upstart‘s editor-in-chief Lawrie Zion and production editor Christopher Scanlon have been given a federal government award for outstanding contributors to student learning.

The Australian Awards for University Teaching are designed to recognise quality teaching practice and outstanding contributions to student learning. It is intended that recipients, with the support of their institutions, will contribute to systemic change in learning and teaching through ongoing knowledge sharing and dissemination, for example, presentations within the learning and teaching community, collegial mentoring, pairing and networking, and involvement in university and higher education committees.

Dr Zion and Dr Scanlon founded upstart in 2009 and the publication has been integrated into the curriculum in the Journalism Program at La Trobe University.

Both Dr Zion and Dr Scanlon have been given the award “for the development of an authentic learning environment in the discipline of journalism through the website upstart and its integration into the curriculum”.

A state-based presentation for the citation winners will be held in the near future.