Authorship and Advocacy: Fostering Community through Open Publishing

When: 9:30-10:30 am, Tues 24 October (ACDT, check your timezone here) 
Where: Hybrid – CWE-HB1-26A (MOD.) and Zoom  

Join the University of South Australia (UniSA) Library for an International Open Access Week author panel event: Authorship and Advocacy: Fostering Community through Open Publishing. The panel comprises authors from two of UniSA’s open educational resource (OER) publishing projects: 

Building Cost Planning: Best Practices and Insights 
Authors: Dr Thilini Jayawickrama (UniSA), Dr Ruchini Jayasinghe (UniSA), Dr Ravindu Kahandawa (Massey University, New Zealand)

With special reference to the Australian and New Zealand context, this book translates the well-established practice of pre-construction cost management process in the construction industry into a published academic and professional resource that can be used for teaching higher education students and for professional training programs.  

Teach, Design, Thrive: A Handbook for Tertiary Educators 
Author: Teaching Innovation Unit

A resource designed to support the professional development of tertiary educators looking to expand their repertoire of teaching and student engagement strategies, either through rapid upskilling independent study or in short-course offerings such as those included in many staff development programs at Australian universities.  

Panelists will explore this year’s OA Week theme of “community over commercialisation” and discuss the open publishing process, their reasons for publishing openly, and key barriers to navigate. 

Register to attend this free event

Meet the Panelists

Dr Thilini Jayawickrama is a lecturer in Construction Management at UniSA STEM, University of South Australia having more than 7 years of experience in teaching construction cost management courses in Sri Lanka and Australia. After graduating with BSc (Honours) in Quantity Surveying in University of Moratuwa, Sri Lanka, she completed her PhD in National University of Singapore. She has also worked as a Quantity Surveyor in a major construction company in Dubai, United Arab Emirates for 4 years. 

Dr. Ruchini Jayasinghe has approximately 6 years of teaching experience in Construction Management undergraduate degree programs at both Sri Lankan and Australian universities and institutions. Currently, she is employed as the Online Course Facilitator for the Construction Management degree program at the University of South Australia (UniSA) Online. Ruchini holds a BSc (Honours) in Quantity Surveying from the University of Moratuwa, Sri Lanka, and completed her PhD at UniSA. She previously worked as a Lecturer in the Department of Building Economics at the University of Moratuwa. Her research interests include Online Assessments and Student Engagement. 

Dr Ravindu Kahandawa is a Lecturer in Quantity Surveying at The School of Built Environment at Massey University. He graduated with a BSc (Hons) In Quantity Surveying from the University of Moratuwa, Sri Lanka, and Completed his Ph.D. at Massey University, New Zealand in the area of "Cost Estimation model for Earthquake Damage Repair Work.” He is the lead researcher in a Building Research Association of New Zealand (BRANZ)-funded project titled "Construction cost blowouts – can a standardized opensource cost estimation process help?" and is a key researcher in another BRANZ-funded project on Zero carbon. His research areas include construction waste, circular economy, and construction company insolvencies. 

Antonella Strambi is a Lecturer: Academic Development in the Teaching Innovation Unit – a role she took up five years ago after a long experience as a teaching academic and curriculum innovator in languages and applied linguistics. Her research interests and expertise are primarily in the areas of: socio-emotional learning; emotion communication, humour, and self-disclosure in rapport building; student and staff well-being; and text analytics.    

Dr Claire Aitchison is a Senior Lecturer: Academic Development in UniSA's Teaching Innovation Unit. She has worked in higher education for over two decades researching and publishing on student learning, and researcher and academic development. At UniSA, she has applied these interests to the online environment working with academics, teaching & learning colleagues, and online educational designers to produce quality courses and programs for UniSA Online. As an Academic Developer, Claire aims to transform educator experiences by building knowledge and skills that positively impact student success.