It’s that time of year again (already)! As the academic year draws to a close, we’re casting our eyes over the most-read posts published in 2024 to reflect on ‘the year that was’ in learning and teaching at UTS. It may come as little surprise that the disruptive influence of Generative AI continued as a dominating theme, albeit with less intensity than 2023. What did become apparent was a shift to less exploratory, more practical ways to consider AI, such as secure bots that can be useful and secure, small steps forward for assessments, and a response to TEQSA as a key strategy moving forward. But what else made the cut?
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24: Open Education: a new open textbook in under a year – Rhiannon Hall chronicled the journey of creating an open textbook at Open Education Week.
23: Enrol for Spring 2024’s Graduate Certificate in Higher Education Teaching and Learning – a promotion of the Spring semester of the GCEHTL.
22: New to GradesPlus? Here’s what you need to know – from October, the new GradesPlus process made it easier to submit grades and quicker to finalise results.
21: 3 insights from a survey on students’ perspectives of GenAI – a new cross-university survey lifted the lid on the real student experience of GenAI; other publications plugged this as ‘Students cheat!’ but the results were so much more nuanced and revealing.
20: 4 things to know about GenAI at UTS – a ‘back to basics’ guide for those of us who were confused about where to start with GenAI.
19: Optimising orientation and onboarding with the new Student Experience team – Director of Student Experience Natalie Bradbury caught us up on the Student Experience Framework and her team’s work on improving the student onboarding experience.
18: Taking a fresh look at technology-enabled learning design – Shaun Bell shifted the lens to learning design, and how teams collaboratively devised digital solutions for the subject ‘Practicing Inclusion’.
17: Recognising excellence at the 2024 Vice-Chancellor’s Learning and Teaching Awards Ceremony – highlights from April’s awards ceremony.
16: New open textbook: Designing Learning Experiences for Inclusivity and Diversity – the open textbook discussed in the blog sitting at #24 is unveiled; read an excerpt and access it for free!
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15: 2024 UTS Learning and Teaching Awards and Citations – our recently published list of UTS Learning & Teaching Award winners as announced at the 2024 Learning and Teaching Forum.
14: 4 activities to introduce your students to AI – activities designed to help your students develop their AI literacy and skills.
13: Call me by my name – Elaine Laforteza looked at how names impact us in education and work, and how to navigate pronunciation with care and kindness.
12: Responding to sector demands and enabling student success with Transition Pedagogy – Sally Kift discussed her transition pedagogy framework at March’s FFYE forum.
11: What’s up, bot? Exposing the assumptions of your GenAI prompts – Simon Buckingham Shum shared a prompt to challenge assumptions and sharpen questioning when using bots.
10: Know me by my pronouns – Kat Frolov, Shaun Bell and Soli Le-Masurier explained how sharing your pronouns can help create a safe, welcoming space for everyone.
9: An interactive guide to using GenAI in your assessments – a guide to plot out how you might use GenAI in your subject.
8: Working securely with Microsoft Bing Chat Copilot – information on using the protected version of Copilot, the preferred GenAI tool at UTS.
7: Apply for a 2024 FFYE grant – application information for this year’s FFYE grants; read about the successful grants in this follow-up post.
6: Submit your presentation for the 2024 UTS Learning and Teaching Forum – it was a bumper year for presentations at this year’s Learning and Teaching Forum, as evidenced by the popularity of this guide for submissions.
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5: Get the Power(BI) with the new subject dashboard – a new-look data-driven dashboard to assist in understanding your students and planning for your subjects.
4: Co-designing learning outcomes with the UTS-CILObot prototype – this collaborative piece tested out how we might forward with secure CILObots at UTS.
3: New in Blue: updates to the Student Feedback Survey – updates to the Student Feedback Survey were summarised for staff early in the year.
2: Welcome to UTS Open Education Week 2024 – a summary of the events on offer at the fan favourite Open Education Week.
Top story of the year
1: Next steps for GenAI and assessment reform at UTS: a response to TEQSA
Halfway through the year, it felt like the focus and engagement on Generative AI had decreased compared to 2024. But that all changed in September, when the UTS response to TEQSA was released. As per last year, a summary piece on how we built a strategy around GenAI gets the majority of page views from an audience that reaches well beyond the walls of UTS.
This report and its subsequent blog post was a largely collaborative effort, but we’d like to acknowledge the leadership of Jan McLean and Simon Buckingham Shum in developing this. Things are moving so fast that the developments keep coming (with banning GenAI in subjects no longer appropriate) – see our latest piece that answers common questions you may have on GenAI and assessments moving forward.
Returning in early 2025
We look forward to hearing your stories next year and sharing them with your community. If you’d like to contribute a blog, email us your idea at LX.lab@uts.edu.au. In the meantime, we are taking a short break and will see you back here for the latest in learning and teaching news and inspiration in January.