Associate Professor Jacquie McDonald
2010 ALTC Teaching Fellow

Jacquie McDonald is a Senior Lecturer (Learning and Teaching Enhancement) at the University of Southern Queensland. Her research interests include learning and teaching design; flexible learning; communities of practice; interaction and engagement in online learning; gender equity; and academic professional development.

Community, domain, practice: facilitator’s catch-cry for revitalising learning and teaching through communities of practice.

Communities of practice (CoPs) are cited in higher education literature and ALTC applications as a successful way of building and sharing a scholarly approach to enhancing learning and teaching practice. This fellowship builds on the fellow’s CoP leadership role at the University of Southern Queensland, which initiated an institutional model for engaging academic staff in situated professional development. This role was recognised through an ALTC Citation (2009) and USQ CoPs received a 2009 AUQA commendation. Academic CoPs operate differently from institutionalised higher education work groups, and the facilitator’s role differs from the familiar chairperson’s role. An action research approach will identify key aspects of the facilitator’s role and use USQ's multimedia capacity to create digital re-enactments to enable critical analysis of the role. Facilitator capacity-building will also include workshops by an international expert, Dr Milton Cox (Miami University, Ohio), and a facilitator's start-up handbook. Activities will build on existing collaboration with Australian academics implementing CoPs and international CoP expert, Dr Etienne Wenger.

Fellowship Discipline: All disciplines

Institutions: University of Southern Queensland

Fellowship due for completion: Late 2011

Associate Professor Jacquie McDonald
2010 ALTC Teaching Fellow

jacquie [dot] mcdonald [at] usq [dot] edu [dot] au

University of Southern Queensland
Queensland