Welcome

On behalf of the Teaching and Learning Forum organising committee, I take great pleasure in welcoming you all to the 23rd Annual Teaching and Learning Forum. It is anticipated that the 2014 Forum will continue the tradition of promoting educational excellence with robust discussion and debate. Your presence and participation signifies the importance you place on quality teaching and learning in higher education and the role you play in advancing educational excellence. Many of you have attended previous Forums as it has become part of the Western Australian universities communities' culture and vibrant learning community.

Our theme this year of Transformative, Innovative and Engaging pedagogy reflects the changing world in which we work, where MOOCs, flipped and blended classrooms are all examples of exploring new ways of engaging our students in higher education. The forum presentations are intended to provoke debate and discussion about how we, as individuals and as disciplines and institutions, are responding to the changing context of teaching and learning.

I would like to thank the Forum Organising Committee for their tireless efforts and commitment to the Teaching and Learning Forum for 2014. On behalf of the Committee, I would particularly like to thank Clare McBeath and Roger Atkinson for their work managing all the submissions, reviews and the program publication process - we could not have done it without them and are so very grateful for their continued support of the Forum.

To our sponsors, we greatly value your contributions to this year's forum and look forward to your contribution to the 2014 program. The Western Australian Network and Dissemination (WAND) gratefully acknowledge the ongoing support of the Australian Government's Office of Learning and Teaching (OLT).

Denise Chalmers
Chair
Teaching and Learning Forum Committee

Editorial

Tables 1 and 2 present our standard summary of numbers of submissions and outcomes for the TL Forum 2014, and a ten year overview. Whilst a ten year overview may seem to be quite a large sample, it is less than one half of TL Forum's 23 year history, but it is sufficient to allow us to interpret trends. For example, 2014 has TLF's highest ever number of submissions and scheduled presentations (Table 4), but looking back over a ten year period may temper enthusiasm over these record highs.

Category (a)	Submitted	Accepted	Rejected	Offered	Withdrawn	Net outcome
Ref research	15	7	8(b)	7	0	7
Ref prof prac	6	6	0	7(c)	0	7
Abstract only	104	100(d, e)	4	112(d)	8	104
Workshop	9	4	5(e)	4	0	4
See http://wand.edu.au/course/view.php?id=18 for definitions of the categories of submissions. Refereed papers, both categories, and all abstracts are published online at the TL Forum Proceedings website, http://ctl.curtin.edu.au/professional_development/conferences/tlf/tlf-pubs.cfm Of the 8, one was offered (and accepted) Professional practice publication, 7 were offered Abstract only publication (6 accepted). Includes one from Research reject. Includes 7 from Research reject and 5 from Workshop reject. All 5 were offered Abstract only publication and a 25 minute timeslot. All 5 accepted. For TL Forums 2005-2013 numbers of submissions and outcomes, see similar tables in the 2005-2013 'Welcome and Editorial' pages, accessible via http://ctl.curtin.edu.au/professional_development/conferences/tlf/tlf-pubs.cfm Compiler: Roger Atkinson. Updated: 4 Feb 2014.

Year	Research			Professional practice			Abs only submitted	Total all subs(c)	Total offers	W(d)
	Submitted	Accepted	Offer PP	Submitted	Accepted	Total(b)
2014	15	6	1	6	6	7	104	134	130	8
2013	18	13	1	5	5	6	75	112	108	7
2012	13	10	0	7	7	7	53	87	87	5
2011	15	7	3	10	7	10	72	107	106	4
2010	24	12	4	11	5	9	55	94	92	14
2009	26	7	3	13	4	7	67	110	107	12
2008	20	10	3	7	5	8	59	92	90	7
2007	18	10	4	12	8	12	37	73	68	2
2006	31	12	7	13	6	13	62	112	103	11
2005	18	12	1	17	15	16	54	89	86	10
Data sources: http://ctl.curtin.edu.au/professional_development/conferences/tlf/tlf2014/editorial.html, and similar files for 2005-2013 Forums. Total for PP includes submissions in the Research category that were offered publication in PP. Includes all categories: Research, Professional practice, Abstract only publication and Workshops. W is the number of post-acceptance withdrawals (or cancellations), all categories. Compiler: Roger Atkinson. 20 Jan 2014; updated 4 Feb 2014.

Another tempering perspective can be obtained by looking at relationships between TLF statistics and statistical data that track the size of the higher education sector. Whilst many kinds of data may provide helpful insights, Table 3 is based on the numbers of staff (full time equivalent staff, both academic and other categories) at Western Australia's five universities (who provide almost all of TLF's contributors). Table 3 suggests that with reference to the size of the pool of potential contributors, TLF is at a "steady state" with an eight year average of 0.94 TL Forum submissions per 100 FTE staff. As to whether 0.94 submissions per 100 FTE is "pleasing" or "somewhat disappointing", that will require much more research!

Forum year	2006	2007	2008	2009	2010	2011	2012	2013
Total no. submissions (a)	112	73	92	110	94	107	87	112
FTE Staff WA unis (b)	9,523	9,798	9,831	9,040	10,845	11,990	11,422	12,144
Subs per 100 FTE (c)	1.18	0.75	0.94	1.22	0.87	0.89	0.76	0.92
Total number of submissions: Data from Table 2. Full time equivalent staff in WA universities: Data from the Australian Government's Higher Education Statistics publications, accessed via http://www.innovation.gov.au/highereducation/HigherEducationStatistics/StatisticsPublications/Pages/Staff.aspx. As the Forums have been held at the beginning of each year, staff numbers cited in this row are for the previous year (when the work was done!), e.g. in the 2013 column the number of FTE staff is from the Government's 2012 data tables. The average over 8 years is 0.94 TL Forum submissions per 100 FTE staff.

One further tempering perspective is found in our consideration of some of the planning constraints that became more difficult owing to TL Forum 2014's record number of presentations and scheduled sessions. The parallel sessions timetable is chock full (131 of 133 timeslots committed) and the Program Booklet's number of pages (68) is hard up against the practical limit of the economical A3 folded format that we have used for 2009-14. So please be understanding if we shortened your title and abstract, as happened in many cases. As to TLF 2015, that will be challenging, but exciting to anticipate!

But on the positive side, TL Forum is healthier and better sustained than ever, and once again we can say that it is a pleasure to have worked with you and for you!

Roger Atkinson and Clare McBeath
TL Forum Proceedings Editors

Organising Committee

Denise Chalmers (Chair)       The University of Western Australia Sid Nair (Program Chair)       The University of Western Australia Rebecca Stuart-Coombe (Executive Officer)       The University of Western Australia Andrea Fraser       The University of WA/WAND Tania Broadley       Curtin University Anne Coffey       University of Notre Dame Australia

Alan Goody       Curtin University Clare McBeath       Honorary consultant Pamela Martin-Lynch       Murdoch University Cathy Moore       Edith Cowan University Roger Atkinson       Honorary consultant

Please cite as: TL Forum (2014). Transformative, innovative and engaging. Proceedings of the 23rd Annual Teaching Learning Forum, 30-31 January 2014. Perth: The University of Western Australia. http://ctl.curtin.edu.au/professional_development/conferences/tlf/tlf2014/editorial.html