The RPL module offers UQ staff an opportunity to formalise and enhance their teaching expertise.

The RPL module offers eligible staff the opportunity to achieve the Teaching Foundations learning outcomes by reflecting on prior learning and experience and fulfilling the learning activities and assessments required to earn the Teaching Foundations Certificate and Associate Fellowship of the Higher Education Academy. 

About Teaching Foundations

Teaching Foundations supports you in creatively connecting curriculum, pedagogy and assessment to foster active student participation and learning. This introductory course helps you build essential teaching skills, create supportive learning environments, and enhance student engagement. It balances theory and practice, exploring foundational learning theories while providing opportunities to apply them. 

Offered as a professional learning activity, Teaching Foundations is available in multiple streams to reflect the diversity of UQ’s teaching and learning community, including: 

  • Teaching@UQ – for new lecturers with no course coordination responsibilities, tutors, lab demonstrators and seminar leaders.
  • Coordinating@UQ – for new teachers who also have course coordination responsibilities.
  • Teaching Foundations RPL module – for experienced teachers with substantial teaching experience who wish to engage with the Graduate Certificate in University Teaching Practice.
  • CaPE@UQ (commencing Semester 2, 2025) – for new Clinical and Practice Educators.
  • LD@UQ (commencing in 2026) – for new Learning Designers.

Course overview

The Teaching Foundations RPL module introduces you to the assessment task and other participants.

Learning outcomes

In the Teaching Foundations RPL Module, you will build a body of evidence that includes:

After successfully completing Teaching Foundations RPL Module, you should be able to:

  1. Critically evaluate teaching and learning approaches that support student engagement; 
  2. Demonstrate effective and inclusive teaching practices; 
  3. Critically reflect on choices related to inclusive learning design and teaching practice in the disciplinary context.  
  4. Critically reflect on how teaching and/or supporting learning practice has been enhanced through engagement with professional learning.  

There is no cost to complete the RPL module.

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Course offerings

The module is offered multiple times per year. Confirmation of each offering is dependent on sufficient enrolment numbers.

2025 Schedule

OfferingDateTimeMode
RPL Round 1Friday 21 March 20259am – 12pmIn person
RPL Round 2Monday 19 May 20251 – 4pmOnline
RPL Round 3Monday 14 July 202510am – 1pmOnline
RPL Round 4Tuesday 5 August 20259am – 12pmIn person
RPL Round 5Thursday 2 October 20251 – 4pmIn person

Assessment

You will compile a teaching portfolio comprising three tasks (listed below) each focusing on different areas of your learning and teaching practice. If you have previously completed Teaching@UQ or the GTA program, you may draw on relevant materials developed in those programs.

Assessment Tasks:
  1. Teaching context and philosophy statement
  2. Peer Observation
  3. Critical reflection on practice
Assessment Dates:

Assessment deadlines for each RPL Round are listed below. If participants are unable to meet the deadline for their enrolled round, they may choose to submit their assessment in a later round.

RPL RoundAssessment Due Date
RPL Round 118 April 2025
RPL Round 216 June 2025
RPL Round 311 August 2025
RPL Round 42 September 2025
RPL Round 530 October 2025

 

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Time commitment

In addition to a 3-hour face-to-face workshop (conducted in-person or online) you can expect to need to commit approximately 20 hours to complete all the assessment activities and engage with the readings and course materials.

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Outcomes

Upon successful completion, you will:

  • Be awarded the Teaching Foundations Certificate.
  • Become an Associate Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (AFHEA), a mark of professional recognition that enhances your teaching career globally.
  • Join a community of over 190,000 educators worldwide who hold Fellowship status with Advance HE.
  • Be invited to apply for enrolment in the Graduate Certificate in University Teaching Practice (eligibility criteria apply).

The RPL module has been developed in the context of UQ’s policies and the Academic Annual Performance Development (APD) process, so will also support you to develop your career in higher education. 

Successful completion of the RPL module involves active participation in online activities, undertaking workshops (with peer feedback) and passing summative assessment tasks. 

Your pathway to the Graduate Certificate in University Teaching Practice

Participants who meet the eligibility criteria and have successfully completed the RPL module will be invited to enrol in the Graduate Certificate in University Teaching Practice.

You will receive credit for Teaching Foundations (EDHE6001), the first course in the Graduate Certificate, and be on your way to earning the full qualification.

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Eligibility criteria

To be eligible for the RPL module, you must:

  • be a UQ employee
  • have a teaching position or appointment that supports learning confirmed, with approximately 20 contact hours across a whole semester. This appointment could be in a casual or continuing, full-time or part-time, academic or professional capacity.
  • Meet one of the following criteria:
    • have completed the Teaching@UQ or GTA program in 2023/2024, or
    • have over five years of substantive teaching experience at UQ, including course coordination, or
    • are an experienced academic at Level C or D with teaching responsibilities.

(Note: Applicants applying under criterion 3b must demonstrate they have had sustained responsibility for curriculum structure and content over the required period. Given the nature of casual appointments, meeting this criterion may be less common; however, all applications are assessed on a case-by-case basis. If an application does not sufficiently demonstrate this level of responsibility, applicants may be redirected to Teaching@UQ or Coordinating@UQ.)

Eligibility criteria may expand in future rounds to include other aspects. When assessing applications, priority may be given to applicants that have completed a 2023/2024 Teaching@UQ and GTA program. 

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How to apply

Submit an application for the RPL Module here by the closing date.  

Application closing dates:  

  • Round 2: Applications close 30 April
  • Round 3: Applications close 25 June 
  • Round 4: Applications close 17 July  
  • Round 5: Applications close 12 September  

Please note that places are limited and applying does not guarantee participation. Late applications will not be accepted. 

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Enquiries

If you have any questions regarding your suitability or any other aspects of your application, please email professional.learning@uq.edu.au or register for a 1:1 consultation

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