The Scientia Educational Experience: Roles of Assessment, Feedback (and Humour)

Presented by Professor Gary Velan

Students working together on a computr

Scientia Education Academy Lecture Series

The pillars of the Scientia Educational Experience are ‘Communities’, ‘Inspired learning though inspiring teaching’, ‘Feedback and dialogue’, and ‘Being digital’.

No matter how well academics design curricula, we know that assessment and feedback will play crucial roles in students’ learning, as well as their educational experience. Examples of how assessment and feedback are currently implemented to benefit students’ learning in Medicine will be explored, as well as their potential applicability in other disciplines. The under-appreciated positive impact of humour on learning will also be addressed (with utmost seriousness).

Learn more about Professor Gary Velan (MBBS, DipHEd, PhD UNSW, FANZAHPE)

Professor Gary Velan

Gary’s innovations in education include the introduction of online formative assessments to UNSW, as well as the development of virtual microscopy adaptive tutorials (VMATs). Those resources have resulted in improved learning outcomes for students in Medicine and Medical Science at UNSW and beyond.

He is internationally recognised for research in medical education, focusing on eLearning as well as assessment and feedback, and has been a key contributor to educational research projects funded for more than $4.5 million. He has also been an invited educational consultant for the Royal College of Pathologists of Australasia (RCPA) and the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Radiologists (RANZCR). In 2015, Gary received a UNSW Learning and Teaching Fellowship to develop and implement standards-based assessment in the biomedical sciences. In the same year, his contribution to scholarship in medical education was acknowledged by the award of a Fellowship of the Australian and New Zealand Association of Health Professional Educators (ANZAHPE).

Gary’s achievements in education have been recognised within UNSW by two Vice Chancellor's Awards for Teaching Excellence (2003 and 2009) and a Vice Chancellor’s Award for Programs that Enhance Learning (2016), at a state level by a NSW Minister of Education's Quality Teaching Award (2003), and at a national level by a Citation for Outstanding Contributions to Student Learning (2007) and a Teaching Excellence Award (2010) from the Commonwealth Government’s Office for Learning and Teaching. Read more.

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