Deserved Recognition for Ecoscience Education Program

Australia’s national training program for environmental science digital research infrastructure, ecoEd, has been honoured as a finalist in the inaugural CAUDIT awards.
ecoEd ENAGAGE

Banner image: Dr Chantal Huijbers (middle) at the CAUDIT Awards night representing ecoEd as a finalist together with Gina White (right), CAUDIT President, and Andrew Boag (left), Managing Director of Catalyst, sponsor of the Innovation in Teaching and Learning category. Courtesy of CAUDIT

Australia’s national training program for environmental science digital research infrastructure, ecoEd, has been honoured as a finalist in the inaugural Council of Australasian University Directors of Information Technology (CAUDIT) awards in the category of Innovation in Teaching and Learning.

CAUDIT held its first awards presentation in Wollongong, Wednesday 22 May 2019, to recognise, celebrate and promote the outstanding achievements and innovation of IT staff working in CAUDIT member organisations, and the application of digital capabilities that 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 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.

“Although ecoEd wasn’t selected as the winner in the category, which went to the Student Digital Workspace project by Griffith University, it was a well deserved 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,” said 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.”

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 uplifting the skills of students and their supervisors and providing a uniquely innovative perspective to integrating digital technologies 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.