The rapid advancement of digital tools has transformed higher education, offering students unprecedented access to information and new ways to “learn”. Yet alongside these benefits, institutions face a pressing challenge: maintaining academic integrity in an era where shortcuts and cognitive offloading are easier than ever to access. Concerns about plagiarism, […]
Assessment & Feedback - Reflections & Provocations - Student Learning & Engagement
The False Precision of Grades: What Are We Really Measuring?
For centuries, grading has been the dominant language of education. From Yale’s early descriptors in the 1700s to the familiar A–F scale, grades were never created to capture learning but to sort students. Despite their longevity, grades remain a blunt instrument, reducing the complexity of the student experience into a […]
Assessment & Feedback - Innovation & Future of Higher Education - Student Learning & Engagement
From Passive Learners to Active Creators: The Role of Digital Storytelling in Higher Education
Higher education faces a critical juncture with rising student enrolments, diverse student populations, and AI’s growing role in assessments. These challenges demand reforms in both current and past educational structures, moving toward a model better suited to today’s students, job market, and societal needs. One issue is the persistent view […]
Academic Identity & Professional Learning - Reflections & Provocations - Student Learning & Engagement - Uncategorized
From Hilltop Hoods to Higher Ed: Why Silence Matters in Teaching
Recently, I was listening to Hilltop Hoods’ new album Fall From Light. On the track Rage Against The Fatigue, there’s a deliberate three-second silence between the words “cliff” and “hangers.” The first time I heard it, I thought something was wrong. But it was intentional — and it made me think about silence in teaching. In classrooms, silence is often treated as failure. When we ask a question, many of us wait less than a second before rephrasing or answering ourselves. Yet in doing so, we may be cutting off the very student voices we most want to hear…