College of Business 2019 Learning and Teaching Awards
Recognising excellence in Learning and Teaching in RMIT’s College of Business
The Learning and Teaching awards were announced at the 2019 College of Business Awards event on 6th of November. This year bringing together the COBRA, Research Excellence and Learning and Teaching awards for one excellent event. The Learning and Teaching awards recognise individuals and teams who excel in RMIT’s values of Agility, Inclusion, Courage, Passion and Imagination. We received over 50 nominations this year for our award categories from Melbourne, Vietnam and across our 7 schools. Nominations are accepted by peers, students and self-nomination and put to a panel. We congratulate all the winners of this year’s College of Business Awards!
Impact
Dr Ling Mei Cong and Dr Kendall Herbert
This is awarded for impactful and authentic learning opportunities that involve partnerships with communities or organisations internal or external to the University. The work of Dr Ling Mei Cong and Dr Kendall Herbert applied a sophisticated practice-based approach to work readiness. The assessment facilitated interaction between industry and the student cohort supporting the development of key employability skills through the course. The impact of this work on student experience and their outcomes was remarkable.
Agility
Associate Professor Gillian Vesty and Mr Viktor Arity
The agility award is centred around how we provide agile and effective leadership that improve the experience of all RMIT communities. Associate Professor Gillian Vesty and Mr Viktor Arity’s work in 2019 included the use of technology (WritePal) to overcome challenges students were facing in their learning. The sustainability and scalability of this learning innovation is particularly impressive as it has the potential for adaptation across many courses and assessment types. Students also rated the initiative highly in their feedback.
Courage
Dr Sophia Ji
The courage award is given to an individual or team for implementing practices or activities that are bold in their attempts to strengthen the student experience and the RMIT Community. Sophie Ji’s nomination demonstrated initiative that was pedagogically led and supported by strong evidence. Blending authentic teaching, assessment strategy, industry engagement and the inclusion of her own industry-based research that clearly engages students and is highly regarded by industry, makes her a worthy winner of the courage category.
Passion
Dr Pavithra Siriwardhane
This winner takes a highly creative approach to the teaching of Accounting. Her work created inspiring and collaborative learning experiences that enhanced student engagement. This included a photography project that allowed students to connect their learning experiences with real life applications.
Imagination
Mr Tom Whitford
The imagination award is nominated by a student or students and is awarded to a staff member who creates learning experiences that encourage and motivate students to become active and engaged. Tom was commended by his students for his assignments with real-life contexts and creativity. Other comments reflected on his commitment to engagement, and his ability to be “fluid, current and visual in his teaching.” The theme running through the student submission was his passion for teaching, his adaptability to different cohorts and contexts, his ability to make the learning experience come alive and provide real world context as well as his obvious empathy for his students.
