About Trisha

Hello! I’m an Academic Developer at the University of Southern Queensland (USQ), Toowoomba, Australia. In this role, I am fortunate that I am able to work with and support my academic colleagues in their teaching, learning, and scholarship. I also collaborate with professionals and third-space roles to support the academic enterprise of the University.

Teaching & Learning

During my 20+ years of experience in higher education both within Australia and internationally, I have taught various discipline areas related to education and the English language, ranging from teaching English as a second language to world-leading scientists to training professors to use English-medium instruction strategies in non-English speaking countries; from teaching undergraduate pre-service teachers about multicultural education to training in-service teachers to teach English as an additional language in postgraduate degrees; from teaching English macro-skills to teaching scholarship in higher education.

The common thread throughout my career in higher education has been providing tailored solutions and learning opportunities to students, academics, and professionals that support their growth and development in their profession. In my current role, my primary teaching focus is on developing academics’ knowledge, skills, and abilities related to teaching and learning in higher education contexts, and supporting their work with learning and teaching grants and awards. In this, I regularly coach, mentor, and guide academics through the scholarship of teaching and learning. I also lead and facilitate communities of practice around learning and teaching grants, social learning, and learning and teaching in higher education contexts. One of the joys of my work currently is the opportunity to orient academics to the learning and teaching environment at USQ through designing, developing, and facilitating the Learning & Teaching Induction, Foundations of Learning and Teaching for Casual Educators, and Collegial Observation of Learning and Teaching programs.

Research

My current research focuses on identifying the core design considerations when developing effective online professional learning and development (PLD) for in-service teachers. I have developed a conceptual framework of design considerations for this, and a publication will be forthcoming. A brief overview of this research follows.

Providing effective online professional learning and development (PLD) for in-service teachers has never been more important than now. The significant shift from in-person to online PLD as the norm, combined with the increasing availability of online PLD, has highlighted the importance of designing effective online PLD. While the components of effective in-person PLD are well established, those for online remain elusive. Using three iterative phases of data collection, this research presents a conceptual framework for effective online PLD developed based on empirical literature and teacher experiences and preferences. The conceptual framework provides a foundation for designing effective online PLD.

The findings from this research will be published in the future, and my plans are to extend this research into the academic development space.