We Haven’t Solved the Essay. Now AI Can Make the Creative Work

For the past few years, much of the debate about generative AI in higher education has focused on written assessments. The essay emerged as a key concern because tools like ChatGPT can generate proficient written responses quickly and at scale, challenging many traditional assessment assumptions. We have invested significant time contemplating the implications. How can…

If Assessment Ends at the Grade, What Was It For?

In higher education, students often complete an assessment, submit it, receive a grade, and then move on. Academics evaluate and mark the work, offer feedback, and focus on the next task. The assessment has effectively fulfilled its purpose: generating evidence, informing judgments, and contributing to the final results. But has it actually contributed to the…

If Every Class Looks the Same, Are We Really Teaching?

During professional learning sessions with university educators, a familiar phrase keeps coming up: “We have to deliver the content.” It often surfaces when staff describe teaching a unit designed by someone else, especially when the slides, activities, resources and weekly sequence have already been prepared. For sessional educators and less experienced ongoing academics, it can…

The Growing Accessibility of VR Cinema and Virtual Environments in Education

A Technology Whose Time May Finally Have Arrived Imagine taking students to Ancient Rome in the morning, visiting a hospital ward after lunch, and exploring a future city shaped by climate adaptation before the end. For many educators, these experiences once seemed unfeasible. However, advancements in technology, such as 360-degree video, VR Cinema, digital twins,…

Innovation in Higher Education: Beyond Technology and Buzzwords

Innovation Everywhere, Definition Nowhere “Innovation” is a commonly used term in higher education, appearing in strategic plans, mission statements, conference themes, funding proposals, and meetings. Universities often market themselves as innovative, educators are encouraged to adopt innovative practices, and students are promised innovative learning experiences. Despite this frequent usage, the term is rarely explained or…