Press Release: Pearson Award 2005

National Award for Innovative Teaching in Science: Winner announced

The 2005 Pearson Education UniServe Science Teaching Award has been won by a team from the Department of Zoology at The University of Melbourne. The team, consisting of Dr Raoul Mulder, Associate Professor Mark Elgar and Mr Declan Brady, based their submission on their own development of original software that enables students to submit an anonymous draft version of an assessment item and receive feedback via anonymous reviews from fellow students.

The submission

The team made a genuine endeavour to understand how learning occurs and examine the opportunities that could maximise their students' learning at The University of Melbourne. They found that timely and detailed feedback could improve student learning, but providing extensive feedback would place considerable demands on staff. To overcome this, the team developed an innovative approach which involved other students in the feedback process. Original web-based software named APRES was then produced to manage the blind exchange of work and feedback between students.

The results of introducing this innovation into their teaching were overwhelmingly positive. A thorough evaluation convincingly confirmed its success in maximising their students' learning.

About the Award

The Award is a joint initiative of UniServe Science and Pearson Education Australia. The Award is designed to recognise and reward those who make an outstanding contribution to student learning outcomes through the innovative and integrated use of information and communication technologies in university science teaching. UniServe Science is the national clearinghouse for information about the use of technology in science teaching and learning. UniServe Science is sponsored by The University of Sydney.

Pearson Education Australia is Australia's leading educational publisher and supports UniServe Science's aim to promote the use of technology in science teaching and learning.

About the Judges

The judging panel comprised of Professor Shirley Alexander, Dean of the Faculty of Education and Director of the Institute of Interactive Media and Learning, University of Technology Sydney, Dr Robert Ellis, ICT in Teaching and Learning Coordinator, The University of Sydney, and Professor Marjan Zadnik, Dean of Teaching and Learning, Curtin University of Technology. Professor Shirley Alexander is one of Australia's leading researchers in the field of education.

For more information about the project please contact:
Dr Raoul Mulder, Department of Zoology, The University of Melbourne Ph: 03 8344 6245 or emailr.mulder@unimelb.edu.au