higher education—recently ranked amongst the top 5% of cited scholars globally in higher education, teaching and curriculum, and student partnership—and is an award-winning university teacher.
Her research, spanning over 150 publications and 100 invited talks, is about impact—shaping how students actively participate in their learning, directly improving experiences for students and informing the practices of teaching staff globally. Awarded an Australian Teaching Fellowship and a Higher Education Academy Principal Fellowship, Kelly has

• established influential international writing groups that mentor and motivate emerging scholars to publish about their educational practices,
• co-founded the International Journal for Students as Partners to enable students and staff from across the world to shape what counts as knowledge,
• created and sustained the Students as Partners Network to both celebrate and inspire educational practices across universities worldwide, and
• led collaborative, multi-institutional projects that recognise and promote educational leadership and change through applied research.

In 2025, Kelly is leading a multi-institutional project with Deakin, Monash, and UTS to shape AI policy and practice through student voice.

Kelly is the Academic Lead for Student Experience and Strategic Initiatives in the Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Academic) Portfolio in the Institute of Teaching and Learning Innovation.

2025 ASCILITE Awards: Open for Nominations

Nominations close 17 September 2025
Each year, ASCILITE members are invited to apply or nominate for the ASCILITE awards and to consider nominations that they believe meet the criteria set for each award. The award categories available to members in 2025 are as follows:

• Innovation Award 
  • Celebrates work undertaken by an individual or team of people in support of the exemplary and research informed use of technologies for teaching and learning in tertiary education. Innovation is defined as a new idea, device or process. It is something original that “breaks into” teaching and learning in the tertiary sector.
    • The most outstanding Innovation Award: “The Allan Christie ASCILITE Innovation Award” (judged from Innovation Award nominations). Allan Christie was involved with ASCILITE since its conception in 1985. He was recognised with a Life Member award in 2003 (only the fourth person to receive this honour at the time). Allan continued to serve the Society for over 36 years and was on the ASCILITE Executive for 27 years when he retired from the Executive in December 2019. Allan was well known in higher education and sadly passed away suddenly last year. He is missed greatly in the ASCILITE circles.
• Anthology Educational Designer of the Year Award, in memory of Allan Christie
  • In recognition of Allan Christie’s lifelong contribution to the sector, this award is professional staff member who has made significant contributions to learning and teaching. The award is sponsored by Anthology, to the value of $1,000.
• Emerging Scholar Award 
  • Has made a noteworthy contribution in the exemplary use of ore research into technologies for learning and teaching in tertiary education.
• Community Fellow Award 
  • Recognise the outstanding contributions of individual ASCILITE members in the exemplary building of connections in the wider community and into the ASCILITE community.
• ASCILITE/CAULLT Award for Outstanding Leadership in Digital Learning in Higher Education
  • Recognises evidence of an individual’s innovative and effective leadership in the broad use of digital technologies to enhance teaching, learning, and overall performance in higher education.
• ASCILITE Research Grants
  • Three ASCILITE research grants valued at $5,000 each – totalling $15,000, will be offered as follows – one Early Career Researcher, one General Academic and one Professional Staff Member. All investigators must be members of ASCILITE. These ASCILITE Research Grants will be offered for an 18-month period.
• Student Bursary Award 
  • Available to full-time PhD/EdD or equivalent students.
• Life Member Award 
  • A prestigious award that recognises the significant service and/or sustained contribution of an ASCILITE member to the Society.

For further information on each award, refer to the specific award criteria and nomination form on the ASCILITE website.

Nominations for the ASCILITE Executive 2025 elections

Current ASCILITE financial members are invited to stand for election to the ASCILITE Executive Committee.

The positions being elected this year are President, Vice President and 3 members of the executive.

You will find details of current Executive Members here and a summary of Executive roles and the work of the Executive is outlined in the document Prospective Executive Committee Member Information.

For further information on the work of the Society or the Executive Committee please contact the President, Vice-President or any Executive Committee member. Committee members will be happy to answer your questions by phone or email.

The closing date for nominations is 16 September 2025. 

Voting will be open to all financial members from 18 September to 16 October 2025.

Members will be sent candidate information with an online voting link on 18 September and the results of this ballot will be announced at the ASCILITE Annual General Meeting at ASCILITE 2025 in Adelaide.

You will find further details of the election schedule, positions available and nomination forms (see section “How to Nominate”) on the ASCILITE website here.

If you would like to know more about being a member of the executive – join the ASCILITE Live! September Webinar: Come and Join Us as an Exec member

Date: Tuesday September 2, 2025
Time: 12:00 PM AEST
Register here

Returning Officer, ASCILITE 2025  

TELedvisors Webinar – Making the Invisible Visible: Evidencing your Learning Design Practice

Date: Thursday 28^th August
Time: 12pm-1pm AEST
Registration: here

Description
Learning design work is often unseen. This webinar is for learning designers who want to make their work visible and valued.

The facilitators will introduce a framework for evidencing your practice, share practical examples, and guide you through reflective activities to help you identify strengths, gaps, and opportunities for growth. Come ready to engage and leave with practical tools to support your career journey.

Facilitator: Jenny Boreland,  Sue Sharpe and Tanya Henry

Colin Simpson, Wendy Taleo, Penny Wheeler & Henk Huijser
TELedvisors leads

ASCILITE OEP SIG members: Apply for virtual Open Education Conference registration

Open Education Conference 25 is coming soon!

The Open Education Conference (28-30 Oct, in Denver and online) is a valuable opportunity to engage in shared learning about open educational resources, open pedagogy, and open education initiatives.

ASCILITE OEP SIG members are eligible to apply for a virtual attendance scholarship. Applications will be reviewed by OEP SIG Convenors and scholarships will be awarded based on merit and equity.

Responsibilities of scholarship recipient:

• Attend the Open Education Conference via virtual registration (instructions will be provided).
• Report back to the OEP SIG on learnings/experience during an OEP SIG monthly meeting or dedicated webinar presentation.

Key dates:

• Sunday 31 August: Deadline to submit an EOI.
• Tuesday 2 September: Scholarship recipients announced during OEP SIG monthly meeting.

Claire Ovaska & Ash Barber
Co-Convenor OEP SIG Research Group

Transforming Assessment SIG Webinar 3 Sep 2025: International eAssessment Awards: Selected Winners Showcase

Date: Wednesday 3 September 2025
Time: 5:00 pm – 6:00 pm AEST

Jointly run with the eAssessment Association, this webinar will showcase selected winners from the International eAssessement Awards. Award winners were announced at the International e-Assessment Conference (9 to 11 June, 2025 in London, UK).

This webinar on 3 Sep 2025 will showcase selected award winners who will present and take questions from the audience.

The three webinar presenters are the winners of the awards: “Best Summative Assessment Project”, “Best Formative Assessment Project” and “Best Transformational Project”.

Further details, local time zone conversion and free registration go here.Mathew Hillier
TA SIG lead

LD-SIG Research Mentorship Webinar #4: Dissemination channels – peer-reviewed journals

Date: Friday 12 September
Time: 12:00 pm AEST
Register here.

Presenter: Associate Professor Henk Huijser
Henk is an editor of AJET. In this webinar, he will introduce participants to writing and submitting research papers, covering structure, referencing, and responding to reviewer comments. Participants will critique journals and review abstracts to appreciate the various types of journals out there.

Kashmira Dave, Leanne Ngo & Kate Mitchell
LD-SIG leads

LD-SIG Call for Contributions: Co-Creating a Collaborative Learning Design Guide for Third Space Professionals

The ASCILITE Learning Design Special Interest Group (LD SIG) is excited to present the development of an open-source resource titled Introduction to Learning Design for Third Space  Professionals.

This initiative is designed to advocate for the profession and support Third Space professionals by providing a collaborative platform for learning designers to contribute their expertise, insights, and real-world examples. We aim to provide Third Space professionals the opportunity to publish their best practices without feeling constrained about formal research.

Our goal is to co-create an evolving resource that highlights key learning design topics and provides practical guidance for those working in learning design, enriched by case studies from across institutions.

This guide is created to support learning designers at all stages of their careers, from newcomers to seasoned professionals, by providing a clear, accessible path to improving their practice and building expertise in the Third Space.

As volunteers committed to strengthening the learning design community, this resource will be provided based on demand, available capacity, and our community’s desire to build collective capabilities.

More details here

Kashmira Dave, Leanne Ngo & Kate Mitchell
LD-SIG leads

ASCILITE 5 August Webinar Recording: Marking on the fly: Insights into Interactive Oral Assessments

Drawing on the research article “Marking ‘on the fly’ in interactive oral assessments in Business” by Alison Casey and colleagues, the ASCILITE Live! August webinar shed light on the pedagogical rigor and authenticity of IOs, discusses the unique skill sets required for effective ‘on-the-fly’ marking, and addresses the challenges and benefits of implementing IOs in large business courses. Viewers will gain practical insights and strategies for enhancing assessment practices within the evolving landscape of higher education.

Watch the recording here.

Kwong Nui Sim & Karine Cosgrove
ASCILITE Live! Webinars

ASCILITE TELall Blog: Unlocking Indicators of Learning in AI-Assisted Education

Introducing the “Figuring out AI Learning Processes” Discovery Workshop Series

The most recently published TelALL blog comes from the leaders of the Learning Analytics SIG.  Read about their thoughts on the Learning Process with AI here.

If you would like to join in the discussions and find out what ideas and thoughts arose from the first workshop please visit our padlet here

Sandy Barker, Hazel Jones, Marion Blumenstein, Linda Corrin & Srecko Joksimovic
TELall Blog & LA-SIG leads

OTHER NEWS

FLANZ Announce ATAIN: Aotearoa Tertiary Artificial Intelligence Network

Hosted by FLANZ, ATAIN is a newly launched community of practice for tertiary educators across New Zealand who are interested in shaping education in the age of AI.

Purpose and Goals

• Foster discussion, knowledge sharing, and resource exchange.
• Connect educators from universities, polytechnics, PTEs, and Wānanga.
• Encourage wānanga-style conversations that reflect personal and institutional values in teaching and learning with AI.

Call for Expressions of Interest

• Interested individuals are invited to join the ATAIN community.
• Complete the Expression of Interest form by end of August.

A kick-off hui is planned for September, and registered participants will be contacted with details.

Register now for the 30th ICDE World Conference 2025!

10-13 November 2025 │ Wellington, New Zealand

The 30th ICDE World Conference 2025 will gather hundreds of global educators, researchers, and innovators under the theme: “Ako: Exchanging ideas for inclusive, scalable and sustainable education.”

Hosted by Open Polytechnic of New Zealand and Massey University, the conference program includes inspiring keynote speakers, engaging workshops, networking opportunities, and an exciting pre-conference day on 10 November.

The ICDE World Conference has been a key global gathering since 1938. It is widely recognised as the leading international event for open and distance education, attracting hundreds of participants from all around the world.

Join us at this truly global event – now is the time to register and start planning your trip to beautiful Aotearoa New Zealand.

Register here.

The 16th International Learning Analytics & Knowledge Conference

27 April – 1 May 2026 |  Bergen, Norway

LAK26 is organized by the Society for Learning Analytics Research (SoLAR) with the University of Bergen. LAK26 is a collaborative effort by researchers and practitioners to share the most rigorous cutting-edge research in learning analytics (LA).

The theme for the conference is Learning Analytics and AI Synergy. The increasing integration of artificial intelligence (AI) into diverse learning contexts necessitates carefully examining its impact and potential to enhance learning. LA, as a human-centered and multidisciplinary field, offers significant potential for theory-driven, process-oriented, and multimodal investigations of AI integration and impact on learning and teaching. This year’s conference focuses on the synergistic relationship between AI and LA, exploring how AI technologies can be strategically used to empower all phases of the LA cycle, from data collection and analysis to interpretation and communication, through stakeholder-informed actions. We also seek to highlight how LA can be strategically employed to augment the research and practice of AI in education.

Read more here.

CRADLE International Symposium – ‘Assessment design in higher education: Changing practices for a world with AI

Date: Wednesday 17 September 2025
Time: 2.30 pm – 4.00 pm (AEST)
Where: Deakin Downtown (Level 12, Tower 2, 727 Collins Street, Melbourne) or online
Cost: This is a free event
Register here: https://assessment-design-in-higher-ed-changing-practices-ai.eventbrite.com.au

Designing university assessment to account for the rise of artificial intelligence (AI) has proved to be difficult and contentious. Across the globe, many academics are making claims that assessment designs and systems need to be completely reconsidered. But the fundamentals of assessment in terms of its purposes may still hold true and many of the problems that are faced in implementing new regimes are challenges that already existed. So what, if anything, has changed? What are the tensions that continue to bedevil us? What conceptual or theoretical framings help us make sense of the things that change and the things that stay the same?

Facilitated by CRADLE’s Professor Phillip Dawson, this panel discussion will feature a national and international cast of eminent higher education assessment researchers. The panel will reflect on the discussions held throughout the symposium and offer potential directions for future research in the intersections between university assessment and AI.

Join us in person at Deakin Downtown or online for the second presentation in CRADLE’s New Directions in AI Research and Practice series.