Rate My Professor Sandhya (Sandy) Maranna

Dr. Sandhya (Sandy) Maranna is a Senior Lecturer in Medical Sonography in the School of Allied Health and Human Performance, College of Health, at Adelaide University. With a background in medicine and radiology, she holds qualifications including MBBS, DMRD, MGDL, IMMI, and a PhD titled 'Exploring the relation between cognitive transfer, self-regulated learning and learning transfer in postgraduate medical sonography students.' Over 20 years of expertise in women’s health diagnostic sonography, obstetrics, gynaecology, breast, and superficial parts sonography, she serves as course coordinator, breast imaging stream lead, and contributes to three sonography degree programs and interdisciplinary modules. Her teaching emphasizes critical thinking, learning transfer, self-regulated learning, and innovative online practices that have received local, national, and global recognition, including affiliations with the Centre for Change & Complexity in Learning.

Maranna's research specializations include cognitive presence and self-regulated learning in online allied health courses, student learning transfer to clinical practice, integration of artificial intelligence in point-of-care ultrasound, structured online vivas for competency assessment, impact of COVID-19 on sonographers, and antenatal corticosteroids for preterm birth. Key publications include 'Cognitive presence and self-regulated learning: Learning transfer in an online allied health course' (Maranna et al., 2025, Journal of University Teaching and Learning Practice), 'A scoping review on the integration of artificial intelligence in point-of-care ultrasound: Current clinical applications' (Kim et al., 2025, American Journal of Emergency Medicine), 'Student perspectives on learning transfer from online postgraduate sonography courses to traineeships: A pilot survey' (Maranna et al., 2024, Sonography), 'Factors that influence cognitive presence: A scoping review' (Maranna et al., 2022, Australasian Journal of Educational Technology), and 'Antenatal dexamethasone for early preterm birth in low-resource countries' (Oladapo et al., 2020, New England Journal of Medicine) as part of WHO ACTION trials. She co-supervises higher degree by research students and has held leadership roles in national and international sonography education committees. Accolades include 2025 Australasian Sonographers Association Researcher of the Year, 2023 Sue Caitcheon Memorial Award, 2022 SA Women in Innovation Award for Social Impact, 2021 Australian Award for University Teaching Citation, 2021 Online Learning Consortium Award, Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (2019), and Inaugural Fellow of the Australasian Sonographers Association (2018).