CQUniversity senior lecturer in information systems Dr William Guo recently became one of the first academics in Australia to complete the new Graduate Certificate in Tertiary Education (GCTE) qualification...

The GCTE is provided by a consortium of universities, including CQUniversity, and William completed the program with flying colours, saying it has been a great boon for his teaching techniques.

Dr William Guo's on the ball when it comes to improving his teaching

"One invaluable lesson I learnt from Curriculum Design for Tertiary Contexts with the University of New England is that an interactive learning environment is one of the most effective ways to engage students with courses and instructors," William said.

"I will certainly practice many good tips learnt from GCTE in my course and program design."

William says the 'action-learning' component delivered by Edith Cowan University was a real eye-opener for him, after years of using an approach based only on scientific logic.

"Action learning is totally new territory. Everyone in a group knows more or less about something but everyone can contribute different points of view, meaning you come out with a solution which is not necessarily the best but one that is workable for that specific problem, while providing a learning curve for the group members.

"As Chair of the Postgraduate ICT programs committee, actually I have applied some skills learnt from action learning to our Masters programs restructure and it has been progressing very well. I've also tried a number of online teaching and learning tools and set up three websites during my study.

"In 2011, I'll use all useful tips learnt for the redevelopment of Research Methods for Research Higher Degree students."

William says the CQUniversity component of the GCTE provided a useful suite of ideas for technological approaches to teaching, showing how to incoporate tools such as audio-visual materials and discussion boards.

• A specialist in computer science, information systems, computational intelligence, image processing, and project management, William left his home in China to complete a PhD on scholarship at the University of Western Australia in 1995.

He subsequently worked at Curtin University and Edith Cowan University before taking up his post at CQUniversity in 2007.

William enjoys living in Australia with his wife and son and supports his son's passion for Australian Football.