DrJeff Chamberlain

As stated on my bio page, my professional purpose and its underpinning philosophy has been to ensure pragmatism, through a modus operandi of practical application, across all academic dimensions. This is deeply exemplified in my approach to teaching and learning. If something cannot be 'applied' in a business management or leadership context, then it probably won't appear in my teaching. However, this is not to say that teaching should only be drawn from text books. This is far from the case and it is amazing how many interesting (and less obvious) business oriented dimensions are overlooked in so many business courses.

One needs to look beyond the text books to find the depth and value that will really grow perspectives. So I deliberately bring the following experiences and dimensions to my teaching and learning approaches:

• deep industry management and leadership experiences
• martial arts metaphors, perspectives and learning techniques (I hold a second degree black belt in Karate and have trained in the martial arts for decades)
• experiences as a company board director (since 2016 at Eastern Innovation Business Centre - see link in left side bar)
• experiences as a Fellow to various reputed institutions including: CPA Australia (FCPA); Australian Institute of Managers and Leaders (FIML); and the Strategic Management Institute (FSMI)
• experiences as an executive education educator with DeakinCo (most recently delivering online executive education in Transformation and Change to TATA Aerospace Executive Leadership Groups, India, 2021, 2022, 2023)
• and probably most significantly, experiences as a dad living in the 21st century!

My key message here: perspectives in business education cannot be one dimensional. This approach seems to work. I have received various awards for teaching excellence which you can check out under the 'professional activities' tab above!

As stated on my bio page, my teaching pivots around my triple helix model. This has honed my teaching focus to the 'essence' of business - its processes. With rapid advances in technology there has never been a more critical time than now for enterprises to focus carefully on their strategies, processes and supporting technologies. Business problems need to be identified, prioritised and resolved through careful optimisation and even transformation. This requires convincing business cases, thorough implementation methodologies and leadership excellence. These are the pragmatic dimensions of business that I teach and facilitate with Deakin's MBA students.

So, a broad list of integrated disciplines that represent my teaching interests would probably look like this (as a minimum):

• Leadership
• Strategic Management
• Systems Thinking
• Business Process Improvement
• Business Process Management
• Business Case Development
• Technology and Enterprise Systems
• Project Management
• Change Leadership
• Higher Education
• Capabilities (Individual and Organisational)
• Self-Concept and Development

My activities list (shown in the next box below) highlights the various units that I have chaired and taught at Deakin. The most recent that I have taught, since 2019, is MBA705 Enterprise Optimisation and Transformation (previously titled MBA705 Business Processes and Technology), which is highly reputed for its pragmatism and relevance to MBA students.

I am also very interested in teaching delivery models. MBA705 was designed within a new model at Deakin called 'Cloud First' emphasising its online delivery design. I have also been involved in Deakin's pioneering 'Start Anytime' delivery framework, (where students could literally commence a unit at any time of the year) and developed one of the first units to test this approach (MPM701 Business Process Management - Start Anytime).

The art of teaching and learning is rising to prominence once again in academe, particularly in light of recent global shifts and preferences for online models of educational delivery. The academic world has changed dramatically since around 2020. Old educational models are struggling to survive (the lecture theatre is dead). New digital models are sweeping through academe. At Deakin we are well prepared to meet this challenge having been deeply ensconced in the online learning space for well over twenty years. Online teaching and learning is fascinating, inclusive, innovative, effective, interactive and engaging - if done right. Deakin is taking this to the next level and I'm excited to be at the forefront of this challenge.