Founded in 1887, RMIT is a multi-sector university of technology, design and enterprise, with more than 96,000 students and close to 10,000 staff globally across campuses and sites in Australia, Vietnam and Barcelona.

Modernisation of Core System Information Systems in the higher education industry has traditionally been fraught with risks.

RMIT had been running the PeopleSoft Solution, SAMS, since 1999. SAMS holds the administration records for RMIT’s approximately 96,000 students.

In April 2022 the SAMS on-premise system was upgraded and migrated to AWS Public cloud, delivering the University better system performance with simplified support.

The upgrade has also enabled enhanced security protection and cyber resilience for people, data, and operations with a new single sign-on and API authentication.

The upgraded Campus solution offers new technology that enables access to future features, improving the overall user experience. The more responsive navigation and faster page load times improve user experience and productivity.

Following the successful system go-live on 22 April 2022, RMIT’s Academic Registrar, Connie Merlino said, “Ensuring our students have a great experience is our number one priority so I’m delighted there was no disruption whatsoever to our systems during the SAMS migration to AWS Cloud.”

RMIT’s Chief Information Officer Sinan Erbay said, “It was a very smooth transition indeed, I’m very proud of what the combined RMIT and HCLTech teams have achieved. The project is an example of best practice effective cross-collaboration between a wide range of different stakeholders across the University.”

Shalabh Narain, Vice President at HCLTech and Client Partner for RMIT agreed.

“The SAMS system migration was like working on a car when the engine’s still running, a feat which really couldn’t have been achieved without a ‘One team’ mindset”, Narain said.

“I’m really pleased about how collaboratively the HCLTech and RMIT teams came together with a very simple goal in mind going live seamlessly.”

Going forward HCLTech will provide ongoing managed services for RMIT’s Peoplesoft application using their MASCoT (Managed Services with Continuous Improvement to Transformation) framework.

This cloud migration and application modernisation project will help accelerate RMIT’s digital transformation journey. The ultimate goal is an integrated, output-based and future-proofed global IT operating model that drives innovation and IT excellence by improving agility, efficiency and scalability. This technology uplift will enable users an improved experience and access to new futures.

About HCLTech

HCLTech is a global technology company, home to 219,000+ people across 54 countries, delivering industry-leading capabilities centered around digital, engineering and cloud, powered by a broad portfolio of technology services and products.

We work with clients across all major verticals, providing industry solutions for Financial Services, Manufacturing, Life Sciences and Healthcare, Technology and Services, Telecom and Media, Retail and CPG, and Public Services.

Consolidated revenues as of 12 months ending September 2022 totaled $12.1 billion. To learn how we can supercharge progress for you, visit hcltech.com.

The project led by Queensland University of Technology (QUT) researcher Lauren Fell in association with national startup Lunaria One, and researchers from ANU, RMIT University, and Ben Gurion University in Israel will try to grow plants on the Moon to develop food, oxygen and medicine for future astronauts who will spend time on the ground. 

The mission named Australian Lunar Experiment Promoting Horticulture (ALEPH-1) will be the first in a series of experiments by Lunaria One to research whether plants can grow and thrive on the lunar surface.

“We have an expert team of biologists, engineers and educators in our team as we will invite citizen scientists from around the world to participate in solving the unique challenges in this project,” Fell said.

The research team will be sending via the Israeli spacecraft Beresheet 2, a capsule containing selected seeds and ‘resurrections’ plants along with sensors, camera and water which will help researchers monitor the plants growth and compare it to a control experiment based on Earth. 

Growing plants in space has proven difficult as challenges occur around oxygen, light and gravity. 

Currently, researchers have been considering sending Australian native grass Tripogon loliiformis also known as Fiveminute Grass as it can endure harsh conditions and survive without water for months. 

The plant is also known for ‘resurrecting’ once watered again. 

“Even after losing more than 95 per cent of its relative water content, the dead-looking grass remains alive and pre-existing tissues flourish when provided with water,” QUT plant biologist Dr Brett Williams said.

“The seeds and resurrection plants can survive in a dehydrated dormant state and will be carried in a hermetically sealed chamber on the lunar lander and, we hope, germinate and reactivate upon watering.”

The types of plants sent on the ALEPH-1 mission will be selected based on how quickly they can germinate and their tolerance to extreme temperature variations that can be experienced in space.  

Upon landing, the research team will be expecting to have a plant growth within the first 72 hours.

In addition to growing plants on the Moon, researchers will also use the study findings to develop new ways to boost sustainable food production on Earth as more severe climate changes are expected. 

Project science advisor associate professor Caitlin Byrt from ANU said the mission is a “unique” opportunity to study plant propagation in harsh environments which will be critical for food security on Earth and in space.

"The extreme conditions that Earth is facing due to climate change present challenges for how we manage food security in the future,” Byrt said.

"This project is important for developing propagation systems relevant to challenges here on Earth. This includes the creation of controlled environments that enable communities to rapidly propagate plants after natural or climate related disasters.  

"If you can create a system for growing plants on the moon, then you can create a system for growing food in some of the most challenging environments on Earth," she said. 

The Lunaria One team includes scientists from Australia, Israel, South Africa and the US. 

The rift between the union and university stems from multiple factors, including an expired enterprise agreement and excessive workload due to the Covid-19 aftermath. 

“The enterprise agreement expired in 2021 and staff wanted to negotiate a new one, but we were told by the Vice Chancellor that he would not commence bargaining until next year,” NTEU RMIT branch president Tricia McLaughlin told Campus Review.

“Which leaves staff with an outdated agreement that is no longer relevant for modern tertiary sectors.” 

According to the NTEU, RMIT should come to the bargaining table and negotiate current wages which have not kept up with inflation, and better working conditions for staff as workload has increased due to mass redundancies and hybrid teaching. 

“The 2% administrative pay increase that was given last June instead of an enterprise bargaining has meant that staff wages have effectively gone backwards.

“There has also been more of an emphasis on teaching and less of an emphasis on academic research, which has resulted in staff also having to undertake additional classes. 

“All of this workload has resulted in much staff stress, and we can’t wait for 2023 to bargain,” McLaughlin said. 

In order to demonstrate the extent of the excessive workload at RMIT, the union voted to have 11 days in August where academics would not undertake any additional work and finish their tasks without exceeding the number of hours they're required to work for a week.

These 11 days of ‘non-extra workload’ also included two days of open days at three of RMIT’s city campuses.

As a result of that motion, the union said it received a letter (viewed by Campus Review) from the university's external solicitors stating that the action was considered unprotected, and that the university would pursue legal action against the union if it went ahead. 

The NTEU was asked to send an email to all members to cancel the action, which the branch did.

“I think there is a genuine disbelief at the overreaction, we're talking about excessive workloads and they're talking about threatening legal action,” McLaughlin said.

“Given the level of threat and the overreaction by the university's external solicitors, the branch committee took a decision that we would not pursue."

RMIT response 

Campus Review approached RMIT for comment and received a statement declaring that the suggestion it refused to come to the bargaining table and threatened legal action against its staff is completely baseless. 

“We are currently in the final stages of developing our new strategy for the next decade.  

“While this work is underway, a policy pay rise was announced in May and staff were updated on the need to finalise the strategy first before bargaining could commence.  

“We are keeping our people regularly updated as we complete this work. 

“RMIT employees who participate at our Open Days are remunerated. They receive pay or time in lieu for their support, depending on their employment arrangement,” the statement said.

Staff pushed to the edge 

The current situation at RMIT has pushed some staff to reconsider their careers. 

An academic from the College of Business and Law (who wishes to remain anonymous) told Campus Review that they would soon be leaving RMIT. 

“We know that conditions are difficult all across the sector, but it does feel as though RMIT is an institution that hasn't paid a lot of respect or care to its staff.”

According to the anonymous staff member, working conditions at RMIT have worsened since the Covid-19 crisis as staff have been facing the revoking of contracts after verbal offers and the blacklisting of particular casual staff who were pursuing wage theft claims.

“I had a member of human resources laughing at another member of staff who was raising well-being concerns during the pandemic; that was something that really stays with me.

“We saw so many forced redundancies in 2020, and I've been through other redundancy processes at other universities, but it was so brutal, the way it was done, just the absolute disregard for staff was horrifying to be honest."

The academic who has been working at RMIT for a number of years did not expect to leave so soon as they were hoping to have a long and prosperous career with the institution. 

“I was really happy to go there when I first moved there. There was a great group of researchers doing some really cutting-edge kind of stuff.

“But over time that was chipped away, and the sort of collegiality that was a hallmark of higher education is something that doesn't seem to be valued here anymore.

“The conditions in which we're doing the job, are almost unrecognisable from when I started.”

In a couple of weeks, the anonymous staff member will be joining another university after having had a long reflection on whether or not to continue to work in the sector. 

“It does make you question whether or not it's sustainable; the kind of intensification of work and the lack of listening to staff when they raise concerns about overwork and conditions, is just sort of unbearable.

“But for the moment, for me, it's still that passion and that love for supporting other people's research and that connection that you get with other people, through teaching and learning.”

According to RMIT Associate Professor Darryn Snell the loss of staff and expertise contributes to the burnout of those who remain, which ultimately contributes to more workload challenges as universities struggles to fill roles.

Snell told Campus Review that senior staff positions are advertised at a lower level and there is an over reliance on casuals to quickly backfill these positions.

"That institutional memory is simply gone," Snell said.

Snell believes that the situation brings a whole range of new challenges such as managing and supporting more sessional staff than previously, as well as a higher expectation in term of administrative workload associated with these changes.

"When professional staff is being cut back, the expectation is that academic staff perform a lot more of that administrative work as well.

"There are a lot of staff that don't feel valued and are feeling extremely stressed about their futures, about how they're going to manage their workloads, and the growing expectations of staff.

"Refusing to negotiate with the union has angered a lot of staff, which is unfortunate and it's not contributing to a high trust workplace, which is what we'd expect at a university," Snell said.

Engineering lecturer Dr Amir Reza Zokaei Fard filed an unfair dismissal case to the Fair Work Commission in January after being fired for "serious misconduct" in 2021.

According to Commission documents, Fard spent one year on paid personal leave while submitting general medical certificates stating he was unfit for work.

He was dismissed in December 2021 after refusing to attend three independent medical examinations ordered by RMIT.

The disciplinary action came after Fard received several complaints about his marking style, which involved individually printing, hand marking and scanning papers.

One event saw 57 students across five subjects have their marks changed in what RMIT called a "significant anomaly".

After being called into a review meeting, Fard told a university panel that "every student was against him".

"At one point, [Fard] stated 'When I go to class I am going to war. The students are waiting to kill me. You kill me and they get their free pass,' the director of future technologies at RMIT told the Commission.

"It is very troubling to hear a teacher use this type of language to describe their relationship with their students."

Fair Work Commissioner Tanya Cirkovic ruled that Fard's dismissal was not "harsh, unjust or unreasonable".

"I agree with the Respondent that the Applicant cannot remain on sick leave for a lengthy period, provide generalised information as to an unspecified medical condition and refuse to communicate," Cirkovic said.

With the explosion of “big data”, RMIT Online has seen enrolments for the Master of Data Science Strategy and Leadership skyrocket by 64 per cent in the 2020/21 financial year. The Master of Supply Chain and Logistics Management and the Master of Business Administration also experienced spikes in student enrolments during the same period, jumping 45 per cent and 37 per cent, respectively. 

A Forbes interview published last month, argued the future importance of fields such as logistics, supply chain management and data science cannot be underestimated.

“One of the most profound, and perhaps unanticipated impacts of the COVID pandemic is the dramatic changes to the global supply chain, global workforce, and newfound pressures on delivery and logistics. Certainly no one would have imagined that a primarily health-related cause should have such profound economic, workforce, and basic materials impacts,” the article said. 

“However, out of challenge comes opportunity. Organisations are re-examining their processes and technologies that deal with all aspects of producing and delivering goods and services to market, from the origination of raw materials to the delivery of finished products." 

Julian Stevenson, product director at RMIT Online, said the university is “seeing a huge demand for online data science postgraduate degrees as the volume of information and data available to organisations is growing exponentially” as is the demand for skilled data science professionals. 

“The COVID-19 pandemic has forced businesses to pivot to online strategy and improve their logistics practices, and we are seeing huge growth in demand for professionals with postgraduate skills in logistics and supply chain management, as well as marketing skills,” he said.

“Further study in data science, logistics, business administration, marketing or management can build professionals’ competencies as well as help to prepare them for more senior and management roles.”

Stevenson added that employers are “paying a premium for professionals with postgraduate qualifications who can meet technological and management demands”, recognising that big data, technological changes and the disruption caused by the COVID-19 pandemic requires special expertise like never before.

RMIT Online students gain knowledge and practical skills from industry partners who are at the forefront of their field, which is critical in today’s workforce.

“The new creed is that practice is more important than theory. To be successful and demanded in the job market, you should not just know stuff, you should be able to do stuff,” argues another Forbes article about online education trends in 2021 - what it refers to as "applied learning".

“Potential employers are not interested in what applicants know about using social media for business development; rather, employers want to see that possible hires know how to put it into practice.

“India, one of the most competitive labor markets and also a market with a huge potential for online learning, implemented the applied approach to education in its new National Education Policy. In education, this means that more courses are based on the principle of learning by doing, rather than studying theory, and then maybe doing one or two practical exercises.”

Dr Kevin Argus, lecturer in design thinking and marketing for RMIT Online’s MBA program, said demand for the MBA program is underpinned by its hands-on, job-ready skills and strong industry connections.

“Linking up with industry, RMIT Online knows where the skills gaps are in today’s employment market. The organisation can also forecast what the key drivers will be for the future of work. Their programs are designed to deliver work-ready skills and turn our graduates into valuable team members in the workforce,” he said.

Tudge’s speech discussed key ideas relating to the new International Education Strategy for 2021 to 2030.

“Can we use levers, including migration levers, to encourage more students to study in the areas where we know we have shortages?” he asked.

“Currently almost half of international enrolments at universities are concentrated in commerce, while fields like engineering, maths, technology and health attract significantly lower enrolment shares than the OECD average.”

Australia’s international education sector, the country’s fourth-biggest export market, has been battered by border closures due to the COVID-19 pandemic. To address this, the strategy calls for a departure from the traditional on-campus model by developing cheaper online or flexible learning options to attract students who cannot afford to study in Australia on a full-time basis. 

“Why not a further vision of educating several million people in our region through innovative online and hybrid courses?” the education minister continued.

“The global online e-learning market is forecast to grow from $130 billion to more than $470 billion by 2026. This growth is driven by students around the world seeking lower-cost education, as well as greater flexibility in how and where they learn.”

The education minister also expressed concern about the current strategy, saying that universities have participated in a “relentless” pursuit to generate revenue through international student fees - a strategy he says has helped subsidise research and rankings ambitions but compromised the education of all students.

“Having up to 60 per cent of a classroom with international students from just one or two other countries is not optimising the Australian student experience — or the international student experience,” Tudge said.

“I hear constant feedback along these lines.”

Chinese and Indian students comprise more than 55 per cent of the country’s  international student market. According to Tudge, such concentration “lowers the resilience of the international education sector to changes in global demand”.

“This incredible growth has been good for our economy, but even before COVID hit, strains were appearing and the continued rate of growth of on-campus enrolments was not sustainable in my view. This is particularly true for our public institutions which have a broader mandate.”

Further, while many Chinese students continued or commenced their studies online at Australian universities in 2020, the number of Indian students choosing to study in Australia “collapsed by more than 80 per cent in the second half of last year”, the Australian Financial Review reported.

The relationship between international student fees and university operating revenue has also been severely undercut by the pandemic.  Indeed, Universities Australia said that the loss of international student revenue in 2020 led to an estimated 17,300 redundancies in the higher education sector.

While the education minister’s long-term strategy calls for more flexible and diversified ways of responding to a disrupted sector, he was still hopeful that overseas students will return to Australian campuses en masse by semester one next year.

The Independent Tertiary Education of Council Australia (ITECA) has welcomed the announcement by the education minister to work with the sector in establishing a new strategy for international education. 

“With the continued closure of international borders resulting in a sustained decline in on-shore enrolments of international students, ITECA members in the international education sector will continue to do it tough. The next-generation Australian International Education Strategy needs to put in place arrangements to get these providers back on their feet,”  ITECA’s chief executive Troy Williams said.

“In the short-term, ITECA members are looking for a clear plan for the return of international students and over the longer term we’re looking to ensure that the sector is sustainable and continues to be able to deliver quality outcomes for students.”

ITECA is calling for a new International Education Commission “to bring together the disparate Australian Government activities in the international education sector”.

“We need a whole of government approach to regulation of tertiary education providers, visa processing and market promotion. It’s time for a single Australian Government agency to coordinate these activities,” Williams said.

Grants and funding 

When it comes to grants and funding, male academics consistently receive funding two to three times more often than females (ARC, 2020). For example, an Australian Research Council (ARC) data review showed that 2,307 2019 grant recipients were men, compared to just 939 women.

Although these findings could result from fewer female applicants, the USA’s National Institute of Health found that in applicants where the primary investigator was female, they received 24 per cent less funding than their male counterparts. At the core, more funding results in more opportunities for research and, in turn, promotions and career advancement, which favours men at least three times more than women.  

Publishing and citations

A primary prerequisite for academic tenure and career advancement is publications, including quantity, quality and citation frequency. Women only account for less than 30 per cent of published academic authorship. Although certain fields have higher female publication rates, there are much lower rates among the STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) disciplines. Further to this, female-first authorship has remained stagnant and has even declined in certain journals.

And, while women may submit papers for publication less frequently than men, this could be a result of several interrelated factors, including a lack of female mentors, a lack of confidence, work-life imbalance, and a lack of submission invitations. 

Service

Female academics tend to undertake internal service roles more often than males, resulting in fewer opportunities for leadership roles. Men are more likely to undertake external service roles, which may lead to greater opportunities in the above listed areas. While service roles have the potential for promotion, they are time-consuming and often hinder research and other opportunities required for advancement.

Professional development and conference attendance

Another key to career advancement in academia is professional development; however, women often experience barriers to attending professional development and conference opportunities. Career responsibilities, family obligations and travel expectations often impede women from participating in opportunities that can help them advance their careers. 

Further, opportunities for professional development in leadership or management are more often provided to men than women. Not to mention, female academics often hold casual and sessional positions, resulting in them having to attend professional development sessions and conferences on their own time, unpaid. 

Leadership opportunities

There is an extreme lack of leadership opportunities for women in higher education, especially among research-based senior leadership roles. While women more often hold leadership positions related to community engagement and teaching and learning, the higher the ladder goes, the fewer opportunities exist for women. As such, men continue to dominate academia in higher ranks and there is a lack of female representation in the top academic positions. There is a need for women to occupy these higher positions in universities to encourage other women to aspire for similar positions to close this gap. 

What can institutions do about gender inequity?

To help facilitate changes in policy and practice, there are a number of areas for systemic intervention, including: 

• Examination of legislation surrounding policy and practice on gender equity in academia 
• Implementation of a gender-focused equity policy that incorporates family and carer responsibilities and work-life balance
• Mentorship opportunities to support women in achieving leadership roles
• Workshops aimed at identifying and confronting barriers to female advancement within higher education and within specific disciplines
• Address and break down structural barriers in academia and home life, such as lack of institutional support, academic culture, and shared caregiving responsibilities
• Challenge stereotypes and cultural norms about women’s role in academia through an increased presence of women in senior roles.

In addition to the higher education context, there are also additional social considerations. It is widely reported that women carry the bulk of the domestic load irrespective of whether they have children or not. It is important to note that often women who hold careers in academia face an incredible dilemma between continuing to advance their career and having a family, something men in academia do not necessarily have to endure.

Women are faced with delaying having children or having no children at all if they want to advance their careers in academia. A disproportionate number of women in academia choose not to have children compared to other professions, and it is important to ask what systemic pressures may be at play.  

Academia urgently requires systemic responses to gender inequity, and our findings have specific implications for policymakers and leaders. Let’s celebrate women in academia through ethical equity.

The Journal of University Teaching and Learning Practice invites expressions of interest for submissions to a special issue Women and Leadership in Higher Education, led by Professor Angela Carbone (RMIT University) and Professor Kerryn Butler-Henderson (RMIT University). Further information is available on the journal’s website, with the issue to be published on International Women’s Day 2022.

Authors

An education and wellbeing expert is concerned that the future for young people will be as challenging, if not more so, than that experienced after the Global Financial Crisis.

For Professor Peter Kelly at RMIT's School of Education, this is a consequence of years of employment instability, poor work conditions and “predatory business behaviours” and, of course, the COVID-19 pandemic.

As Kelly says, young people are more vulnerable “largely because of the sorts of work young people do". This includes hospitality, retail and gig work.

But in his interview with Campus Review, Kelly mentioned that it’s not just the financial situation young people may find concerning: he described the current period as a sort of “existential crisis”, a time when many vulnerable young people are asking: “What does life look like next?”

“They are trying to map out the next stage of their lives,” Kelly said, “and are also seeking all those things that mark an adult life – independence, autonomy.”

Kelly has criticised governments and peak bodies for focusing too narrowly on skills and training, something the academic argues young people already have. Kelly is leading a project in Melbourne’s inner north called COVID-19 and Young People’s Well-being, Education, Training and Employment Pathways: Co-designing Scenarios for Young People’s Sustainable Futures.

The project seeks to look at what “recovery” looks like for vulnerable young people in the short, medium and longer term, and help them map out the next stages of their lives in broad, critical and sometimes provocative ways.

“We’re particularly interested in those populations who are already vulnerable,” he said, adding that “they didn’t have to have a mental illness to be considered vulnerable."

That was one of the key recommendations to come from a federal review of senior secondary pathways.

Led by Professor Peter Shergold, the review looked at whether current arrangements are supporting students to make the best decisions for their future.

While the report held that ATAR will likely continue to play a role in university selection processes, learner profiles would mean senior secondary students are seen as young people, not numbers.

Such profiles would include ATAR where relevant, individual subject results, VET competencies and certificates, minimum literacy, numeracy and digital literacy achievement and broader capabilities like caring responsibilities, sports achievements and hobbies.

The report also pushed for all future pathways to be equally respected.

“While higher education will remain an aspiration for many young people, academic pathways will no longer enjoy more privileged access to school resources than apprenticeships, traineeships or other forms of vocational education and training,” the report read.

In a letter to ministers, Shergold said: “The present transition pathways presented to young adults at school are too often framed in a manner that they perceive to narrow choice.

“The dominance of a ranking score, the ATAR, privileges academic capability over the value of vocational education and training. Many students believe that those headed for university are accorded higher status at school than those who prefer to pursue a trade apprenticeship or traineeship."

Shergold said the ATAR should be regarded as just one important measure of success.

“We need to open doors, not narrow pathways.”

RMIT backed the report’s findings. The university’s deputy vice-chancellor education and vice-president, Professor Belinda Tynan, said it was clear that significant nationwide change is needed.

Tynan said single measurements of success and an over-emphasis on the importance of achieving a competitive ATAR are narrow and can limit opportunities for many young people.

Shergold pushed council members to consider the proposal not despite but because of the impact of COVID-19, saying the disruption makes the report’s recommendations “even more relevant”.

“Reform can become part of the ‘new normal’. Schools, principals and teachers have exhibited their extraordinary capacity for flexibility and resilience,” he said. “They are up for the challenge.

“Never has this been more necessary because the future of work has rarely been more uncertain.”

But RMIT psychology lecturer Robyn Moffitt says emoji are a “simple, proven way” for educators to infuse their online feedback with warmth and personality.

Moffitt and her colleagues' research found the “classic smiley face emoji” can make students develop a warm and competent disposition towards the marker, prompting them to become more motivated.

The almost unilateral move from classroom to online or flexible learning has presented both challenges and opportunities for educators across the sector, but providing assessment feedback has been identified as a particularly difficult task.

Personal forms of feedback including elements such as facial expressions have now given way to more impersonal forms, including email and learning management systems.

As assessment is one of the most invaluable learning tools for both educators and students, Moffitt is concerned that the online tools for feedback could lead to students misinterpreting the intent of the feedback.

“We know emotion is an important element of feedback and emotionality is most readily communicated in a face-to-face setting,” Moffitt said.

But when face-to-face feedback sessions are untenable, Moffitt says emoji can do two positive things: bolster the effect of a positive message and soften the effect of a more critical one.  

“Emoji is the new currency of electronic communication. It’s taken over how we communicate online in social contexts with peers and friends, so it makes sense that it also has a place in education,” Moffitt said.

“It’s a quick and effective way to communicate warmth and emotion, even if you’re providing constructive feedback or highlighting areas for improvement.”

A recent study led by the RMIT lecturer backed up her claims. Students who received happy face emoticons in their feedback “had significantly higher perceptions of the teacher’s warmth, as well as much greater faith in the teacher’s competence”. Moffitt also said "using emoji did not make the marker seem any less professional and students’ perception of the overall feedback quality wasn’t affected".

“The research suggests using emoji could help us to achieve the goal of feedback, which is to motivate improvement,” she said.

“Emoji can demonstrate that even a not-so-positive message is still delivered with warmth and kindness; it helps to communicate that constructive feedback is given because I care and want you to learn and improve, not because I am displeased with your work.”

Another benefit Moffitt has identified is that, by using emoji, educators and students could be narrowing a generational chasm.

“Kids still love stickers, but they also love emoji,” she said.

“Even secondary school students often communicate more through emoji than words when texting or using social media.”

Choosing and using the perfect emoji

Of course, the smiley face emoji is not the only one that can be employed to supplement the more visual cues of feedback given in face-to-face situations. She offers the following advice: “Imagine the face you would want to portray while delivering feedback.”

“Using the classic smiley face emoji is a safe bet, especially to frame constructive feedback as a genuine attempt to motivate and improve,” Moffitt said.

“For example, rather than: ‘Be sure to proofread your work,’ consider: ‘Be sure to proofread your work ????.’”

Moffitt’s study, titled ‘Accessibility and emotionality of online assessment feedback: Using emoticons to enhance student perceptions of marker competence and warmth’ also found sad and confused emoji worked in some situations but suggested not overusing them, keeping them conservative, and “starting with smiling faces or emoji that clearly communicate positive affect”.

“Once students know teachers are open to communications with emoji, it can create new and fun ways of engaging,” she said.

“Asking students for input might also help discover some new emoji!"