Higher Education Research Group

Office for Learning and Teaching Awards for Teaching Excellence

Awards for Teaching Excellence recognise individual and team teaching achievements, particularly the breadth and depth of contributions to enhancing teaching and learning quality in higher education.

Teaching Excellence Award categories include Early Career (open to staff with no more than seven consecutive years' experience, including tutoring and part-time teaching), five disciplines, Indigenous Education and the 2012 priority area 'Teaching a diverse student body'.


To be eligible to apply for an Office for Learning and Teaching award you must be nominated by the University panel.

The Learning Research and Evaluation team within Deakin Learning Futures will provide assistance at every stage of the awards process including; providing a mentor, peer review of your written statement, proof reading, timely advice regarding milestones and deadlines, final document formatting, upload to OLT and general support to make the process as streamlined as possible.

Following is the information that was provided to the 2012 award nominees, you may find it useful in understanding an award application.

Application requirements

The selection criteria are:

  • Approaches to teaching that influence, motivate and inspire students to learn.
  • Development of curricula and resources that reflect a command of the field.
  • Approaches to assessment and feedback that foster independent learning.
  • Respect and support for the development of students as individuals.
  • Scholarly activities that have influenced and enhanced learning and teaching.

All five criteria are given equal consideration. Nominations will be assessed against the selection criteria and:

  • on the extent to which the claims for excellence are supported by formal and informal evaluation
  • on the extent of creativity, imagination or innovation
  • information contained in student feedback questionnaires, references and selected teaching materials submitted by the nominee.

Your application comprises:

  • nomination form (Awards for Teaching Excellence nomination form). You need to sign this and return it to the Institutional Contact Officer who will arrange endorsement
  • An eight-page statement comprising a 150–200 word synopsis written in the third person, overview and responses to all five selection criteria. While an overview can usefully frame your application, unlike criteria responses it is not assessed and should be kept as brief as possible. Applications should be in 11 point font with margins of 2 cm and will generally have a word count in the region of 5000-5500 words depending on the extent to which tables and illustrations are included.
  • Supporting teaching materials in any two of the following formats: up to ten printed pages of supporting materials, a CD/DVD or showcase website
  • 30 completed Student Feedback questionnaires, coordinated and supervised by the Institutional Contact Officer and using the questionnaire template provided
  • curriculum vitae with a maximum of three A4 pages
  • two supporting references of no more than one page each, one of which must be from your Dean/Divisional/Departmental Head or Head of School
  • a high quality colour head and shoulder photo of 10 cm x 10 cm, 300 dpi resolution, taken against a white background (the Coordinator, Teaching and Learning Initiatives will contact you to arrange this.).

Evidence to support your claim should combine qualitative and quantitative data. Evidence should be put in context wherever possible. For example, when referring to SETU or similar data, include the number of responses and cohort size in the data you report and provide results over a sufficient period to demonstrate sustained achievement and any positive trends.

Solicited and unsolicited student testimonials can be very persuasive when included judiciously but, again, need to be contextualised. Peer recognition of your contribution within and outside Deakin can also help substantiate your claim. This may include adoption of your ideas, professional development and conference invitations and invitations to join teaching and learning committees; awards, grants and fellowships; teaching and learning publications and media coverage.

Careful thought should be given to your choice of referees. A reference from an external expert can substantiate an application. You may find this diagram of evidence sources useful (263 KB).

Your mentor can advise you about the structure of the application, including which criteria you may wish to address, and the type and form of evidence that can be used to support claims.

KEY DATES

Deakin University acknowledges the traditional land owners of present campus sites.

29th August 2012