The team's work in 2023 continued to be extremely varied and immensely rewarding. With a new consortium hosting arrangement in place, Ako Aotearoa is excited to work with Massey University, Te Wānanga o Aotearoa and Te Pūkenga as we remain dedicated to enhancing the quality of teaching and learning across the sector.
“It was equally challenging and exciting for Ako Aotearoa to achieve the new funding agreement to continue as the refreshed National Centre for Tertiary Teaching,” says Tumuaki/Director Helen Lomax. “Our team is proud to do so with this exciting new consortium.”
Highlights from the report include:
Manako
The Manako team received international recognition in 2023 when they were named an International Successful Practices Honoree in the United States Library of Congress Literacy Awards. The team was honoured to accept this award for promoting adult literacy in Aotearoa New Zealand.
Te Whatu Kairangi
We were thrilled to be able to host the Te Whatu Kairangi ceremony back at Parliament and present the recipients their awards in person after a three year break due to Covid. During the ceremony, we were also delighted to award the first ever Le Moana Mua awards to two outstanding Pacific educators. In November 2023, we announced a new award - Te Tohu Reo Māori - which recognises the practice of kaiako who teach te reo Māori.
Ako Aotearoa Research and Innovation Agenda (AARIA)
Ako Aotearoa contributed $405,000 towards successful AARIA projects with notable success stories from BCITO and research projects investigating AI and Te Tiriti o Waitangi. AARIA funded projects have also become more closely aligned with the Tertiary Education Commission (TEC) strategy for teaching and learning success.
Tuia Te Ako
The Tuia Te Ako online seminar series had a total of 682 attendances across five online seminars covering ‘Tū Mai Te Tiriti | Upraising the Treaty in Tertiary Education’. This was a 36% increase from the previous seminar series in 2021.
Professional Learning Development (PLD)
While collaborating with 20 organisations and hosting 68 in-house PLD events, Ako Aotearoa received an 88% quality rating across all PLD (General and Manako) and saw a 107% increase in awarding digital badges to PLD participants.
Te Pātaka Mātauranga Māori
As part of our commitment to being a Te Tiriti-led organisation, we have reviewed and developed new resources in Te Pātaka Mātauranga Māori. This resource saw close to 10,000 total page views from January – December 2023.
Dyslexia-Friendly Quality Mark (DFQM)
An additional five organisations achieved the DFQM in 2023 raising the total to 12 since its inception in 2021.
Tapatoru Ako Professional Practice Award
We held an online celebration for three organisations who each had staff members achieve a Tapatoru Ako Professional Practice Award. We also launched the Tapatoru Pathway – a free tool that introduces the content in the main Tapatoru programme.
Read the full report in the Our Publications section of our website
