Overview
Background
Since returning to academia from industry in 1998, Professor Lydia Kavanagh has become a leader in engineering education and has used her background as a professional engineer to design both curricula and courses for active learning by combining real-world projects and specialist knowledge. She has had a significant impact on the delivery of UQ’s undergraduate engineering program through creative new teaching pedagogies including the Flipped Classroom, innovative authentic approaches to assessment, and the introduction of multi-disciplinary courses. As Director of First Year Engineering for almost a decade, Lydia was responsible for a significant program of extra-curricular transition support for first year students and she co-coordinated two compulsory courses that delivered what could arguably be the world's largest flipped classroom for 600 students. Recently, she has set up a Leadership and Mentoring Program for all EAIT faculty students (undergraduate and postgraduates), and continued this into a Leaders@EAIT, an ongoing academy for these students to continue to develop leadership competencies.
Lydia is now the Deputy Associate Dean Academic (Curriculum Review and Teaching Innovation) for the Faculty of Science where she has overseen a faculty-wide overview of curriculum resulting in streamlined undergraduate and postgraduate offerings. She holds a concurrent fractional position with the Institute of Teaching and Learning Innovations, where she has developed frameworks and systems for UQ shorter form credentials.
Lydia is also heavily involved institutionally with training and mentoring academics and professional staff with teaching responsibilities through the development and implementation of the Graduate Teaching Assistant program (for PhD scholars and postdocs), Teaching@UQ (for staff new to teaching), and TeachingPlus@UQ (for emerging leaders in Teaching and Learning).
Lydia’s work was recognised with a Principal Fellowship of the HEA, an ALTC Excellence in teaching award in 2011 and she has lead and participated in Carrick/ ALTC/ OLT projects on teamwork, online learning, curriculum innovation (2x), preparing students for first year engineering, and Flipped Classrooms.
Availability
- Professor Lydia Kavanagh is:
- Available for supervision
- Media expert
Fields of research
Qualifications
- Bachelor of Engineering, The University of Queensland
- Masters (Coursework) of Engineering, University of New South Wales
- Doctor of Philosophy, The University of Queensland
- Postgraduate Diploma in Education, The University of Queensland
Research interests
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Higher education
o STEM practices in higher education o Curriculum development including learning pathways o eLearning: delivery, assessment, engagement, innovation o Flipping the classroom including ownership of learning o Supporting international students o Developing leadership competencies in students o Investigating student team work and mentoring o Fostering interdisciplinarity
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Professional Development
o Dissemination of best practice teaching and learning o Mentoring o Training the next generation of educators o Fostering leadership in teaching and learning
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Unbundling degree programs
o Shorter form credentials o MOOCs o Badges
Research impacts
Lydia has delivered Flipped Classroom workshops across discipline and to both national and international institutions. The workshops have helped take the mystery out of flipping the classroom and have given academics a framework for developing their own flipped classroom. Her book, 'The Flipped Classroom: Practice and Practices' has been downloaded more than 55,000 times.
Much of her work in developing online tools (e.g Teamwork in Action - a module providing team training and resources, GetSet - a prepatory quiz for first year engineering, WebPAf - an adapted peer assessment tool originating from The University of Loughborough, BrainCloud - a real time crowd response 'wordle') has also been freely disseminated across institution and across discipline.
Works
Search Professor Lydia Kavanagh’s works on UQ eSpace
Featured
2014
Book Chapter
Simulating work: can simulators help develop a workforce?
Kavanagh, Lydia, Jolly, Lesley, O'Moore, Liza and Tibbits, Gregory (2014). Simulating work: can simulators help develop a workforce?. Workforce Development: Perspectives and Issues. (pp. 283-299) edited by Roger Harris and Tom Short. New York, United States: Springer. doi: 10.1007/978-981-4560-58-0_16
Featured
2014
Conference Publication
Flipping the classroom at scale to achieve integration of theory and practice in a first year engineering design and build course
Reidsema, Carl A., Kavanagh, Lydia and Jolly, Lesley (2014). Flipping the classroom at scale to achieve integration of theory and practice in a first year engineering design and build course. 121st ASEE Annual Conference and Exposition: 360 Degrees of Engineering Education, Indianapolis, IN United States, 15-18 June 2014. Washigton, DC United States: American Society for Engineering Education. doi: 10.18260/1-2--20509
Featured
2014
Journal Article
Technology supported facilitation and assessment of small group collaborative inquiry learning in large first-year classes
Lawrie, Gwendolyn A., Gahan, Lawrence R., Matthews, Kelly E., Weaver, Gabriela C., Bailey, Chantel, Adams, Peter, Kavanagh, Lydia, Long, Phillip D. and Taylor, Matthew (2014). Technology supported facilitation and assessment of small group collaborative inquiry learning in large first-year classes. Journal of Learning Design, 7 (2), 120-135. doi: 10.5204/jld.v7i2.204
Featured
2013
Conference Publication
Identification of issues faced by international students in first year project-based engineering classes
Chen, Shaun and Kavanagh, Lydia (2013). Identification of issues faced by international students in first year project-based engineering classes. AAEE 2013: 24th Annual Conference of the Australasian Association for Engineering Education, Gold Coast, QLD, Australia, 8-11 December, 2013. Nathan, QLD, Australia: Griffith School of Engineering, Griffith University.
Featured
2012
Conference Publication
The Teaching and Learning Development Program: an opportunity to excel?
Kavanagh, Lydia, O'Moore, Liza, Papinczak, Tracey, Reidsema, Carl and Crosthwaite, Caroline (2012). The Teaching and Learning Development Program: an opportunity to excel?. 23rd Annual Conference of the Australasian Association of Engineering Education (AAEE 2012), Melbourne, Australia, 3 - 5 December 2012. Melbourne, Australia: Swinburne University of Technology.
Featured
2012
Conference Publication
Mad as hell and not taking it any more?: job satisfaction amongst engineering educators in Australian universities
Kavanagh, Lydia, O'Moore, Liza and Jolly, Lesley (2012). Mad as hell and not taking it any more?: job satisfaction amongst engineering educators in Australian universities. 23rd Annual Conference of the Australasian Association of Engineering Education (AAEE 2012), Melbourne, Australia, 3 - 5 December 2012. Melbourne, Australia: Swinburne University of Technology.
2023
Other Outputs
Utilising the classification of assessments
McGrath, Dom, Slade, Christine and Kavanagh, Lydia (2023, 04 01). Utilising the classification of assessments HERDSA Connect Vol 45 No.1 Autumn 2023 25-25.
2022
Other Outputs
Assessment for academic integrity: white paper
Kavanagh, Lydia, Slade, Christine and McGrath, Dom (2022). Assessment for academic integrity: white paper. The University of Queensland.
2022
Conference Publication
Negotiating the classification of assessment tasks
McGrath, Dom, Slade, Christine and Kavanagh, Lydia (2022). Negotiating the classification of assessment tasks. HERDSA Annual Conference 2022, Melbourne, VIC, Australia, 27 - 30 June 2022.
2021
Conference Publication
Inclusion panel discussion: inclusive teaching and learning practices, and the impact of intersectionality
Willox, Dino, Langton, Marcia, Kavanagh, Lydia, Bunda, Tracey, Harpur, Paul, Dianati, Seb and Blanch, Elias (2021). Inclusion panel discussion: inclusive teaching and learning practices, and the impact of intersectionality. Teaching and Learning Week, University of Queensland, November 1-5.
2018
Conference Publication
Factors that influence peer learning in social media enhanced engineering courses
Dokhanchi, Mohsen, Kavanagh, Lydia and Reidsema, Carl (2018). Factors that influence peer learning in social media enhanced engineering courses. 29th Australasian Association for Engineering Education, Hamilton, New Zealand, 9-12 December 2018. The University of Waikato:
2018
Conference Publication
Students as partners: developing a dialogue for change
Fleming, Melanie, Kavanagh, Lydia, Reidsema, Carl, Waris, Ahsin, Lee, Misha, Liu, Siyu and Kara-Manning, Ruben (2018). Students as partners: developing a dialogue for change. 29th Australasian Association for Engineering Education, Hamilton, New Zealand, 9-12 December 2018. The University of Waikato:
2017
Book
The flipped classroom: practice and practices in higher education
Carl Reidsema, Lydia Kavanagh, Roger Hadgraft and Neville Smith eds. (2017). The flipped classroom: practice and practices in higher education. Singapore: Springer Singapore. doi: 10.1007/978-981-10-3413-8
2017
Book Chapter
Technology in the flipped classroom
McGrath, Dominic, Groessler, Anthea, Fink, Esther, Reidsema, Carl and Kavanagh, Lydia (2017). Technology in the flipped classroom. The flipped classroom: practice and practices in higher education. (pp. 37-56) edited by Carl Reidsema, Lydia Kavanagh, Roger Hadgraft and Neville Smith. Singapore: Springer Singapore. doi: 10.1007/978-981-10-3413-8_3
2017
Conference Publication
Analysing the learning pathways of students in a large flipped engineering course
Reidsema, Carl, Kavanagh, Lydia, Fink, Esther M., Khosravi, Hassan, Fleming, Melanie and Achilles, Nicholas (2017). Analysing the learning pathways of students in a large flipped engineering course. ASCILITE2017: 34th International Conference on Innovation, Practice and Research in the Use of Educational Technologies in Tertiary Education., Toowoomba, QLD, Australia, 4 - 6 December 2017. Darling Heights, QLD, Australia: University of Southern Queensland.
2017
Book Chapter
Design considerations
Kavanagh, Lydia, Reidsema, Carl, McCredden, Julie and Smith, Neville (2017). Design considerations. The flipped classroom: practice and practices in higher education. (pp. 15-35) edited by Carl Reidsema, Lydia Kavanagh, Roger Hadgraft and Neville Smith. Singapore: Springer Singapore. doi: 10.1007/978-981-10-3413-8_2
2016
Conference Publication
Exploring the quality and effectiveness of online, focused peer discussions using the MOOCchat tool
Reidsema, Carl A., Kavanagh, Lydia, Ollila, Emmi, Otte, Stephanie and McCredden, Julie E. (2016). Exploring the quality and effectiveness of online, focused peer discussions using the MOOCchat tool. 27th Australasian Association for Engineering Education Conference, Coffs Harbour, NSW, Australia, 4-7 December 2016. Coffs Harbour, NSW, Australia: AAEE.
2016
Conference Publication
Pedagogical differences in engineering education at Taiwanese and Australian universities
Chen, Shaun and Kavanagh, Lydia (2016). Pedagogical differences in engineering education at Taiwanese and Australian universities. 27th Australasian Association for Engineering Education Conference, Coffs Harbour, NSW, Australia, 4-7 December 2016.
2016
Conference Publication
Pedagogical differences in Engineering Education at Taiwanese and Australian universities
Chen, Shaun and Kavanagh, Lydia (2016). Pedagogical differences in Engineering Education at Taiwanese and Australian universities. Australasain Assoication for Engineering Education (AAEE2016), Coffs Harbour, Australia, 4-7 December 2016.
2016
Conference Publication
Teaching induction program evaluation: a research intensive institution perspective
Dearden, Ellen, Duck, Julie M., Matthews, Kelly, Kavanagh, Lydia, Dominic McGrath, Adams, Peter and Simbag, Vilma (2016). Teaching induction program evaluation: a research intensive institution perspective. Higher Education Research and Development Society of Australasia Conference, Fremantle, WA, Australia, 4-7 July, 2016.
Funding
Supervision
Availability
- Professor Lydia Kavanagh is:
- Available for supervision
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Supervision history
Completed supervision
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2023
Doctor Philosophy
Developing and Implementing an Effective Peer Learning Framework in Online Learning Communities
Principal Advisor
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2021
Doctor Philosophy
Maximising the Success of International Students in First Year Engineering
Principal Advisor
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2013
Doctor Philosophy
Simulators derailed: Technology compatibility and social systems
Principal Advisor
Other advisors: Associate Professor Liza O'Moore
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2011
Doctor Philosophy
Realistic Analysis of Socio-Technical Interventions in the Context of Urban Water Management
Principal Advisor
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2010
Doctor Philosophy
Advancing sustainability in tourism destinations with a complex adaptive systems approach based on system dynamics modelling
Principal Advisor
Other advisors: Emeritus Professor David Lockington
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2017
Master Philosophy
Exploring The Development Of Student Ownership Of Learning Within Large Project-Based First-Year Engineering Courses
Associate Advisor
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2015
Doctor Philosophy
Maximising Stakeholders¿ Benefits of Work Integrated Learning Programs: Schools of Chemical Engineering
Associate Advisor
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2008
Doctor Philosophy
Characterising and Removing Dissolved Organic Nitrogen and Colour from Wastewater Containing Melanoidin
Associate Advisor
Other advisors: Professor Paul Lant
Media
Enquiries
Contact Professor Lydia Kavanagh directly for media enquiries about:
- active learning
- competency testing
- eLearning
- Engineering education
- First year engineering
- Flipped classroom
- learning pathway
- Teamwork
- transition to university
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