Abstract

Widening participation in Australian higher education has produced increasingly diverse STEM cohorts whose success is shaped by belonging, identity, and access to support. Online, regional, mature-age, and first-generation students often face barriers to participation in traditional campus-centric support models. This study evaluates the Science Learning Hub (SciLHub), an equity-minded, relationship-rich tutoring initiative designed to foster academic success, belonging, and student partnership within a digitally dominant regional university.

Widening participation in Australian higher education has produced increasingly diverse STEM cohorts whose success is shaped by belonging, identity, and access to support as much as academic preparation. Online, regional, mature-age, and first-generation students often face barriers to participation in traditional campus-centric support models. This study evaluates the Science Learning Hub (SciLHub), an equity-minded, relationship-rich tutoring initiative designed to foster academic success, belonging, and student partnership within a digitally dominant regional university.

SciLHub provides free, personalised one-on-one and small-group STEM tutoring through flexible online delivery. Discipline-trained near-peer tutors are aligned within teaching programs and coached in dialogic pedagogy, scaffolding, and feedback literacy. Student voice is embedded through ongoing feedback, service evaluation, and tutor-student partnerships that inform continuous improvement and responsive service design.

Using a mixed-methods approach across nine trimesters, booking, academic outcome, and retention data were analysed for 621 students across 3,492 tutoring sessions in more than 75 subjects. Attendees demonstrated significantly higher pass rates (84% versus 54%), achieved mean marks 8.3‚Äì10.5 percentage points higher, and were 45‚ Äì93% more likely to re-enrol. Students identified personalised support, tutor approachability, flexible access, and enhanced science identity as key outcomes. SciLHub demonstrates how student-informed, relationship-rich tutoring can improve achievement, persistence, belonging, and equitable participation in contemporary STEM higher education.

Abstract

This presentation describes the development and early use of an AI-assisted clinical reasoning tutor in a fourth-year clinical exercise physiology unit delivered immediately prior to clinical placement. The tutor was designed to support students as they transition from theoretical knowledge to applied, defensible clinical decision-making in a safe simulated environment. Rather than providing answers, the AI assistant functions as a Socratic clinical educator, requiring students to justify assessment choices, intervention decisions, progression criteria, referral considerations and scope-of-practice boundaries before advancing through each phase of rehabilitation planning.

The tutor guides students through sequential clinical reasoning stages, including initial assessment, baseline measurement, goal setting, intervention planning, monitoring and discharge planning. Its design emphasises tissue healing, evidence-informed practice, risk-benefit analysis, multidisciplinary collaboration, and Accredited Exercise Physiologist professional scope. Early student feedback indicates that the simulation improved perceived clinical reasoning and decision-making, supported learning through Socratic questioning, and strengthened understanding of scope and referral boundaries. Students particularly valued being required to justify decisions, reporting that the activity made them think more deeply about why they were asking questions or selecting assessments.

The presentation highlights how carefully scaffolded AI simulation can promote student engagement, reflective practice and placement readiness.

Abstract

This presentation reflects on how mid-term student feedback was used to strengthen the design, delivery and learning experience of MM221 in Trimester 1, 2026. The Week 4 survey was conducted to understand students’ perceptions of unit clarity, lecturer support, assessment preparation, workload, communication, and diversity, equity and inclusion. Findings indicated that students valued the clear connection between weekly content, learning outcomes and assessments, as well as the lecturer’s approachability, responsiveness, inclusive classroom climate and regular engagement. However, students also identified areas requiring improvement, including the need for more visual learning resources, more explicit assessment and exam preparation, and greater use of quick knowledge checks in the online learning environment. In response, a range of enhancements were introduced in the second half of the term, including more visually engaging materials, interactive learning checks, and more responsive support strategies. The presentation demonstrates how student voice can be translated into practical, inclusive and evidence-informed teaching improvements.

More information coming soon

Abstract

This presentation explores how student voice and engagement emerge within professional learning environments where learners are simultaneously working professionals. Drawing on qualitative reflections and participant experiences across two interconnected contexts—Bachelor’s and Master’s teaching in Australian universities and executive development workshops within Indian industry settings—the study examines how trust-based, relational pedagogy enables authentic and sustained learner engagement.
The study argues that engagement among professional learners extends beyond conventional classroom participation models. Rather than engaging solely through academic discussion or assessment activities, participants actively connect management, organisational behaviour, and HRM concepts with their workplace realities, leadership challenges, and personal experiences. This integration generates deeper cognitive, emotional, and applied forms of engagement. Participant reflections indicate that learning extends well beyond the classroom, with many reporting continued application of concepts within professional practice and, in some cases, personal life contexts. Longitudinal insights from industry participants further reveal transformational outcomes, including shifts in leadership approaches, interpersonal behaviour, reflective capability, and sustained professional growth over time.

The findings suggest that student voice within professional education is experiential, reflective, and action-oriented, and is strongly shaped by the extent to which educators cultivate psychological safety and trust. When learners perceive their lived experiences and workplace challenges as legitimate components of the learning process, engagement becomes more authentic, sustained, and professionally meaningful.

The presentation proposes a novel practice-based model of layered engagement comprising immediate, reflective, transformational, and longitudinal dimensions. The model contributes to emerging discussions on student voice and work-integrated learning by offering practical insights for educators seeking to foster meaningful engagement among mature and professionally experienced learners

Abstract

Student attendance and engagement in on-campus classes have become increasingly challenging in higher education, particularly when learning is delivered primarily through theoretical content. In the unit EDEC354 Young Children Mathematicians, low attendance prompted the redesign of learning experiences to include practical, school-based observations. Instead of relying solely on lectures and readings, students were provided with opportunities to visit schools implementing different educational approaches, including Reggio Emilia, Waldorf/Steiner, and Montessori philosophies.

During these visits, students observed diverse teaching practices, learning environments, and pedagogical interactions that supported children’s mathematical thinking and engagement. Following each visit, students participated in reflective discussions to critically analyse their observations and connect theory with practice. Attendance during these experiential learning sessions was consistently high compared to theory-only classes. Students also provided highly positive feedback, reporting that they learned significantly more through direct observation of quality teaching and authentic classroom interactions.

This approach aligns with the educational philosophy of John Dewey, who emphasised that meaningful learning occurs through experience and active participation. The presentation highlights how practical and reflective learning opportunities can increase student engagement, deepen understanding, and better prepare future educators for professional practice.

Abstract

The academic journey to becoming a registered nurse involves applying pathophysiology to clinical practice. However, the extensive volume of content, coupled with the need for deep conceptual understanding and application, is reported to overwhelm students, especially those with varied prior science education or learning styles, thereby negatively impacting their academic performance in the high stakes’ exam. Students report specific constraints in writing short and long answer questions (SAQs and LAQs), thus warranting a tailored academic intervention.

Hence the aim of this research is to deliver and assess impact of tailored writing workshops in partnership with nursing students.

Science and education academics co-designed two one-hour workshops that were delivered in Week 2 and Week 10 of a 13-week trimester. The first introduced essentials and benefits of notetaking with the help of videos and images of real examples from past students. The second workshop will target strategies to answer SAQs and LAQs, including question analyses, expectations, and real time practice with contextualised questions.

The first workshop was delivered in March with 40 attendees and 68 views of the recording thus far. The second workshop is scheduled in May after which engagement data will be analysed.

More information coming soon.