QUT - Academic profiles - Dr Sam Cunningham

Sam Cunningham is a Senior Lecturer in Electrical Engineering at the Queensland University of Technology. His research areas are primarily in engineering education and natural language processing, where he focuses on computationally extracting information from student-written pieces of text. He is a Senior Fellow and Associate Fellow (Indigenous) of the Higher Education Academy.

Expertise related to UN Sustainable Development Goals

In 2015, UN member states agreed to 17 global Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to end poverty, protect the planet and ensure prosperity for all. This person’s work contributes towards the following SDG(s):

Pronouns: he / him

+61 7 3138 4234

sam.cunningham@qut.edu.au

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QUT alumni

Personal details

Positions

Senior Lecturer
Faculty of Engineering,
School of Electrical Engineering & Robotics

Qualifications

Doctor of Philosophy (Queensland University of Technology)
Bachelor of Engineering (Electrical) (Queensland University of Technology)

Publications

Cunningham-Nelson, S., Laundon, M. & Cathcart, A. (2021). Beyond satisfaction scores: Visualising student comments for whole-of-course evaluation. Assessment and Evaluation in Higher Education, 46(5), 685–700. https://eprints.qut.edu.au/203156
Dart, S., Cunningham-Nelson, S. & Dawes, L. (2020). Understanding student perceptions of worked example videos through the technology acceptance model. Computer Applications in Engineering Education, 28(5), 1278–1290. https://eprints.qut.edu.au/202678
Cunningham-Nelson, S., Baktashmotlagh, M. & Boles, W. (2019). Visualizing student opinion through text analysis. IEEE Transactions on Education, 62(4), 305–311. https://eprints.qut.edu.au/197186
Cunningham-Nelson, S., Boles, W., Trouton, L. & Margerison, E. (2019). A review of chatbots in education: Practical steps forward. 30th Annual Conference for the Australasian Association for Engineering Education (AAEE 2019): Educators Becoming Agents of Change: Innovate, Integrate, Motivate, 299–306. https://eprints.qut.edu.au/134323
Cunningham-Nelson, S., Mukherjee, M., Goncher, A. & Boles, W. (2018). Text analysis in education: a review of selected software packages with an application for analysing students' conceptual understanding. Australasian Journal of Engineering Education, 23(1), 23–39. https://eprints.qut.edu.au/120394
Cunningham-Nelson, S., Goncher, A. & Boles, W. (2018). Categorising student responses for feedback based on multiple choice and text responses. Proceedings of 2018 IEEE International Conference on Teaching, Assessment, and Learning for Engineering (TALE), 1179–1182. https://eprints.qut.edu.au/123872
Cunningham-Nelson, S., Mukherjee, M., Goncher, A. & Boles, W. (2018). Regular and automatic feedback of concepts as formative assessment. Proceedings of the 29th Australasian Association of Engineering Education (AAEE 2018), 1–9. https://eprints.qut.edu.au/123871
Cunningham - Nelson, S., Goncher, A., Mukherjee, M. & Boles, W. (2017). Pointers to conceptual understanding. Proceedings of the 28th Annual Conference of the Australasian Association for Engineering Education (AAEE 2017), 687–695. https://eprints.qut.edu.au/115063
Baktashmotlagh, M., Boles, W. & Cunningham - Nelson, S. (2017). Visualising student satisfaction. Proceedings of the 28th Annual Conference of the Australasian Association for Engineering Education (AAEE 2017), 722–730. https://eprints.qut.edu.au/115064
Cunningham - Nelson, S., Moghadam, P., Roberts, J. & Elfes, A. (2015). Coverage-based next best view selection. Proceedings of the Australasian Conference on Robotics and Automation 2015, 1–9. https://eprints.qut.edu.au/91030

QUT ePrints

For more publications by Sam, explore their research in QUT ePrints (our digital repository).

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2025

Irvine, L. & Cunningham, S. (2025). Beyond a Buzzword: Student Perspectives on what Contributes to Engaging Educators and Classroom Experiences. Student Success, 16(1), 16–26. https://eprints.qut.edu.au/251272
Kelly, R., Cunningham, S., Wright-Brough, F. & Huijser, H. (2025, March 3). What we know about peer interaction and sense of belonging for students from culturally and linguistically diverse migrant and refugee backgrounds. Needed Now in Learning and Teaching Newsletter. https://eprints.qut.edu.au/256086

2024

Somers, R., Cunningham, S., Dart, S., Thomson, S., Chua, C. & Pickering, E. (2024). AssignmentWatch: An automated detection and alert tool for reducing academic misconduct associated with file-sharing websites. IEEE Transactions on Learning Technologies, 17, 310–318. https://eprints.qut.edu.au/237988
Stephensen, R. & Cunningham, S. (2024). Uncovering Indigenous perspectives in the Australian engineering curriculum: a systematic literature review of practical examples. Australasian Journal of Engineering Education, 29(1), 3–19. https://eprints.qut.edu.au/244703
Dart, S., Cunningham, S., Gregg, A. & Young, A. (2024). Factors influencing educators' implementation of quality teaching practices in Australian engineering education. Australasian Journal of Engineering Education. https://eprints.qut.edu.au/252438
Kelly, R., Cunningham, S., Wright-Brough, F. & Huijser, H. (2024). 'More group work would be nice': exploring peer interaction and belonging in the first-year experiences of culturally and linguistically diverse migrant and refugee students. Higher Education Research and Development. https://eprints.qut.edu.au/253484
Silva, D. D., Huijser, H., Cunningham, S. & Press, N. (2024). Essential Professional Skills and Competencies for Future Information Technology Graduates: Meeting IT Industry Demands. Proceedings of the 2024 International Conference on Engineering Management of Communication and Technology (EMCTECH), Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Inc.. https://eprints.qut.edu.au/253697
Arthars, N., Thompson, K., Huijser, H., Kickbusch, S., Cunningham, S., Cook, R., Winter, G. & Lockyer, L. (2024). Formative assessment of group work skills: An analytics-enabled conceptual framework. Australasian Journal of Educational Technology, 40(4), 139–154. https://eprints.qut.edu.au/253852
Cunningham, S., Cathcart, A. & Graham, T. (2024, July 15). In defence of Student Surveys (but only if we do them differently). Needed Now in Learning and Teaching Newsletter. https://eprints.qut.edu.au/256089

2023

Cunningham, S., Laundon, M., Cathcart, A., Bashar, M. A. & Nayak, R. (2023). First, do no harm: automated detection of abusive comments in student evaluation of teaching surveys. Assessment and Evaluation in Higher Education, 48(3), 377–389. https://eprints.qut.edu.au/233735
Dart, S., Cunningham, S. & Gregg, A. (2023). Developing Video Resources in Engineering Education: Evidence-Based Principles for Effective Practice. In Gratchev, I. & Espinosa, H. G. (Eds.), Advancing Engineering Education Beyond COVID (pp. 51–68). CRC Press. https://eprints.qut.edu.au/237989
Laundon, M., Cunningham, S. & Cathcart, A. (2023). Institutional approaches to evaluation of learning and teaching: A sector scan of Australasian universities. Journal of Higher Education Policy and Management, 45(5), 511–528. https://eprints.qut.edu.au/239122
Dart, S. & Cunningham, S. (2023). Using Institutional Data to Drive Quality, Improvement, and Innovation. In Sankey, M., Huijser, H. & Fitzgerald, R. (Eds.), Technology-Enhanced Learning and the Virtual University (pp. 1–24). Springer. https://eprints.qut.edu.au/239133
Dart, S., Cunningham, S., Gregg, A. & Young, A. (2023). Defining the capabilities required to teach engineering: Insights for achieving the Australian sector's future vision. Australasian Journal of Engineering Education, 28(1), 47–58. https://eprints.qut.edu.au/240077
Kelly, R. & Cunningham, S. (2023). Exploring first year culturally and linguistically diverse migrant and refugee students' experiences of peer interactions and belonging. HERDSA 2023 Annual Conference: On-site oral abstract book, 100. Higher Education Research and Development Society of Australasia. https://eprints.qut.edu.au/241753

A complete list of publications is available at: https://www.qut.edu.au/about/our-people/academic-profiles/sam.cunningham

Awards

Type: Academic Honours, Prestigious Awards or Prizes
Reference year: 2021
Details: Citation for Outstanding Contributions to Student LearningFor innovatively using technology in large electrical engineering classes to improve learner engagement, enhance feedback and develop understanding of challenging concepts.

Type: Academic Honours, Prestigious Awards or Prizes
Reference year: 2021
Details: 2021 Citation for Outstanding Early Career Contribution to Engineering Education

Type: Academic Honours, Prestigious Awards or Prizes
Reference year: 2016
Details: Vice-Chancellor's Performance Award

Dr Sam Cunningham

Biography