Wednesday, 17 Sept 2025
9:20 AM (AEST)
Duration: 45 – 60 Minutes
Where: Virtual
Watch the webinar recording below, where Gemma McLean, Regional Director for K–12 at Instructure (APAC), joined Margo Griffith from Edalex and Darren Ponman of Hunter School of the Performing Arts (HSPA) in a spotlight session – Beyond Grades: HSPA’s Innovative Path to Student Success. Together, they revealed how HSPA leverages Canvas and Edalex’s Learner Dashboard to transform mastery learning and digital credentials, providing students with verified, lifelong records of achievement.
00:00 – Introduction
02:54 – HSPA’s Learner Dashboard and Mastery Learning
10:17 – Edalex Partnership and Technical Implementation
19:53 – First-hand Stories from HSPA Learners’ Experiences
35:05 – Q&A
ABOUT THE SESSION
Hosted by Gemma McLean, Canvas’ Regional Director for K-12 APAC, this webinar shares insights into HSPA’s transformative vision, presented by Deputy Principal Darren Ponman. Margo Griffith, Principal Skills Consultant at Edalex, will explain how provisional evidence tracks ongoing progress and how digital credentials give students verifiable, lifelong achievements they truly own.
Crucially, you can hear firsthand from HSPA students about the direct impact on their soft skills, academic growth, and readiness for a dynamic future.
Uncover how this collaboration is creating a connected learning ecosystem within Canvas.
What we cover:
- Discover a proven Canvas use case – see how HSPA has successfully implemented a mastery learning approach within Canvas.
- Explore the Learner Dashboard – understand how provisional evidence and digital credentials provide a richer, more holistic view of student progress.
- Empower student ownership – learn how students gain a portable, lifelong record of their achievements, boosting employability and future readiness.
- Enhance reporting and insights – see how administrators and educators can gain deeper insights into student learning and growth beyond traditional grades.
- Witness true partnership in action – understand how collaboration and innovation can tailor solutions to meet specific institutional needs.
- Formal vs informal learning
- Role of micro-credentials, digital badges, and portfolios
- Cross-sectoral recognition (HE, VET, workplace)
Panelists:
- Gemma McLean – Regional Director K-12, Instructure
- Darren Ponman – Deputy Principal, Hunter School of the Performing Arts (HSPA)
- Margo Griffith – Principal Skills Consultant, Edalex
HSPA Students:
- Zali Edwards – Student, Year 7
- Clara Zappulla – Student, Year 8
- Sophia Noronha – Student, Year 9
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Gemma McLean Gemma is the Regional Director for K–12 across APAC at Instructure (Canvas LMS), where she partners with schools, governments, and education leaders to simplify learning, close equity gaps, and empower teachers through technology. With over a decade of experience across EdTech, cloud, and the public sector, she specialises in leading large-scale digital transformation—guiding initiatives from strategy and procurement through to implementation and long-term adoption. Prior to Instructure, Gemma held senior roles at AWS, where she drove high-impact programs in healthcare, life sciences, and education. She brings a “customer-first, long-term value” mindset back into the K–12 space, balancing strategic vision with hands-on execution to ensure initiatives don’t just launch, but succeed and scale. A passionate advocate for diversity, inclusion, and neurodivergent talent, Gemma actively mentors emerging leaders and champions the use of technology to benefit all learners, regardless of background. She believes the most powerful outcomes come from seeing people — not just projects. |
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Darren Ponman Darren passionately leads the design and implementation of innovative, equitable and engaging educational opportunities, as well as systems which facilitate these characteristics efficiently. Darren’s extensive educational leadership has resulted in a wide variety of innovative and sustainable initiatives. These are consistently used as examples of best practice in Australian Education. Some of these include – designing and implementing a variety of digital Learning Management and Administration Systems across many schools, co-designing the first greenfield Big Picture Education Campus in NSW, writing and resourcing the State-wide Critical Thinking syllabus, designing, coordinating and implementing vast, technology-based infrastructure, including multimillion dollar AV and multimedia centres across several public schools. Currently, collaborating with Edalex and Learning Vault to design and implement a scalable, Mastery-based, digital credential system for use in K-12 schools. |
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Margo Griffith Margo’s in-depth knowledge and experience of skills, the skills ecosystem and digital credentials is the result of working in and with higher education providers and edtech leaders, nationally and internationally for 30+ years. She is passionate about the positive impact of technology within education and the enablement of lifelong learning, learner agency and mobility. Margo is a convenor of the Australian micro credentials Network and consults with Government, industry and education sectors around a skills first approach to learning and workforce. Her recent publications include “Creating the University of the Future: A Global View on Future Skills and Future Higher Education” (Contributor) (Springer 2024) and “Technology Enablement of the Skills Ecosystem” Naomi Rose Boyer and Margo Leanne Griffith (International Journal of Information and Learning Technology ISSN: 2056-4880, 2023). |
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Zali Edwards I am a Year 7 student at HSPA who studies Drama, but I also learn bass guitar outside school. I love performing, creative writing, and music, and I am passionate about history and learning about different cultures. I use the Learner Dashboard every day to track my mastery levels, set goals, and access information on each of my subjects. I am proud of performing in school productions, pushing myself in public speaking, and now representing HSPA via learner dashboard webinar. |
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Clara Zappulla I am a Year 8 student here at HSPA. I go to this school for drama. I am passionate about performing and expressing myself through both academic and extracurricular activities. I am a part of the leadership team, debating and this year’s school musical ‘Grease’. The learner dashboard helps me see how I am going in my subjects and gives me goals to achieve through things like badges. HSPA has supported me through my schooling journey since year 4 and I look forward to showing you our learning model. |
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Sophia Noronha My name is Sophia, I am in Year 9 at HSPA and my performing art is music. I got into piano but also love singing. I enjoy creative writing, sewing and reading. I’m very academic and enjoy learning both in and outside of the classroom. I love checking in with my learner dashboard to see how I’m tracking. |
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