Amanda Edgar

Dr Amanda Edgar is an educational leader whose work focuses on how assessment, learning environments, technology and institutional systems can be designed to improve student learning, participation and success at scale. Her sustained contributions have been recognised nationally and internationally through an Australian Awards for University Teaching (AAUT) Citation (2023), a QS Reimagine Education Award (2024), and CAULLT/CAUDIT Award shortlisting (2025).

Amanda is a Senior Lecturer within Deakin University's central teaching and learning portfolio, where she leads institution-wide initiatives that have shaped assessment, learning environments and educational systems to improve student learning and success.

She began her career as a health professions educator, specialising in assessment and simulation-based education, and established international collaborations spanning India, Malawi, New Zealand, Sweden and the United Kingdom. As Expert Academic Lead for Deakin's End-of-Unit Assessment Reform, she provided academic leadership for one of the university's most significant teaching and learning transformations, accelerating a university-wide shift towards authentic assessment and reducing centrally managed examination sittings from 70,000 to 18,000. This work continues to influence assessment design practices across the institution and shaped her enduring focus on educational systems that improve participation and success at scale.

Amanda's leadership now centres on large-scale educational transformation. She led the development and implementation of learning activity and learning space nomenclature frameworks that inform university processes, governance and technology ecosystems, creating greater alignment between curriculum design, learning environments and digital infrastructure. As Chair of Deakin's Campus Learning Spaces Working Group, she provides strategic oversight of learning environment design and educational infrastructure, influencing university-wide decisions relating to learning spaces and technologies. She has also led major initiatives such as Deakin's Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) and Building B transformation, changing teaching practice and improving student access, flexibility, and learning experiences across campuses. Through Acting Director and Acting Associate Professor appointments within Digital Learning, she has contributed to institutional strategy, governance and innovation during periods of organisational change.

Beyond Deakin, Amanda provides leadership across the higher education sector. She founded and chairs the National Learning Spaces Network, connecting representatives from nine Australian universities and advancing shared approaches to learning environment design, evaluation and renewal. She also led the platform development and partnerships for Envirocare, an Indigenous-led, open-access curriculum resource supporting the integration of Indigenous knowledges into higher education and accessed annually by more than 10,000 users from 33 Australian universities. Through these initiatives, she has helped build sector capability and collaboration in the design of learning environments and curriculum resources.

Amanda's research and scholarship examine the learning environments she helps to shape. Her work focuses on postdigital learning environments, particularly how assessment, simulation and spaces support participation and the development of professional capabilities. Recognised for her expertise in assessment reform, learning environments and educational systems design, Amanda is regularly invited to contribute to national and international presentations, workshops and collaborations, including HERDSA, ASCILITE, ADCET, THETA, the ANZ health education community and UNESCO aligned initiatives, shaping sector conversations about the future of higher education.