Adjunct Professor
Sylvia Edwards

Biography

Professor Sylvia Lauretta Edwards

Dip.Lib.(RMIT),GCEd(HE),MIT(Res.), PhD (QUT), AALIA, MACS. I joined QUT in February 1995 bringing experience from other Australian Universities and the private sector. I was promoted to professor in 2010 based on a strong track record of achievements in teaching, research and service including 10 performance and teaching awards, and the prestigious AAUT (Australian Award for University Teaching) Excellence in Physical Sciences & Related Studies Teaching Excellence Award (2006).   As Assistant Dean Teaching & Learning (ADTL) from 2006-2011 I successfully led curriculum renewal in FIT (Faculty of Information Technology) and FaST’s (Faculty of Science & Technology's) large scale Curriculum Renewal work (2009 -2011). I engaged staff in the need for cultural and curriculum change, facilitated, designed and delivered staff development programs in support of University and Faculty goals, and progressed  renewed courses to FAB/UAB (Faculty and University Academic Board) approval stage.   Other positive impacts as ADTL include the renewed IT23 Bach. Information Technology (2009) (resulting in significant increases in enrolments and a reduction in attrition rates), and improved attrition rates in FaST courses overall. My record of academic leadership, service and mentoring of staff demonstrates my abilities to support and inspire innovative, collaborative and interdisciplinary approaches to both curriculum design and teaching scholarship.   Research success includes almost  $2.4 million in competitive grants, ($1.66m of external funding) in the past 5 years, achieving an ARC Linkage Grant (as CI in one of the CRC Smart Services Teams), and as lead investigator in multiple successful teams in four ALTC (Australian Learning & Teaching Council) grants. I have research prominence in three inter-related areas of research – Information Searching Behaviours, Learning & Teaching, and Higher Education Leadership. I have developed and successfully led large-scale interdisciplinary collaborative research projects with research outcomes disseminated in tier A and B journals and conferences and cited in some A+ outlets among others. I have a hIndex 21 (@ Dec 2018) and I authored over 80 publications to date (Some are readily available from the QUT eprints archive: http://eprints.qut.edu.au/view/person/Edwards,_Sylvia.html), and developed a trans-national research network.   My strength in supervision and mentoring is epitomised by having over 30 Higher Degree Research students with 20 PhD completions to date.

Research theme: Information

Research discipline: Information Systems

Research area: Information Science

Areas of expertise

• Higher Education Leadership
• Teaching and Learning Leadership
• Human information behaviour
• E–learning environments
• IT learners' experience of critical concepts
• Website design.

Research Grants

• 2010-2012: ARC Linkage. Understanding health information literacy in Australia's ageing population: a qualitative study. ($175,000 ARC plus $90,000 Industry Partner)
• 2009–2011: ALTC Leadership Grant: Changing the culture of teaching & learning in ICT and engineering: facilitating research professors to be T&L leaders ($528,000)
• 2008–2010: ALTC Priority Grant: Retrofitting University learning spaces: From Teaching Spaces to Learning Spaces. ($267,000)
• 2006-2008: ALTC (Carrick) Discipline Based Initiative: Managing educational change in the ICT discipline at the tertiary education level. ($250,000)
• 2008 - 2013: CRC Smart Services (OCS): CRC SS OSFS01 One–Stop Personalised Financial Services ($771,000)
• 2008-2009: Queensland’s 150th Legacy Infrastructure Program – Community Funding Program: Smart Lives:  Celebrating Queenslanders Digital Lifestyles ($25,000)
• 2005-2009: QUT T&L Large Grant: Supporting explorative learning by providing collaborative problem centred e-learning environments: Learning by doing, experiencing, reflecting and collaborating. ($273,000).