Dawn Gilmore

Dawn Gilmore is an Associate Professor and Director of Academic Product and Student Experience at the University of Melbourne. In this capacity, she manages academic standards and drives innovation in student experience, including research on how online onboarding impacts retention and academic success at Melbourne Online. She collaborates with teams to deliver presentations at symposia hosted by the Melbourne Centre for the Study of Higher Education. Prior to joining the University of Melbourne, Gilmore held senior roles at RMIT University, where she served as Academic Director, Director of Quality & Enhancement in the office of the Associate Deputy Vice-Chancellor Education, and Director of Teaching & Learning at RMIT Online from 2017 to 2020. There, she oversaw a team of 18 staff members responsible for recruiting and coaching more than 850 teachers in online pedagogy, supporting over 16,000 student enrolments via personal learning profiles, and implementing a coaching model that boosted student satisfaction by 30 percentage points.

Gilmore earned her PhD from Swinburne University of Technology, M.S.Ed. from the University of Pennsylvania, and B.S. from Temple University. With more than two decades of experience in higher education, she has worked as a researcher, lecturer, unit coordinator, and academic developer. Her academic interests encompass online pedagogy, university program evaluation, academic quality assurance, simulated learning curriculum, benchmarking to international standards like the Bologna Process, and learning analytics. Notable projects include leading a university-wide Academic Quality and Enhancement Process, reviewing simulated learning law curriculum, and serving as a Visiting Research Scholar at the University of Witwatersrand Centre for Learning, Teaching & Development in 2015. She is the editor of the Routledge book "The Remaking of the University Educator: Transforming Teacher Identities in Higher Education." Other key publications feature "Implementing a coaching model for the development of online teaching practice" (2020) and "Partnering with Online Program Managers for Distance Education: Approaches to Policy, Quality, and Leadership" (2022). Gilmore has presented peer-reviewed papers at conferences including ASCILITE and TASA, and spoken at events for TEQSA and DEAC. As President of the Open and Distance Learning Association of Australia (ODLAA), she contributes significantly to advancing open and distance learning practices. She is a member of the Society for Learning Analytics Research (SoLAR) and the Microanalysis of Online Data Network (MOOD), and reviews books for HERDSA.

Professional Email: dgilmore@unimelb.edu.au