Seminar Series

In this seminar, Dr Olivia Hollingdrake and Dr Andrew Smirnov will discuss their experiences and insights from the Oral Examination process at the School of Public Health. Olivia’s PhD research, conferred in January 2020, used qualitative methods to explore the social networks that support people living with HIV to transition toward self-management. Her research examined the role, characteristics and evolution of social support networks from the perspective of people living with HIV and key support providers in Queensland. To begin, Olivia will present her research as she did for the external examiners on the day of the oral examination. Following this, Olivia and Andrew, her Chair of Examiners, will host an informal discussion, inviting questions from anyone who is interested in what to expect on the day.

Primary Health Tasmania and the Tasmanian Department of Health commissioned a team from The University of Queensland (UQ) to map existing mental health services and programs in Tasmania against the National Mental Health Service Planning Framework (NMHSPF). The NMHSPF is an internationally unprecedented, evidence-based framework providing national average benchmarks for optimal service delivery across the full spectrum of mental health services in Australia. This presentation will describe how the UQ team used their expertise to work collaboratively with stakeholders in Tasmania to conduct a comparative analysis between current service provision and the optimal NMHSPF benchmarks. We will also discuss some of the key findings of this work and how the analyses can be used to identify priority areas for future mental health planning across Tasmania.

The fluoridation of drinking water to prevent dental caries (tooth decay) has widely practised for more than 75 years in the US, and for almost as long in Australia and many other countries. Unlike the rest of Australia, Queensland only mandated widespread water fluoridation a decade ago, and when the mandatory legislation was repealed in 2012, most regional councils ceased water fluoridation. Why is Queensland different, and why is water fluoridation so controversial? Is water fluoridation still effective, or are there better ways to reduce dental health inequalities in our communities? What role can public health experts play?

Your Individual Activity Profile (IAP) is an online dashboard which compiles data on your academic activity. It allows individuals to track their performance across a range of indicators, and in the context of a large cohort at the same level and within the same Faculty or cognate set of Institutes. Your IAP is available as an app on your my.UQ dashboard.

It is expected that individual staff members and appraisers will want to incorporate their IAPs in appraisal and mentoring conversations from 2020.

The P3 leads will demonstrate the use and context of the IAPs, as well as leading a Q&A session.

The lecture remains widely used in university contexts; however, an effective lecture is much more than just a didactic information session. Active learning is a useful pedagogical technique to provide opportunities for learners to think critically about ideas through a range of activities that deepen and challenge students’ understanding. Active learning can be defined as students “doing things and thinking about what they are doing” (Bonwell and Eison, 1991, p.iii), and has been recognised as a useful device in enhancing student learning and performance (Freeman et al., 2014).

This seminar will enable you to actively explore opportunities to incorporate active learning pedagogies into your teaching practice. You can expect to leave with a toolkit of effective pedagogies for encouraging active learning in your classroom (and your tutor’s classrooms) this semester.

In response to the CoronaVirus and associated travel bans, many of our students are unable to attend campus for part of this semester. A significant number of these students will be studying in China where many of our online technologies are inaccessible or slow to access. In this challenging situations we want to ensure all our students feel connected to their teaching teams and peers, and have valuable learning experiences.

This workshop aims to support staff to adapt current on-campus learning activities, to online asynchronous activities using tools which will be accessible for as many students as possible. A selection of cases will be provided giving examples of online alternatives for common teaching activities. Recommendations are drawn from research literature and successful practices at UQ.