Rate My Professor Sandra Barker

Dr Sandra Barker is a Senior Lecturer in the School of Management within the College of Business and Law at Adelaide University. She earned a PhD in Business, a Graduate Diploma in Education Studies (Digital Learning), a Graduate Certificate in Education (University Teaching), and a Bachelor of Applied Science (Chemistry). In early 2021, she received Senior Fellowship with Advance HE (SFHEA). Previously, she served as a Lecturer in Management at UniSA Business and managed the implementation of STEP 2010 in the School of Management. Prior to academia, Barker ran her own database development business for five years, providing consulting services in the mining and fitness industries, building small-scale databases with Microsoft Access, and creating software training courses and business documents. She also worked as a purchasing and production manager in the chemical and education sectors, and as a laboratory technician and supervisor in the wine industry.

Barker's research focuses on authentic assessment, feedback, and experiential learning, particularly work placements, graduate qualities and enterprise skills, learning analytics, business simulations, and role play. She investigates digital learning technologies such as simulations, large-scale personalised feedback emails, and feedback/feedforward strategies, as well as end-user computing challenges in developing small-scale databases and spreadsheets. Her teaching emphasizes experiential components in undergraduate courses like BUSS 3074 Business Decision Making Simulation and BUSS 3087 Managing Decision Making. Notable publications include "Exploring student response systems for large group teaching: a tale of engagement at scale" (Journal of Work-Applied Management, 2024, with L. Gribble), "Reflections on mentoring: women in leadership with technology in mind" (ASCILITE 2024, with L. Gribble and J.N. Singh), "Unlocking student success: harnessing the power of simulation-based learning in business education" (ASCILITE 2023, with A. Warner), "Life after COVID-19: same-same or different relationships?" (2023, with A. Warner et al.), and "Futureproofing assessment in business education: lessons from COVID-19" (2021, with multiple co-authors). Barker contributes to the field through her role as a current member of the ASCILITE Executive, having served as campus representative, convenor of the 2016 ASCILITE conference in Adelaide, and organizer for the 2003 conference.