BLASST NATIONAL LEADERSHIP SUMMIT
SETTING THE STANDARD FOR QUALITY LEARNING AND TEACHING BY SESSIONAL STAFF

Friday 22nd February 2013
Macquarie University, Sydney Australia

Welcome to BLASST – a project funded by the Australian Government Office for Learning and Teaching to support and enhance quality teaching by sessional staff in higher education.

Up to 50% of teaching in Australian universities is provided by sessional staff . At individual departmental levels, this can rise to levels of 80% and more . In acknowledgement of this contribution, the BLASST project is establishing a national Sessional Staff Standards Framework which sets in place standards to evaluate and support the quality of performance and outcomes in learning and teaching, and in management and administrative policy, procedure, and practices affecting sessional teachers in higher education.

The Sessional Staff Standards Framework and its interactive benchmarking and reporting tool was launched at a National Leadership Summit with invited representatives from every Australian university.

See the summit presentations below:

1. Welcome and introduction to the Framework and to the BLASST Project – Marina Harvey
2. International keynote – Colin Bryson
3. National keynote – Robyn May

BLASST Good Practice Awards

In 2012 the BLASST project called for nominations for Good Practice with Sessional Staff.

Eleven finalists from Australian higher education institutions were selected to present their Good Practice as a pecha kucha.

At the BLASST National Summit, the following examples of institutional good practice were recognised and awarded with a BLASST Good Practice Award.

BLASST Good Practice Pecha Kucha

What is a Pecha Kucha?
A Pecha Kucha is a (very) short power point presentation.
The original pecha kucha format is 20 slides x 20 seconds each slide.
For the BLASST Good Practice Pecha Kucha, we are asking presenters to put together a presentation of: 10 slides x 30 seconds each slide (which means 5 minutes per presentation)

Why?
The pecha kucha method of presentation design and delivery is based on simplicity and brevity. It asks presenters to produce a brief and focused presentation. It allows more people to present and offers extended opportunities for audience engagement and discussion after the presentation.

When?
Each BLASST Good Practice pecha kucha will be showcased during one of three afternoon presentation sessions at the National Leadership Summit on Friday 22 February 2013 (see below).

Where?
The BLASST National Leadership Summit will be held at Macquarie University, Sydney Australia.

How?

-  Visit this website http://www.pecha-kucha.org/  for an introduction and overview of Pecha Kucha as a presentation style.

-  Open the accompanying PowerPoint template. It consists of 10 blank slides with suggestions for what sort of information to include on each slide. One ‘spare slide’ is also included.

-  Open the view in slideshow. At the bottom of each slide is an automatic timer that indicates the remaining time for each slide.  

-  Using your Good Practice nomination ‘abstract’ as a guide, design a presentation that showcases your Good Practice as a pecha kucha.

No rules, just suggestions:

- As little text as possible on each slide,
- Good quality images,
- Empty space can be your friend,
- You don’t have to use the template or the timer (but they might help!).

Further references:
Reynolds, G. (2011). Presentation Zen: Simple ideas on presentation design and delivery: New Riders.
Duarte, N. (2008). Slide:ology: the art and science of creating great presentations: O'Reilly Media.