Ishpal Sandhu | Senior Learning and Teaching Specialist, RMIT University

In this video, Ishpal Sandhu discusses his role as Senior Learning and Teaching Specialist at RMIT University in promoting innovation in teaching, learning and assessment, and his background in helping educators integrate technology and pedagogy for a 21st-century world.

Ishpal looks at how teaching and learning has evolved since the pandemic, and how universities are supporting staff and students to succeed through changing modes of delivery and empowering educators in digital adoption. He identifies mobile responsiveness and accessibility as a non-negotiable for higher education, and touches on RMIT’s accessibility action plan to reinforce a culture of inclusion and diversity for staff and students.

Ishpal advocates for building a community of practice around remote learning’s front line ‘heroes’, together with learning and teaching experts towards long-term assessment innovation. He also calls for a greater focus on task-oriented assessment and measuring competence in authentic assessment, perceiving this as key to students’ employability.

Acknowledging the importance of learning analytics, Ishpal draws from his research on data-driven recommendations for learning design that avoid a purely didactic environment, in favour of students forming knowledge of the topic via a process of inquiry with the educator as facilitator, to scaffold their learning.

Finally, Ishpal speculates on the future of emerging technology such as simulation-based learning, to create a more authentic experience for students. Further still, its potential to reduce our reliance on a one-size-fits-all strategy, with students personalising their own learning journey guided by educator input.