Announced on 12, Oct, the awards worth $25,000 each, recognise the nation's top university teachers and most outstanding programs and services aimed at improving the quality of student learning.

This year 24 university teachers from across Australia will receive Awards for Teaching Excellence while a further 12 Awards for Programs that Enhance Learning will be presented at a ceremony at Parliament House in Canberra on 24 November.

UniSA has achieved the prestigious Australian Learning and Teaching Council’s Australian Awards for University Teaching and has received two Awards for Teaching Excellence within the one year.  This year only 24 university teachers from across Australia will receive Awards for Teaching Excellence.  Each award winner receives $25,000.

Awards have been made to Associate Professor Mahfuz Aziz (Electrical and Information Engineering), and to the teaching team comprising Professor Martin Shanahan, Ken Adams Paul Kershaw and Adjunct Professor, Dr Erik Meyer (Commerce).

Associate Professor Aziz has been recognised for his teaching in the Electronics and Computer Engineering disciplines for two decades. He has developed and taught numerous courses on integrated circuit design and computer hardware design at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels. His teaching methods focus on the development of student independent learning, problem solving and critical thinking abilities. Dr Aziz assists students in developing these qualities in a self learning manner using an innovative project-based learning approach. He has used this method effectively to address students’ academic and cultural diversity. Engaging students in lectures, tutorials and assessments has been a particular focus of his teaching. He has systematically integrated the outcomes of his collaborative research with leading European institutions into educational circuit design tools. His teaching resources are used in many institutions across the world.

The Learning to Learn team, comprising Professor Martin Shanahan, Mr Ken Adams and Mr Paul Kershaw, with Dr Erick Meyer from the University of Durham, has developed and embedded a sophisticated, research-based approach to teaching and learning in first-year economics. Their focus directly fosters independent learning and motivates students to become more aware of their own learning. The process combines a powerful web-based learning inventory and immediate feedback process with extensive in-course learning exercises and activities. An emphasis and culture on ‘learning to learn’ forms a core part of the first year economics course. Despite having face-to-face classes of up to 800, and students learning externally in several countries, the process respects, supports and develops each economics student as an individual learner. By providing students with the mechanism to assess their own learning, an improved understanding of what it means to learn, and a process to develop their personal approach to learning, the system creates and develops a culture of learning that empowers students beyond their first year of university, equipping them with skills for life-long learning.

(www.eduwo.com, Jainlyn&Charlotte)