2025 Learning and Teaching Conference
Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health Sciences
Monday 27th and Tuesday 28th October 2025
About the Conference
Learning Together, Teaching Together is the theme for our 2025 MDHS Learning and Teaching Conference.
This theme is all about exploring, celebrating and promoting rich opportunities for connections and ideas that advance learning and teaching.
Our program reflects that these rich connections involve communities, students, and academic and professional staff, and can span disciplines, professions, faculties, regions and countries.
Our conference begins with a paired keynote from two international leaders in the scholarship of teaching and learning, Professor Denise Stockley and Assistant Professor Melanie (Mel) Hamilton. Denise and Mel will illuminate connections and mechanisms they have developed and scaled to other places, to advance the scholarship of teaching and teaching.
Then the tricky part begins – navigating your way across an excitingly rich and diverse program. “Oh, the places you’ll go!”
Our Day 1 program includes streams on learning in communities, lived experience, student experience, wellbeing, simulation, assessment, inclusive education and more. Hopefully you’ll embrace the challenge to attend a session focussing on a less familiar topic.
On Day 2, we are thrilled to join our colleagues in the Faculty of Arts for a special shared day. We will hear how the MDHS-Arts New Horizons Fellows, Dr Sonia Shaikh and Dr Nicola Redhouse are creating new opportunities for learning together, teaching together (and researching together). We will then engage with a panel of Arts and MDHS students about learning with students for enhancing educational practices and directions. And across the day, we have unique opportunities for brainstorming, showcasing and challenging ideas across the disciplines.
A big thank you to Tim Beaumont, Dr Abi Brooker and the organising committee members for all the hard work on the program. I’m looking forward to joining you there.
Best wishes,
Liz
Professor Elizabeth Molloy,
Deputy Dean Education, Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health Sciences.
27 October – 28 October 2025, The University of Melbourne, Parkville Campus
Contacts: Tim Beaumont | timothy.beaumont@unimelb.edu.au Dr Abi Brooker | brookera@unimelb.edu.au
Learning Together, Teaching Together
Plenary sessions
| 9.00 – 9.30 | Conference registration The Forum, Melbourne Connect (The Superfloor, 700 Swanston St, Carlton) | |||
| 9.30 – 9.40 | Welcome Professor Mike McGuckin, Dean, Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health Sciences and Professor Elizabeth Molloy, Deputy Dean Education, Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health SciencesThe Forum, Melbourne Connect (The Superfloor, 700 Swanston St, Carlton) | |||
| 9.40 – 10.40 | Keynote: Illuminating journeys: Navigating pathways in the scholarship of teaching and learning Chair: Dr Justin Bilszta, Senior Lecturer in Medical Education. Dept of Medical Education, The University of Melbourne. (Full speaker details) The Forum, Melbourne Connect (The Superfloor, 700 Swanston St, Carlton) Learn together with two international leaders in the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL), Professor Denise Stockley and Assistant Professor Melanie (Mel) Hamilton. In this special paired keynote, Denise and Mel will shine light on selected moments from their journeys in SoTL. These are journeys which began in their respective disciplines of educational psychology and nursing and have since expanded to include interdisciplinary collaborations, development of a master's and PhD program in SoTL, development of a national centre for SoTL, leadership of national and international societies for SoTL. A guiding passion of Denise and Mel has been that of deprivatising and demystifying the scholarship of teaching and learning. Denise and Mel will illuminate some of the many ways they have elevated and supported SoTL as a central priority for university educators, researchers, students, leaders and the communities with whom they engage. Denise and Mel’s good friend, Dr Justin Bilszta, Senior Lecturer in the Department of Medical Education, will then join the discussion and extend conversation about how we can best support engagement in SoTL to inform impacts from the most proximate and personal to those that cross disciplines, institutions and nations. | |||
| 10.40 – 11.00 | Morning tea The Lab and Launch Pad, Melbourne Connect | |||
Concurrent sessions: morning
Lived experience co-design | Student experience and person-centred care | Learning in communities | Innovative learning and assessment | Interprofessional education and feedback workshops | Simulation | |
11.00 – 11.20 | Workshop | Learning together: Discover how a creative workshop is transforming person-centred care for students | Learning together in place: Rural healthcare's collaborative advantage | Incorporating student voice into the creation of AI-driven virtual patients | Workshop | The great escape: The future of healthcare – digital health escape room simulations |
11.20 –11.40 | Session continues | Trauma informed clinical practice skill discovery | Generative AI can explain a synapse - can it replace one? Choosing between deep learning and shallow learning | Interprofessional education initiatives to teach advocacy in health professions programs: a narrative review | Session continues Workshop | Exploring the XR enhanced OSCE: Live demonstration |
11.40 – 12.00 | Session continues | Amplifying awareness: A pilot of audiology students teaching oral health students about hearing loss | Structured interdisciplinary clinical placements abroad: reflections on healthcare education | Integrated learning: co-teaching clinical skills in speech pathology | Session continues | Bringing audiology students together to learn as near-peers in online patient simulations |
Concurrent sessions: afternoon
Transforming performance anxiety into clinical excellence | Lightning talks and near peer learning | Wellbeing | Inclusive education and assessment | Student experience; lived experience | Simulation | |
12.00 – 12.20 | Workshop | Lightning talks | Implementing a new authentic group assessment to foster peer connection and collaborative learning | Embedding viva voce into ePortfolio assessment to foster authentic and inclusive assessment design | QILT unpacked: What contributes to first year students’ overall experience? | AI-powered patient simulation: advancing education in the digital era |
12.20 – 12.40 | Session continues | Workshop | Insights from a rural interprofessional learning experience-discussing mental health in older adults | DASH: The creation of a bespoke assessment platform at the Melbourne Dental School | Conversations that matter: Learning and teaching with lived experience | Introducing the Validitron Clinical Simulation Lab for digital health: Interactive tour and demonstration |
12.40 – 1.00 | Session continues | Workshop | Building solid ground: A framework for postgraduate mental health and wellbeing | Redefining inherent requirements: a cornerstone for inclusive health professional education | Learning together to address weight stigma: a global classroom initiative in physiotherapy education |
Lunch |
27 October – 28 October 2025, The University of Melbourne, Parkville Campus
Contacts: Tim Beaumont | timothy.beaumont@unimelb.edu.au Dr Abi Brooker | brookera@unimelb.edu.au
Learning Together, Teaching Together
Plenary sessions
| 9.00 – 9.30 | Conference registration | |||
| 9.30 – 9.45 | Welcome | |||
| 9.45 – 10.30 | Keynote: Care and attention: Reflections from the New Horizons Fellows | |||
| 10.30 – 11.00 | Student panel: Learning together: The value of engaging with students for educational practice and direction | |||
| 11.00 – 11.30 | Morning tea | |||
Concurrent sessions: morning
Pedagogy | Diversity, equity, inclusion | AI & assessment | Wellbeing, WiL, employability | |
11.30 – 11.45 | Roundtable | Roundtable | Presentation
| Presentation |
11.45 – 12.00 | Session continues | Session continues | Presentation
| Presentation |
12.00 – 12.15 | Session continues | Session continues | Presentation | Presentation |
12.15 – 12.30 | Session continues | Session continues | Session continues | Session continues |
12.30 – 12.45 | Workshop
| Workshop
| Workshop | Presentation |
12.45 – 1.00 | Session continues | Session continues | Session continues | Presentation |
1.00 – 1.15 | Presentation | Lightning Talk | Presentation |
Lunch |
Concurrent sessions: afternoon
Pedagogy
| Diversity, equity, inclusion
| AI & assessment | Wellbeing, WiL, employability | |
2.30 – 2.45 | Presentation | Roundtable | Roundtable
| Roundtable |
2.45 – 3.00 | Valuing pedagogies of the popular - A dancers approach to teaching cultural studies | Session continues | Session continues | Session continues |
3.00 – 3.15 | "You can’t be a hegemon and isolationist “: Students’ reflections on the decline of the US hegemony and the future of the international order
| Session continues | Session continues | Session continues |
3.15 – 3.30 | Session continues | Session continues | Session continues | Session continues |
3.30 – 3.45 | Roundtable
| Roundtable | Roundtable | Lightning Talk |
3.45 – 4.00 | Session continues | Session continues | Session continues | Lightning Talk |
4.00 – 4.30 | Session continues | Session continues | Session continues |
27 October – 28 October 2025, The University of Melbourne, Parkville Campus
Contacts: Tim Beaumont | timothy.beaumont@unimelb.edu.au Dr Abi Brooker | brookera@unimelb.edu.au
Monday 27th October 2025, The University of Melbourne, Parkville Campus
Registrations for Day 1 may fill. In the event you would like to join a wait list, contact Tim Beaumont.
Tuesday 28th October 2025, The University of Melbourne, Parkville Campus
Registrations for Day 2 may fill. In the event you would like to join a wait list, contact Tim Beaumont.
27 October – 28 October 2025, The University of Melbourne, Parkville Campus
Contacts: Tim Beaumont | timothy.beaumont@unimelb.edu.au Dr Abi Brooker | brookera@unimelb.edu.au
Illuminating Journeys: Navigating Pathways in the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning
Guest Speakers
Assistant Professor Melanie Hamilton
Director, The Jane and Ron Gramham Centre for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning, Associate Faculty member of the College of Graduate and Post-Graduate Studies at the University of Saskatchewan, Canada
Dr. Melanie Hamilton is the Director of the Jane and Ron Gramham Centre for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) and an Assistant Professor in Curriculum Studies at the University of Saskatchewan. She is a Registered Nurse (RN) by disciplinary background and spent over 20 years teaching in Bachelor of Nursing programs in Alberta. Dr. Hamilton has an expertise on curriculum development, revision, and renewal. Currently, Dr. Hamilton serves at the Director of the SoTL Centre, where she oversees graduate programming (Grad certificate, MSOTL, and PhD in Education-SoTL focus). Her teaching focuses on the history of SoTL, the SoTL research processes, and research lenses (epistemologies and ontologies]. She works closely with students and faculty to develop and engage in SoTL research. She also studies mid-career faculty, to explore the experiences of MCF, retention strategies, professional development, and tenure and promotion.
Dr. Hamilton is actively engaged in SoTL research at the national and international levels. She has been an invited keynote speaker and presenter on numerous SoTL topics internationally. Dr. Hamilton holds significant leadership roles including the current Past-President for the International Society of Teaching and Learning (ISSoTL) and Past-Chair of SoTL Canada and the membership on the Board of Directors for the Society of Teaching and Learning in Higher Education (STLHE). Her commitment to teaching and leadership has earned her both institutional and provincial awards. In 2020, she was honored with an ISSOTL Fellowship for her outstanding work in supporting, developing, and engaging in SoTL initiatives at the international level.
Professor Denise Stockley
Scholar in Higher Education, Queen’s University, Canada
Dr. Denise Stockley is an Educational Psychologist and Professor and Scholar in Higher Education at Queen’s University. Her work advances the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) through research, leadership, and educational innovation. A past president of the Society for Teaching and Learning in Higher Education (STLHE), she has played a key role in shaping national and international conversations about how educators create and sustain scholarly approaches to teaching.
Her research explores how SoTL cultures develop within and across institutions, with a focus on faculty engagement, leadership, curriculum renewal, and research ethics education. She examines how ethical inquiry and scholarly practice intersect to support integrity and reflection in teaching and learning.
At Queen’s University, Dr. Stockley leads initiatives that connect SoTL with program design, faculty development, and policy innovation. Her work also extends to health professions education, where she integrates SoTL principles with competency-based education, interprofessional learning, and universal design for learning.
Event Chair: Dr Justin Bilszta
Senior Lecturer in Medical Education. Dept of Medical Education, The University of Melbourne
Justin is the Director of Postgraduate and Custom Programs in the Department of Medical Education and Co-Chair of the Melbourne Medical School’s Graduate Education Committee. For over 20 years, Justin has been involved in the design, delivery and co-ordination of a range of academic programs including within the Doctor of Medicine (MD), Masters of Clinical Education, Masters of Clinical Research and Bachelor of Medical Science (Hons). Prior to joining the Dept of Medical Education, he spent 10 years as a Research Fellow with the Department of Psychiatry, University of Melbourne.
27 October – 28 October 2025, The University of Melbourne, Parkville Campus
Contacts: Tim Beaumont | timothy.beaumont@unimelb.edu.au Dr Abi Brooker | brookera@unimelb.edu.au