Zala Volcic: Develop community, relationships, and compassion

Create. Share. Engage.

Associate Professor Dr Zala Volcic is Director of Teaching Innovation within the Faculty of Arts at Monash University in Melbourne, Australia. She shares how her students in the Bachelor of Media Communication (BMC) in the School of Media, Film, and Journalism use portfolios in different ways in their studies.
Zala shares what is important to her in teaching students and how she and her colleagues assist them become humans with personal, professional, and social responsibilities. She has a lot of tips for educators, and the biggest one is to work with the learning / educational designers at their institutions.
Zala's work was supported by the Australian Research Council [DP230103037].
Resources

• Press release on Zala being awarded the Australian University Teacher of the Year 2023 Award in February 2024
• Bachelor of Media Communication students on their portfolio work
• D’Souza, I., Volcic, Z., & Sapsed, C. (2023a). Connecting through eportfolio practice: Trust, relationships & expertise. eBook of Shortened Peer Reviewed Papers, Eportfolio Forum 2023, 15–19.
• D’Souza, I., Volcic, Z., & Sapsed, C. (2023b, October 11). Connecting through eportfolio practice: Trust, relationships & expertise. Eportfolio Forum 2023, Darwin, Australia.
• Volcic, Z., Tran, I., Palepu, V., & Baath, R. (2024). Intercultural communication during pandemic: New ways to build intercultural dialogue and relationships. Intercultural Communication, 35(1), 42–61.
• Ingrid D'Souza's episode on creativity and lifelong learning
• Joanne Painter from the ICON Agency
• Zala's publications
  

Click through to the episode notes for the transcript.

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Production information
Production: Catalyst IT
Host: Kristina Hoeppner
Artwork: Evonne Cheung
Music: The Mahara tune by Josh Woodward

Chapters

1. Introduction (00:00:00)

2. What do you do? (00:02:59)

3. When were you introduced to portfolios? (00:08:55)

4. For what do students use portfolios? (00:11:08)

5. Do students receive guidance on how to self reflect? (00:19:47)

6. What's the connection with industry? (00:25:28)

7. Is there anything you can't yet do with portfolios? (00:27:29)

8. What should we not forget? (00:30:40)

9. Q&A: Words to describe porfolio work (00:32:32)

10. Q&A: A tip for learning designers and educators (00:32:50)

11. Q&A: A tip for portfolio authors (00:34:11)