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Co-creating the Future: Connection and Collaboration in Higher Education
Co-creating the Future: Connection and Collaboration in Higher Education
In an era of rapid change, higher education faces the challenge of reimagining how we teach, learn, and connect. The 2026 Western Australian Teaching and Learning Forum will explore how collaboration, innovation, and shared responsibility can shape the future of education.
Across six thematic streams, we’ll spotlight ways to embed wellbeing, Indigenous knowledges, sustainability, assessment innovation, educational technology, and cultural change into our practices. Together, these streams invite us to design a future where staff and students thrive through genuine connection, collaboration, and transformative learning experiences.
Thriving Together
Thriving Together
Explores the role of wellbeing in learning design and community building.
Addressing the central role of wellbeing in learning design, this stream explores strategies for building collaborative and supportive educational communities. We’ll consider initiatives that promote resilience, mental health, and meaningful connection, enabling both students and educators to thrive.
Example topics: Cross-cohort mentoring between undergraduates, postgraduates, and alumni, curriculum-based wellbeing initiatives, and community-building activities that extend beyond the classroom.
Indigenous Knowledges and Ways of Learning
Indigenous Knowledges and Ways of Learning
Honours Indigenous knowledges and community-led approaches to learning.
This stream highlights the importance of embedding Indigenous perspectives and ways of knowing in higher education. It calls for relational, place-based, and community-led approaches that foster deeper connection, sustainability, and cultural understanding.
Example topics: Land-based learning, co-designed curricula with Elders and Knowledge Holders, learning spaces designed with Country in mind, indigenous-led teaching and research: shifting power in higher education, case studies of successful integration of Indigenous epistemologies in STEM, humanities, or health disciplines, and intercultural collaboration in the classroom.
Reimagining Assessment
Reimagining Assessment
Innovates inclusive, authentic, and real-world assessment approaches.
This stream invites bold approaches to assessment that move beyond traditional measures of success. We’ll explore inclusive, authentic, and collaborative designs that reflect real-world skills and celebrate diverse learner strengths.
Example topics: Student-led assessment criteria co-creation, storytelling and narrative-based assessment for diverse disciplines, portfolio-based evaluations, industry partnerships, and AI-enhanced feedback models.
Supporting Students Through Educational Technology
Supporting Students Through Educational Technology
Investigates equitable, inclusive, and innovative uses of technology in learning.
Technology offers both opportunities and challenges for student learning. This stream considers how we can equitably integrate educational technologies—particularly AI—to enhance inclusion, access, and innovation while recognising diverse pathways to success.
Example topics: AI-enabled tutoring, hybrid learning models, digital equity strategies, and universal design approaches.
Transdiciplinary Sustainability
Transdiciplinary Sustainability
Explores sustainability in curricula through cross-disciplinary collaboration.
Sustainability is an urgent, shared responsibility. This stream encourages transdisciplinary approaches to embedding ecological literacy and sustainable practices into curricula, research, and teaching. It invites collaborations that cut across disciplinary boundaries to cultivate a culture of conscious education.
Example topics: Climate-responsive pedagogy, interdisciplinary sustainability projects, cross-institutional “living lab” projects that unite students, industry, and community, and green campus initiatives linked to teaching.
Cultural Change
Cultural Change
Examines how we can embed inclusive and adaptive cultures in higher education.
Lasting change requires cultural shifts. This stream focuses on empowering staff, students, and institutions to foster inclusive, adaptive, and future-focused cultures of learning. It invites reflection on how we can reshape policies, practices, and mindsets to create more equitable higher education environments.
Example topics: institutional change strategies, student-led initiatives, inclusive policy design, ethical leadership models for higher education, courageous conversations training for staff and student, and cross-sector collaborations.
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