Educator Advisors in Australian Higher Education: Their Roles, Purpose and Contribution to Learning and Teaching

Abstract

Australian higher education teaching and learning has undergone significant change in the last thirty years, influenced by the rapid evolution of information technologies. To help academics navigate increasingly complex practices, growing numbers of support staff have been employed in academic developer (AD), learning designer (LD) and educational technologist (ET) roles. These specialist roles are referred to collectively in this study as EdAdvisors, a portmanteau of Educator and Advisor. This study advances understanding of EdAdvisor roles, practices, purpose, and the factors influencing their efficacy, using a practice theory and practice architectures lens in a mixed-methods study comprised of a survey and semi-structured interviews with EdAdvisors in 41 Australian higher education institutions. This study found that practitioners in EdAdvisor roles contribute to learning and teaching in alignment with their expertise, with ADs developing the pedagogical knowledge of academics, LDs designing and developing learning resources and activities, and ETs supporting and enabling appropriate education technologies. Examining the practices of all three EdAdvisor roles collectively has supported the development of practice bundles which inform rich new descriptions of these roles. Examination of factors influencing EdAdvisors’ practices identified organisational structures, attitudes toward learning and teaching, tensions between centralised and faculty-based areas of the university, and the divide between academic and professional staff as areas where actions may be taken to enhance EdAdvisor efficacy. The three EdAdvisor roles have rarely been considered together in scholarly research, but this thesis has demonstrated that doing so contributes to greater understanding of these roles, their interconnectedness, contribution to learning and teaching, and the factors which shape their efficacy.