Digital Teaching, Learning and Assessment

Professor Upasana Singh is the Academic Leader and Associate Professor in Information Systems and Technology at the University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, and an Adjunct Senior Lecturer at the Victorian Institute of Technology, Australia. With a Ph.D. from the University of South Africa and over 15 years of teaching experience, she specializes in IT-related subjects and Educational Technologies. Professor Singh has an extensive publication record, including books, journal articles, and conference papers, contributing significantly to digital teaching, learning, and assessment. As Chair of the digiTAL2K conference, she promotes global collaboration in educational technologies. Her research, particularly during the pandemic, has been instrumental in guiding online learning transitions, with a focus on quality assurance and gender-specific models. She has received numerous accolades for her leadership and contributions to digital education, including the Distinguished Teachers Award and recognition from ASCILITE’s Women in Academic Leadership initiative Professor Sid Nair is currently Executive Dean and Dean Learning, Teaching and Student Experience at the Victorian Institute of Technology (VIT), Australia where he is responsible for the learning, teaching, student experience and quality matters of the Institution. Previous to this appointment at VIT, Sid was the Executive Director of the Tertiary Education Commission (TEC), Mauritius, the apex regulatory body where he was responsible for the formulation and execution of strategies, policies and procedures in the higher education sector in Mauritius. Prior to joining TEC, he was Professor of Higher Education Development at the Centre for Education Futures (CEF), University of Western Australia. His role was to build the capacity of academics in the digital delivery of their teaching. His career path also had him as Interim Director and Quality Advisor (Evaluations and Research) at the Centre for Higher Education Quality (CHEQ) at Monash University, Australia where he headed the evaluation unit at Monash University. In this capacity he restructured the evaluation framework at the university. The approach to evaluations at Monash has been noted in the first round of the Australian Universities Quality Agency (AUQA) audits and is part of the good practice database. His research work lies in the areas of quality in the higher education system, classroom and school environments, and the implementation of improvements from stakeholder feedback. He has extensive lecturing experience in the applied sciences in Canada, Singapore and Australia. He is an international consultant in quality and evaluations in higher education. Susana Gonçalves, PhD in Psychology is a Professor at the Polytechnic of Coimbra. She is a researcher at NIEFI, the Research Unit for Education, Training and Intervention (Escola Superior de Educação de Coimbra) and she teaches Psychology and Intercultural Education and a range of topics in the field of cultural studies. She is a member of Children's Identity and Citizenship in Europe Association, where she has served as Secretary General from September 2007 to September 2019. She has been Director of the Centre for the Study and Advancement of Pedagogy in Higher Education (CINEP) from 2011 until 2021. Her main research interests are Higher Education, multimedia pedagogical resources, citizenship and art in education. Some of her edited books are Pandemic, Disruption and Adjustment in Higher Education (forthcoming, Brill), Pandemic and Remote Teaching in Higher Education (2021, CINEP), Art in Diverse social settings (Emerald, 2021), Art and intercultural dialogue (Sense, 2016), The challenges of diversity and intercultural encounters (2013, Routledge) and Intercultural Policies and Education (2011, Peter Lang). She is also a visual artist and a photographer.