SaMnet: Science and Mathematics network of Australian university educators OLT Leadership for Excellence in Learning and Teaching Program 2011

Project Leaders A/Prof Manjula Sharma (USYD) A/Prof Will Rifkin (USYD) Ms Stephanie Beames (QUT) Dr Elizabeth Johnson (La Trobe) A/Prof Cristina Varsavsky (Monash) Dr Andrea Crampton (CSU) Helpers A/Prof Marjan Zadnik (Curtin) Mr Matthew Hill Prof Susan Jones (UTas) Dr Vicky Tzioumis Ms Kelly Matthews (UQ) Ms Wakiuru Wohoro A/Prof Simon Pyke (Uade)Dr Alex Yeung

Outline Conceptual: What is SaMnet? Operational: What does SaMnet do? Journey of the projects Journey of the people What next?

Conceptually SoTL 23+7 teams of 4 carry out Action-Learning Projects Leadership Sate forums SKYPEs Organisational change CoP Inquiry labs Media Standards Disciplines

Operationally SoTL 21+8 teams of 4 (?) carry out Action-Learning Projects Leadership Sate forums, SKYPEs Organisational change Letters CoP Inquiry labs Media Standards Disciplines Critical friends Web site Newsletters – celebrations, articles Communication and connections SaMnet Scholars

Operationally Call for proposals – not funded Whole day leadership/SoTL workshops in Feb-Apr hour workshops in May/Aug Networking via conferences & Skypes from June … Writing workshop in July ACSME Whole day leadership/SoTL workshops in Feb-Apr 2013 Distributed leadership meeting with critical friends - closure Networking via conferences - ACSME Case studies initiated in April 2012, concluding in June 2012

Distributed leadership Context (trust) links with priorities Culture (respect) academic freedom and directives Change (recognition) stakeholders and support Relationships (collaboration) ACTIVITY

Journey of the projects High engagement, SoTL & leadership outcomes 5 Projects have clear links with priorities (context), teams are exercising academic freedom (culture), developments include stakeholders from various levels and there is a level of ‘direction, expectation, monitoring, support’ (change), work is collaborative (relationships). 4 Projects have tenuous links with priorities (context), BUT teams are exercising academic freedom to gravitate attention on their work (culture), which is driving change and collaboration …

Journey of the projects Low engagement, no SoTL, no leadership (?) 2 Projects have clear links with priorities (context), teams have not taken ownership, there is support from management but no directive (culture), no change and no collaboration is occurring (relationships). Some engagement, SoTL, leadership 6 Projects have various links with priorities (context), there has been staff movement (culture), various levels of change and collaboration (relationships) are occurring.

Journey of the projects Of the remaining projects … 6 Projects: SaMnet is seen as an opportunity to ‘extend’ current work to include more colleagues as part of leadership or more SoTL (context), there is at least one staff asserting academic freedom (culture). These are gaining buy-in and collaboration from ‘the reluctant’ (relationships) and are being noticed, gaining influence (change). SaMnet is providing the lead or lag time or latch/hook … 7 second round projects

Journey of SaMnetters Learning by observing leaders debate issues relevant to the sector Some actions seem obvious to me but take colleagues outside their comfort zones. I am learning how to work through this process. Feeling part of a community energizes me …. I needed support to start SoTL. A focus on SoTL is resulting in solid defensible evidence … Strategies for careers, role models

Journey of the Steering Committee What is the role of critical friends? What is mentoring (critical friend, AD T&L, AD) and how does it play out? Insider vs outsider Role of the various overlapping CoP, communications … What have the Steering Committee learnt form this project?

What next? Which features do we continue and how? How do we support the champions and helpers? More teams are seeking to join …

Acknowledgements We salute our SaMnet Scholars. SaMnet is funded by ALTC / DEEWR* (*OLT / DIISRTE) We have the support of the ACDS Contacts