Teaching Excellence Awards & Citations for Outstanding Contributions to Student Learning

A/Prof Nicole Herbert
School of ICT, College of Sciences and Engineering

Associate Professor Nicole Herbert is an esteemed educator with over 25 years of experience at the University of Tasmania. Her journey is defined by a profound commitment to quality teaching and the creation of engaging learning experiences. Nicole’s passion for curriculum design has led her to spearhead numerous strategic initiatives aimed at enhancing program delivery for a multitude of disciplines. She is dedicated to inspiring and motivating students to persist and succeed.

Nicole’s teaching philosophy is deeply rooted in authentic learning, experiential learning, and work-integrated learning. Nicole employs a reflective praxis model that integrates scholarly theory and teaching practice, enhancing student experiences and graduate outcomes. Her pragmatic approach ensures that students develop industry-standard technical and professional competencies, preparing them to transition to and thrive in the workplace and positively influence future industry practice.

Nicole’s career is marked by significant leadership role within the School of ICT and the College of Sciences and Engineering. Nicole’s excellence has been recognised with numerous awards. Her contributions to ICT curricula Indigenisation, national accreditation panels, and her 30 well-cited publications in computing education underscore her influence both locally and internationally. Nicole Herbert’s career is a testament to her dedication to educational excellence and innovation.

Dr Bill Baker – Individual
School of Education, College of Arts, Law and Education

Dr Baker’s teaching areas are in undergraduate Arts education, and postgraduate critical reflection. As an Arts educator his substantive teaching is in a Bachelor of Education core 1st year unit (average 240 enrolments) delivered in fully online and on-campus modes. Key to the success of this unit is the integration of Arts ‘making’ activities such as drawing or singing with theoretical and reflective activities. Students in both modes of learning record and photograph completed Arts activities each week, contributing te each assessment task, and culminating in a video-recorded teaching session. ‘ Engagement without fear of judgement’ is essential in this context, hence Bill scaffolds students to achieve success by creating a relational, supportive learning environment, using high quality digital support resources, and professionally relevant assessment tasks. In his postgraduate teaching, students are usually practicing educators in TAFE, VET and school contexts. In fully online units Bill foregrounds student engagement through his unit design, carefully linking weekly readings, lectures, and assessment tasks with synchronous tutorials. Fostering a respectful, relational environment he personalises discussion board responses using Video Note and includes group collaborative learning activities in weekly synchronous zoom tutorials. Dr Baker’s SoTL research is critical to his teaching philosophy and practice.

Dr I-Lien Tsay - Individual
University College, College of Business and Economics

For building confidence and self-efficacy for a non-traditional student cohort through a supportive strengths-based approach. 

Dr Sunny Jang, Dr Hoang Nguyen, Dr Claire Eccleston, Dr Sharn Perry - Team
Wicking Dementia Research and Education Centre, College of Health and Medicine

For Creating 'Diverse Ageing and Dementia Stories' as a MyLO repository to enhance the curriculum in ageing and dementia studies.

Dr Erin Roehrer - Individual
School of ICT, College of Sciences and Engineering

For empowering student-centric learning: Harnessing innovative leadership to transform educational experiences through relationship building professional development. 

Dr Soonja Yeom - Individual
School of ICT, College of Sciences and Engineering

For empowering postgraduate students by cultivating novices to ICT software quality assurance professionals through a modern project-based curriculum.