Peh Mei Lian is a design educator with a strong passion for illustration and research. She is committed to diversifying teaching practices and regularly reassessing pedagogical approaches to ensure they remain relevant and effective in a rapidly evolving educational landscape. Throughout her teaching career, Mei Lian has focused on understanding how students learn and how best to support their developmental journeys, with the overarching goal of helping them unlock their full potential. She strongly believes that effective pedagogy is central to fostering student engagement and motivation, and she is dedicated to continually exploring innovative ways to enhance the learning experience. In 2025, Mei Lian contributed a chapter titled “Digital Storytelling: Crafting Story Content with Moving Images across Multiple Platforms” to Signature Pedagogies for Professions in Art and Design (Springer Singapore). The chapter examines multimodal, or transmedia, storytelling—where narrative elements are distributed across multiple digital platforms to form a cohesive and unified story world. Her research explores how students can be guided to develop compelling story ideas and interconnected subplots that are strategically dispersed across platforms. In addition, Mei Lian served as a judge for the Illustrator of the Year (IOTY) 2025 competition, reflecting her professional expertise and active engagement within the illustration community. Her current research interests focus on investigating how Artificial Intelligence (AI) can support and enhance peer interaction and collaborative learning in the classroom. In particular, she explores the use of AI in storytelling education to encourage creative collaboration, critical thinking, and collective problem-solving among students.

Professor Doa El-Ansary is Deputy Dean, Engagement and Professor of Physiotherapy at RMIT, Australia. She is also a Senior Research Fellow at the University of Melbourne and Adjunct Professor at Shanghai University of Medicine and Health Sciences. Doa is a recognised leader in physiotherapy, focusing on evidence-based practice and perioperative care in cardiothoracic surgery, with over 200 publications and $7.5 million in research funding. With 25 years in higher education, she has led several physiotherapy programs in Australia, pioneering innovative curricula tailored to industry needs and workforce gaps. Her educational approach emphasizes developing leadership skills, including "leading self", "leading teams", and "leading together" to shape future health leaders. Her research has contributed to new clinical guidelines and has been awarded in Australia, the USA, and Europe.

Rosmawati is an Assistant Professor at Singapore Institute of Technology. Her research interests include AI-enhanced teaching and learning, feedback in assessment, and academic writing in English. Her recent publication includes an edited volume on English for Academic and Specific Purposes in the Classroom: From Theory to Practice (published by Routledge), and a special issue on action research in EAP/ESP classrooms (published in Journal of English for Academic Purposes). Her current research projects look at the use of AI tools to enhance teaching and learning in higher education.

Dr Natalie Wall is an Associate Lecturer in Educational Psychology at Western Sydney University and a registered psychologist, with over a decade of experience across higher education institutions in Australia and the USA. Her work is defined by three core pillars: higher education, strategic technology use, and support for neurodivergent people. Natalie earned her PhD from The University of Newcastle. Outside of her academic and research pursuits, she finds balance and inspiration through nature walks.

Faiza Majid is a Senior Lecturer at the School of Banking and Finance at UNSW Business School. She completed her PhD in Finance from Universidad Carlos III de Madrid in 2019. She has been active educator for over ten years. She specialises in education of corporate finance courses across both undergraduate and postgraduate programs. With a passion for impactful and inclusive teaching, she has led the redesign and redevelopment of several core finance courses at UNSW, collaborating closely with educational designers and industry professionals to create authentic assessments that enhance students’ employability skills and connect financial theory to real-world applications. In 2023, she was awarded Fellowship of the Higher Education Academy (FHEA) in recognition of sustained educational excellence and leadership. She continuously strives to enhance the student learning experience through innovation, evidence-based practice, and empathy.

Steven Warburton is a senior leader in Education Innovation at the University of Newcastle, Australia. He leads institutional initiatives in digital education, curriculum design, assessment, and student experience, with a focus on improving learning quality and equity at scale. His work bridges policy, practice, and scholarship, particularly in technology-enhanced learning, assessment redesign, and staff capability development. Steven has published and presented widely on learning and teaching innovation and is actively engaged in national and international higher education networks.

I am an empathetic educator and champion of others, dedicated to uplifting people and practice through compassionate, evidence‑informed leadership. With over a decade of higher education experience, in my role as Senior Advisor for Academic Learning and Capability Development at Torrens University, I lead and navigate complexity with curiosity, care, and strategic influence. Much like an octopus, adaptive, intelligent, and connected I lead with three hearts: one for transformative learning, one for meaningful connection, and one for reflective practice. My work strengthens academic capability across a diverse, transnational workforce through professional learning, mentoring, and community‑building initiatives that embed wellbeing, kindness, and ethical practice into everyday academic life. Alongside this, my PhD at Edith Cowan University explores a human‑centred Capability Approach to academic flourishing and self‑care. Grounded in integrity and empathy, I am committed to creating spaces where people feel supported to grow, evolve, and thrive one heartbeat at a time.

Dr. Leonie Newnham has extensive experience in tertiary education and across diverse industry sectors, including government, academia, corporate governance, and not‑for‑profit organisations. Her career spans senior roles in academia, executive and strategic management, organisational and workforce planning, innovation and change management, diversity and inclusion, emergency management, and major project leadership. For more than two decades, Leonie has combined research and teaching with professional practice. She initially taught part‑time while serving as a senior manager in the Victorian Public Service before transitioning to a full‑time academic career. She has taught at several higher education institutions and is currently a Senior Learning Facilitator at Torrens University. Leonie is highly experienced in online education and has received multiple awards recognising her excellence in teaching. Her research interests focus on workplace innovation and culture, public sector management, and the future of work, including agile workplaces, innovation, artificial intelligence, and organisational culture.

Liren is a lecturer at the Department of Social Work at the National University of Singapore. He has been a social work educator for over a decade.

Matthias Cheong is an adjunct lecturer with Newcastle University (Singapore). He holds a Bachelor of Business Administration from the Singapore Management University, a Master of Business Administration from the University of Western Australia and is presently pursuing his PhD at Swinburne University of Technology. His experience includes teaching and academic coordination within transnational higher education programmes working with diverse international student cohorts and supporting the delivery of Australian university curricula in offshore settings. He has particular expertise in student engagement, academic skills development, and the operational realities of PEI-based university teaching, providing valuable institutional and on-the-ground insight into the student learning experience examined in this study.