2025 RUN Learning and Teaching Awards

RUN is excited to share our finalists for the 2025 RUN Learning and Teaching Awards. The three minute videos have a focus on Innovative Learning and Teaching practice that responds to and incorporates generative artificial intelligence platforms towards enhancing the student experience and student learning journey.

1st: Dr Anthea Fagan from the University of New England for her initiative “AI-Enhanced Virtual Clinical Placements: Bridging Rural Healthcare Education Gaps”

2nd: AIgniting Classrooms (A/Prof Ritesh Chugh, Dr Fariza Sabrina, Dr Sangeetha Kutty, Dr Md Mamunur Rashid, Dr Ahsan Morshed, Dr Salahuddin Azad, Dr Darren Turnbull, Dr Shahriar Kaisar and Dr Sudha Subramani) from CQUniversity for their initiative “The AI-Powered Pedagogy Toolkit: Enhancing ICT learning and teaching”

3rd: Dr Derek Long from the University of Southern Queensland for his initiative “Redefining programming education for agricultural students using Generative AI”

Charles Sturt University

NAME: Job Fransen
TITLE: Artificial intelligence as an adversarial collaborator to engage students in critical reflection
ABSTRACT: I used AI to promote adaptive thinking in a second-year Bachelor of Sport and Exercise Science subject. In an era of rapid societal change driven by generative AI, equipping students with these skills is crucial.
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NAME: Joshua Kelson and Danielle Sulikowski
TITLE: The Use of Virtual Client Simulations in Psychology Learning and Teaching
ABSTRACT: University assessment faces key challenges. Students demand accessible and engaging experiences, and authentic assessment that ensures career-readiness. Educators must also safeguard their assessment from the threats of generative AI.
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NAME: Kristen Andrews
TITLE: Rehab meets AI: A new era of learning and assessment in Physiotherapy
ABSTRACT: Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI) is rapidly transforming education and healthcare, including physiotherapy practice. The Australian Alliance for Artificial Intelligence in Healthcare has released a national plan for the safe and ethical use of AI in healthcare which identifies 5 key opportunities for AI in healthcare.
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CQUniversity

NAME: GenAI – Mx Caitlin Schiavone, Prof Stephen Colbran, Dr Meena Jha
TITLE: Ask. Learn. Succeed. Meet Jordan, an Omnipresent AI for CQU Student
ABSTRACT: When student support ends at 5:00pm, learning shouldn’t. Jordan is CQUniversity’s always-on, discipline-specific generative-AI companion that turns afterhours roadblocks into progress while safeguarding academic integrity.
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NAME: AIgniting Classrooms – A/Prof Ritesh Chugh, Dr Fariza Sabrina, Dr Sangeetha Kutty, Dr Md Mamunur Rashid, Dr Ahsan Morshed, Dr Salahuddin Azad, Dr Darren Turnbull, Dr Shahriar Kaisar and Dr Sudha Subramani
TITLE: The AI-Powered Pedagogy Toolkit: Enhancing ICT learning and teaching
ABSTRACT: The rapid rise of Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI) has created both opportunities and challenges for higher education.
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NAME: SET GenAI Podcast team – Dr Shah Neyamat Ullah, A/Prof. Benjamin Taylor, A/Prof Aruna Jayasuriya, Dr Diluka Moratuwage, Dr Lasi Piyathilaka, Dr Kianoush Emami and Neil Lowry
TITLE: GenAI audio podcasts: delivering educational content creatively
ABSTRACT: Artificial Intelligence (AI) is transforming the way students learn, offering new opportunities for equity, accessibility, and creativity in higher education.
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Southern Cross University

NAME: Faculty of Health: Kellie Toohey, Fiona Naumann, Kate Baltrotsky, Liz Reimer, Luke Del Vecchio, Joanne Bradbury, Karlah Norkunas
TITLE: Practical Pathways to GenAI Literacy for Regional Universities
ABSTRACT: This presentation follows the journey of early adopters of GenAI in three units in the Faculty of Health with the Southern Cross Model. There were numerous creative initiatives taken to fit GenAI into learning activities.
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NAME: Dr Zachery Quince
TITLE: “Levelling Up Feedback with GenAI and Multimodal Integration” an approach to inclusive and equity-focused online learning designed with regional and diverse student cohorts in mind.
ABSTRACT: Rooted in the principles of Universal Design for Learning, this framework reimagines academic feedback as a personalised, strengths-based, multimodal experience that addresses the unique challenges of regional, rural, and remote learners, as well as those from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds.
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University of New England

NAME: Dr Anthea Fagan
TITLE:AI-Enhanced Virtual Clinical Placements: Bridging Rural Healthcare Education Gaps
ABSTRACT: This initiative demonstrates innovative integration of generative AI platforms to transform nursing education at UNE, specifically addressing challenges faced by regional and rural healthcare delivery. Our AI-powered virtual clinical placement platform serves both undergraduate and postgraduate nursing students, creating adaptive, personalised learning experiences that reflect authentic rural healthcare scenarios.
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NAME: Mitchell Smidt
TITLE: Fostering Connection and Enhancing the Student Journey with the UNE Belong AI Ecosystem
ABSTRACT: The University of New England (UNE) is addressing the critical challenge of student disengagement between offer and enrolment, particularly among regional and equity cohorts, through the innovative UNE Belong project. This initiative incorporates a suite of generative AI-powered agents to provide personalised, 24/7 support, transforming the student journey from their first point of contact.
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NAME: Dr Lucie Newsome
TITLE: Personalised learning through H5P workbooks, tutor bots and meaningful assessment
ABSTRACT:To accommodate a diverse student cohort with multiple competing demands, I adopt a learner-centred, personalised approach that is supported by digital technologies such as interactive H5P workbooks, tutor bots and meaningful assessment and feedback. The H5P workbooks that I have developed include short videos, folding text blocks and multiple-choice and fill-in-the-gap quizzes.
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University of Southern Queensland

NAME: Dr Derek Long
TITLE: Redefining programming education for agricultural students using Generative AI
ABSTRACT: Within UniSQ’s AgTech degree, students have software-based courses looking at sensors, instrumentation, and smart data farming, and Generative AI (GenAI) has allowed us to reimagine programming education for these students.
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NAME:Dr Dianne Stratton-Maher
TITLE: Crisis to Innovation Learning WITH AI, Not FROM AI: Transforming Higher Education
ABSTRACT: The rapid emergence of AI in higher education created an academic integrity crisis but also presented an opportunity for innovation. Across two first-year nursing cohorts, totalling around 420 students, substantiated AI-related breaches dropped from 82 cases before structured AI integration to 8 afterwards. That’s a 90% reduction.
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University of the Sunshine Coast

NAME: Dr Ann Parkinson, Dr Nicole Reinke & Dr Georgia Kafer
TITLE: Empowering regional university physiology students: rewarding academic integrity when using GenAI
ABSTRACT: Attrition is disproportionally higher in regional universities and academic misconduct can heighten risk of attrition. Academic integrity education is increasingly critical with the rise of Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI) tools.
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NAME: Dr Bianka Sabert
TITLE: AI Powered Networking Practice for the Regions
ABSTRACT: The learning and teaching initiative addresses inequities in graduate employability by introducing an AI-powered networking simulation into a career planning course. Data from the National Graduate Outcomes Survey highlights the employment gap between students from high and low socio-economic backgrounds, particularly in regional areas.
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NAME: Dr Katrina Andrews, Dr Amy Clarke, and Mr Daniel Eaton
TITLE:Human-Centred Innovation in Counsellor Education: AI Podcasts and Avatars in Regional Practice
ABSTRACT: In regional counselling education, where relational authenticity is central and resources are constrained, integrating generative AI presents both promise and paradox. Dr Katrina Andrews, alongside Dr Amy Clarke and Mr Daniel Eaton, led two innovative L&T projects aimed at enhancing student learning while preserving the human essence of the discipline.
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