Teaching Excellence Award
This award recognises teachers renowned for teaching excellence and outstanding skills and who have made a broad and deep contribution to enhancing the quality of learning and teaching. This prestigious faculty award acknowledges approaches that influence, motivate and inspire students to learn through the use of curricula and resources that reflect a command of the field. The recipient must also demonstrate respect and support for the development of students as individuals, and their independent learning.
2023 Joseph Nicolazzo
Joseph Nicolazzo is a passionate pharmacy and pharmaceutical science educator who has developed award-winning approaches that facilitate learning in how improved patient outcomes are achieved through understanding the mechanisms by which medicines work. He has led initiatives that have (i) improved student outcomes (evidenced by increased in-semester and exam results), (ii) enhanced student learning (evidenced by evaluations), (iii) been adopted by international and Faculty educators, and (iv) are considered very effective by formal peer review processes. He has disseminated his teaching innovations through 6 peer-reviewed publications and 2 oral presentations at international symposia.
One of his major initiatives is the application of MyDispense, a virtual simulation tool, into laboratory classes within the Pharmacy degree. Before this initiative, MyDispense was only used in workshops to facilitate student learning in the process of dispensing prescriptions. Based on stakeholder feedback from a focus group he led to evaluate pharmacy laboratory outcomes, it was evident that students divorced the process of preparing products in a laboratory and the dispensing process for a patient. To improve this connection, he introduced virtual dispensing into laboratory classes. This innovative approach led to (i) students considering patient outcomes within the laboratories, (ii) implementation by University of Michigan and two other Faculty unit coordinators, and (iii) a first author publication (Healthcare (IF=2.8)). Using his expert content knowledge, he led the development of a 30-credit point stream of 3 units within the world’s first vertical integrated Pharmacy Masters, amalgamating the fundamental concepts of science that ultimately inform the practice of pharmacy (published in Pharmacy, IF=2.2).
He also developed a new series of educational materials, equipping students with the necessary skills to tackle a novel “pitch” assessment where students were required to convince a pharmaceutical company CEO of the merits of a potential medicine that they had developed. His excellence in education and teaching have resulted in his Student Evaluation of Teaching and Units (SETU) teaching evaluation scores exceeding University expectations, and 6 education awards (national, University, Faculty and student-based), including an AAUT Citation (2022) and a Vice-Chancellor’s Teaching Citation for Outstanding Contributions to Student Learning (2021).
2022 Daniel T Malone, Tina P Brock, Kirsten J Galbraith, Kayley M Lyons, Ian C Larson, Paul J White, Vivienne Mak, Joseph Nicolazzo, Betty Exintaris, Andreia Bruno-Tome, Steven Walker, Simon Furletti, Thao Vu, Harjit Singh, Marian Costelloe
A comprehensive instructional model to develop a transformed pharmacy degree
Health professions training programs have an ethical obligation to make healthcare better. At Monash University, we used our drive for health improvement to transform the whole Monash Pharmacy Degree, focussing on student skill development, strengthening the links between program content and outcomes, and clarifying what pharmacists do with regard to patients and medicines. All units in the curriculum were redesigned and rebuilt using a standardised active learning model that had flexibility to allow for best practices in teaching various topics, but was sufficiently standardised to provide students with the necessary structure to learn, limiting cognitive load and enabling them to achieve the learning outcomes. These new units were offered to first year pharmacy students in 2017. This standardised model also enabled faculty educators a standardised framework.
A key focus of the degree transformation was on skill development. We identified core skills that were scaffolded across the degree in terms of being taught, practised and assessed, to ensure vertical skill development alignment. An enhanced student experiential placement program was created, featuring Entrustable Professional Activities (EPAs). Pharmacy preceptors provide feedback to students based on their level of independence and how much supervision they require in performing individual EPAs. The success of this whole-degree transformation on student learning, engagement and an overall student experience is demonstrated through a variety of measures, including enhanced student satisfaction, improved examination performance, improved clinical skills on placement compared with students from the previous Monash Pharmacy degree, and increased contributions to educational sciences by faculty and students. Recognition from our peers was recently gained through the awarding of the American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy prestigious Innovation in Teaching award in 2022. Monash is the first programme based outside of the USA to receive this award.
2021 Betty Exintaris
Betty Exintaris is a passionate, dedicated and innovative educator with over 20 years teaching experience in higher education. In this time, she has demonstrated an ongoing commitment to improving the overall student experience through the development of teaching resources, training and engagement programs and embedding skills in undergraduate curriculum. Her contributions have been recognised, both nationally and internationally, through multiple awards, grants and invited conference presentations. In 2018, she was awarded the Australian Society for Clinical and Experimental Pharmacology and Toxicology (ASCEPT) Gillian Shenfield award for her contributions to education in the field of pharmacology, specifically her contribution to the design and development of the 1st year foundational physiology unit, How the Body Works, as part of the Bachelor of Pharmacy (Hons)/ Master of Pharmacy degree. In 2019, she was awarded a Citation for Outstanding Contribution to Student Learning by the Faculty of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences (FPPS) at Monash University. In 2020, she received a team award for leading a Program that Enhances Student learning by FFPS. Most recently, she received an Inter-faculty Transformation grant to support the implementation of our bespoke academic-led International student program to 6 faculties across the university and 2 schools at Monash Malaysia. Betty has also been awarded ‘Lecturer of the Year’ by the Monash Student Parkville Association 10 times.
2019 Kirstie Galbraith, Jen Short, Vivienne Mak, Andreia Bruno, Thao Vu
The team of academic staff from the Faculty are recognised for embedding a faculty-wide approach to teaching, practicing and assessment of reflective practice to enable evidence-based skill development.
In 2017 the Faculty of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences commenced a new Pharmacy degree, and in 2018 a new Pharmaceutical Sciences degree was also introduced. The faculty agreed on a number of principles across both degrees: active learning, a focus on employability and experiential learning, and a skills coaching program comprising individualised feedback and focused team meetings. By mid 2019 thirteen and a half thousand reflections have been submitted by students via their electronic portfolio (MyPharm). Seventy staff and practitioners are engaged as skills coaches with meetings of each group occurring as often as fortnightly. Analysis demonstrates students and coaches alike value the small group approach to skills development. Further research is underway to determine the impact of structured reflection and feedback on skill development.
2018 Tina Brock, Benny Efendie, Johnson George, Amudha Kadirvelu, Fiona Kent, Lee Chooi Yeng, Jennifer Lindley, Sivalal Sadasivan, and Thao Vu
This team of academic and professional staff from pharmacy and medicine in Melbourne and Malaysia is recognised for the project entitled Action on Asthma: Delivering Interprofessional Learning at Scale. The project comprised a learning activity for all second-year pharmacy and medical students designed to reflect the knowledge, skills, and abilities outlined in the Monash Collaborative Care Curriculum Framework. Students worked together on an authentic patient care challenge, ie, helping to prevent an outbreak of thunderstorm asthma. Results suggested that students and facilitators from both professions and in both countries enjoyed the activity and learned substantially about ways pharmacists and medics can work together to improve care. To see this learning session in action, access this video story. Results from this project have been used to design subsequent collaborative care activities with additional health professions (ie, nurses).
2017 Dan Malone
Dr Dan Malone is recognised for the development of learning approaches and resources for learning in our new Pharmacy degree; and for bringing a clear focus on skill development to prepare students better for future employment.
He has been a consistent, high achieving educator for over a decade … evidenced by many student awards and peer recognition. He also has consistently high SETU teaching evaluations; recognized by the MPSA through eight year levels and four faculty lecturer of the year awards from 2009 to 2017. Previous awards include Citation for Outstanding Contribution to Student Learning by the Australian Government Office of Learning and Teaching in 2012, and 2010 Faculty Citation for Outstanding Contribution to Student Learning.
His role as VIM Academic Lead reflects his commitment to excellence, scholarship, student learning and support of academic staff. Dan also shares this commitment, contributing as a university leader in best practice assessment pedagogy.
2016 Dr Elizabeth Yuriev
For many years Dr Elizabeth Yuriev has been committed to education excellence, and acknowledged by her peers, students, colleagues and external organisations. It is for this commitment that she has been recognised once more, receiving the 2016 faculty Teaching Excellence Award.
Elizabeth’s commitment to student learning is recognised not only in her content expertise but her passion for continuous growth and reflection. This passion led her to develop and implement a holistic approach to student teamwork learning through structured group work. She also initiated innovative resources to foster problem solving and study skills for meaningful learning.
Not only concerned with student learning outcomes, Elizabeth identified that the journey must be inclusive of her colleagues and communities. With this in mind she actively shaped courses and student learning through committees and communities of practice.
2015 Dr Laurence Orlando
In 2015, Dr Laurence Orlando received the Faculty Teaching Excellence Award in recognition of her ongoing commitment to developing work ready graduates. She has developed an innovative, best-practice, industry-led approach to teaching based on experiential learning and constructive alignment principles that contribute to the development of essential students' attributes like critical thinking, teamwork and communication. The use of problem based learning allows students to take ownership of their studies and as part of a team to solve complex real-world problems. Students are supported by learning activities which clarify expectations and drive learning. Laurence continues to search for effective evidence based strategies to use to improve student learning outcomes.
2014 Dr Paul White
Dr Paul White was recognised for his individual contribution of innovative student focused teaching but also for his leadership in implementing a faculty based approach to improving the student experience. Dr White focuses on developing student's capacity to work as professionals, by presenting them with scenarios which require them not only to know the facts but to use them to predict outcomes, and suggest appropriate interventions. He aims to minimise any disconnect between university and real-life, through his use of teaching and assessment strategies.
Paul's teaching philosophy has developed through his career as he reflected on individual experiences, something he models for students where they are asked to summarise and reflect at the end of active learning sessions. The panel acknowledged Paul for bringing the students on board; being transparent about the goals and encouraging students to use their intelligence as agents of their own change.
2011 Dr David Manallack
In 2011 Dr David Manallack was the worthy recipient of the faculty's Teaching Excellence Award in recognition of innovative presentations developed to inspire and facilitate student engagement in chemistry. David draws on his extensive background in the pharmaceutical industry and hospital pharmacy to inspire students, introducing teaching innovations and video presentations to identify the links between basic chemistry, how drugs work and the professional role of the pharmacist. This creative and engaging approach appeals to students with a variety learning needs and enables them to appreciate that a broad knowledge of chemistry is essential to underpin their careers as practising pharmacists.
2009 Dr Ian Larson
Dr Ian Larson received the faculty teaching excellence award in recognition of his contribution to quality learning and teaching. Faced with large classes and aware of the need to engage students in developing higher-order thinking and analysis skills, Ian employed an active student centered approach to teaching, where the teacher takes the role of facilitator rather than authority, and students have the opportunity to discover knowledge. Ian exemplified this approach by substituting traditional lectures with feedback sessions and student centered learning activities, and the development of Pharmatopia, the Second Life Island, used for teaching through simulation in a virtual world. The effectiveness of these approaches was evident in measurably improved academic outcomes and attendance rates of students.
Ian's outstanding achievements were also recognised by Monash University in 2010, receiving the Vice Chancellor's award for Teaching Excellence.
2007 Dr Elizabeth Yuriev
Awarded for teaching excellence, Dr Elizabeth Yuriev improved the teaching and learning of pharmaceutical and medicinal chemistry, by relating abstract conceptual materials to everyday events familiar to students, obtaining extremely positive feedback from students through MonQUEST and unit evaluations. Elizabeth demonstrated through her teaching methodologies a variety of strategies and approaches to delivering lectures and tutorials, consistently adopting engaging and exciting content, planning, feedback and evaluation as themes to remain relevant, resourceful and engaging to the student body. Dr Yuriev' s teaching philosophy is centred on helping students to learn, focusing on students' understanding of material, and de-emphasising "fact" in favour of "concept". She continues to motivate students to learn independently and instil in them a lifelong love of learning.
2006 Dr Paul White
Awarded for teaching excellence, Dr Paul White significantly improved the teaching and learning within the Faculty, using a range of teaching methods to allow for a range of student learning strategies. Paul's outstanding and innovative approach provided an opportunity for all students from diverse learning styles to participate, and receive immediate feedback, in lectures through the introduction of audience response "clickers". Paul obtained extremely positive feedback from students through MonQUEST and unit evaluations, and was twice selected to represent the University at national Education forums.