Australia’s national training program for environmental science digital research infrastructure, ecoEd, has been honoured as a finalist in the inaugural CAUDIT awards in the category of Innovation in Teaching and Learning.
The Council of Australasian University Directors of Information Technology (CAUDIT) is a not-for-profit association of all universities in Australia and New Zealand and some in the Asia Pacific region, as well as a number of major Australian research organisations. The association’s purpose is to support the application of digital capabilities to transform education and research.
This year CAUDIT held its first awards program to recognise, celebrate and promote the outstanding achievements and innovation of IT staff working in CAUDIT member organisations, and the application of digital capabilities which positively transform the experience of students, academics and professional staff.
ecoEd, an innovative training and skills development program for university lecturers, researchers and industry professionals, was selected as a finalist in the category Innovation in Teaching and Learning alongside four other outstanding projects from Curtin University, Deakin University, Griffith University, and University of Wollongong.
Dr Chantal Huijbers, manager of ecoEd, attended the awards night on Wednesday, 22 May in Wollongong and said that despite not walking away with the award being recognised a finalist was a major achievement for a project still in its infancy.
“While ecoEd wasn’t selected as the winner in the category, which went to the Student Digital Workspace project by Griffith University, it was welcome recognition of the work we’ve achieved in bringing Australia’s digital research infrastructures to the EcoScience community and educating and upskilling the next generation of environmental scientists and managers,” says Chantal.
“This is the perfect motivation and ecoEd will continue its work to enhance the integration of digital research infrastructures into undergraduate environmental science education.”
“This is the perfect motivation and ecoEd will continue its work to enhance the integration of digital research infrastructures into undergraduate environmental science education.”
ecoEd provides a range of educational materials in ready-to-use lecture and workshop modules that can be easily adapted by academics and integrated in undergraduate courses. The program is boosting the skills of students and their supervisors and providing a uniquely innovative perspective to integrating digital environmental monitoring systems in teaching and learning practices at Australian universities.
- ecoEd is a partnership between NCRIS capabilities the Atlas of Living Australia (ALA), the Australian Research Data Commons (ARDC), the Biodiversity and Climate Change Virtual Laboratory (BCCVL), ecocloud, the online platform for the ecosystem science community, and the Terrestrial Ecosystem Research Network (TERN), and industry partner the Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics and Sciences (ABARES).
- For more information on ecoEd please visit the website or contact Dr Chantal Huijbers.
- Click here to download lecture and workshop materials for six key ecosystem science topics.
