The Student-Led Teaching Awards (SLTAs) provide an opportunity for students to recognise our wonderful educators at Flinders University and celebrate what makes them great! This student-run award celebrates the best student learning experiences across the University and the staff that make it possible.
What makes this award special is that students are in charge! We decide the categories, nominate staff we think deserve to be recognised and decide who gets the top prizes.
Submit a nomination for any staff you think should be recognised!
Semester 1 nominations
Open: Monday, 3 June 2024
Close: Monday, 22 July 2024
Semester 2 nominations (open in October)
Read below for details on the categories and how to submit a nomination.
The winning staff member in each category will receive a $200 gift voucher. The student who submitted the winning nomination in each category will receive a $50 gift voucher.
Winners will be decided by a student panel in November.
Category 1: College Student-Led Teaching Award + the University Ducks
1 per College (Total of 6) open to all teaching staff. The best overall is awarded the ‘University Ducks’.
This award is given to educators who provide an outstanding student experience.
Nominations should try to identify outstanding activity on the part of the teaching staff. Nominators might like to discuss some or all of the following:
- engaging, challenging and accessible course content / delivery
- offering guidance, inspiration, and support to students
- connection of course content to student progression and achievement
- effective use of online learning environment and community building
- engaging, challenging, innovative assessment and effective feedback
- course content and delivery reflects professional and industry connections and ‘real world’ experience.
- connection of course delivery or course content to shared community values (i.e. the values expressed in the Reconciliation Action Plan)
The best of the six college winners will receive the University Ducks Award (like Dux… it’s a terrible pun but an excellent bronze duck statue).
Category 2: Teaching Assistant (TA) that Saved the Day
This is a whole of University award to recognise the special role of teaching assistants, tutors, demonstrators, supervised study leaders, etc. in creating the student learning environment and to acknowledge exceptional work in offering guidance and support to students which teaching assistants do. It is no exaggeration to say that these staff often make the difference between engaging with studies or not; with dropping out or not.
Nominations should focus on the following elements of the student learning experience:
- guidance and support
- approachability and communication
- assessment and feedback
- the learning and teaching processes involving teaching assistants
Other elements the staff member contributed can also be highlighted.
Category 3: Most Supportive Supervisor
A University-wide award for staff supervising a dissertation (Bachelor’s thesis, Honours, Masters or PhD level) or research project. A way to celebrate supervisors who provided exceptional guidance and support, helped student progression and achievement and brought students into the community of scholars in a meaningful way.
Undertaking a research project is an intense experience. There are no short cuts on a research project – but there are plenty of rough patches, detours, and blockages. A supportive supervisor can really see you through. But more than that, a supportive supervisor is the one who introduces you to the academy and welcomes you into the community of scholars.
This award is a shout out to them and everything they do. Supervision requires a special set of skills and it happens across course levels: HDR, Postgraduate Coursework, Honours, and Bachelors. We want to celebrate all the supervisors who have made a difference.
Category 4: Innovation in Digital Teaching
This award recognises staff members who have shown exceptional skills in utilising digital platforms for teaching, engaging students as active participants in their learning, and creating online spaces for student-staff interactions. These individuals demonstrate innovative approaches to online teaching and have made a significant impact on student engagement and collaboration. Their efforts have contributed to a more interactive and inclusive learning environment.
This is an opportunity to give a big shout-out to those staff members who have gone above and beyond in using digital platforms to deliver their teaching. They have truly mastered the art of online teaching and have made their classes come alive in the virtual world.
Not only that, but they have also found clever ways to engage students and get them actively involved in their own learning. They’ve turned boring lectures into interactive sessions where students can participate, ask questions, and share their thoughts.
These fantastic staff members have also created online spaces where students and staff can come together. Whether it’s through discussion boards, chat groups, or virtual office hours, they’ve made sure that students have a place to collaborate, share ideas, and seek guidance.
Category 5: Outstanding Wellbeing and Student Support
The Wellbeing and Student Support Award celebrates academic staff members who prioritise and promote student wellbeing. This award acknowledges the exceptional efforts of educators who go beyond their role to support the mental, emotional, and physical health of their students. The Wellbeing and Student Support Award recognises that student success best occurs in contexts that foster their individual and collective wellbeing.
Promoting wellbeing includes care at an individual level but goes beyond that to include intentional action by educators that helps students discover, develop and embrace their professional, personal, and cultural identities, and access the resources they need to flourish. These people are so important in our lives so here’s an opportunity to say thank you!
Nominations should try to identify efforts made by teaching staff such as regular check-ins with students, appropriate signposting, supporting students during assessment, creating inclusive, accessible, connected and collaborative learning environments, and promotion of positive mental and physical health practices.
previous winners
Click on the links below to find out previous winner of the SLTAs
2023 Student-Led Teaching Awards
