DrAmara Atif

Dr Amara Atif is a Senior Lecturer (equivalent to Associate Professor in North America and European academic systems) in the School of Computer Science within the Faculty of Engineering and IT at the University of Technology Sydney (UTS), Australia. A teacher at heart, a Learning Sciences researcher by training, and a Responsible AI advocate by passion, she provides leadership in designing intelligent, equitable and evidence-informed learning ecosystems through Human-Centred AI, Learning Analytics and Educational Innovation.

Working at the intersection of research, teaching and technology, Amara provides academic leadership in translating artificial intelligence and learning analytics into scalable educational practice that enhances student engagement, equity and success. Her interdisciplinary research spans Learning Sciences, Human-Centred AI, Human-Computer Interaction, Learning Analytics and Digital Equity, with a focus on designing intelligent educational ecosystems that support learners, educators and institutions. She teaches across undergraduate and postgraduate programs, including studio-based learning environments, and is recognised for leading innovative, student-centred approaches to curriculum design and educational practice.

As Co-Director of the iDEAS Research Hub and a full member of the Centre for Research on Education in a Digital Society (CREDS), Amara leads collaborative research that advances technology-enhanced learning and responsible AI in higher education. Her research investigates learner and educator engagement with intelligent learning systems, informing the development of early alert technologies, learning analytics interventions and AI-enabled educational environments that improve student success and institutional decision-making. She also contributes to technology acceptance and information systems adoption, strengthening interdisciplinary collaboration across education and computing.

Amara has established an internationally recognised research profile through publications in leading SJR Q1 journals, including Computers & Education, Journal of Computing in Higher Education and the Australasian Journal of Educational Technology. She regularly presents at internationally recognised conferences, including AMCIS, PACIS, ACIS, ASCILITE, AARE, PICMET and IEEE conferences. Beyond publishing, she contributes to advancing her discipline through editorial activities, peer review, technical program committees and special issue leadership.

An Associate Fellow of Advance HE (AFHEA) and a graduate of the UTS Teaching for Learning program, Amara demonstrates leadership in curriculum innovation. She developed the undergraduate Business Intelligence subject at UTS, embedding the Faculty's Indigenous Graduate Attribute through historically and culturally informed Indigenous knowledge systems while aligning curriculum with contemporary industry practice.

Recognised as a UTS Open Education Champion and a Creative Commons Certified educator, Amara provides institutional leadership in advancing open education and equitable access to knowledge. Her Creative Commons certification recognises her expertise in open licensing and open educational practice, complementing her work in developing and sharing Open Educational Resources (OERs) that improve learning opportunities for students and educators nationally and internationally. She is the lead author, editor and project manager of Decoding Data: A Complete Guide to Business Intelligence (UTS ePress, 2026), published through the Council of Australasian University Librarians (CAUL) OER Collective. The textbook represents a significant contribution to open scholarship by providing freely accessible, high-quality educational resources that support inclusive and sustainable learning.

Leadership and Recognition in Learning and Teaching:
Amara's sustained leadership and impact in learning and teaching have been recognised through multiple awards and recognition. Collectively, these awards acknowledge her contributions to curriculum innovation, learning analytics, open education, AI literacy, student engagement, academic support and educational transformation.

• 2026 Open Education Awards for Excellence (OEGlobal) - Nominee, Individual Award: Advancing Open Data and AI Literacy
• 2025 UTS Vice Chancellor’s Learning and Teaching Team Award (Academic Support) - Empowering academics to lead inclusive, data-informed teaching.
• 2024 UTS Vice Chancellor’s Learning and Teaching Highly Commended Team Award (Outstanding Contribution to Student Experience) - Fostering students' belonging in multiple disciplines through personalised feedback.

• 2022 UTS Vice Chancellor’s Citation for Outstanding Contributions to Student Learning - Recognising effective assessment practices that improve student learning through authentic assessment, meaningful feedback and academic integrity.
• 2021 UTS Vice Chancellor’s Learning and Teaching Team Award (Strengthening the UTS Model of Learning) - Transforming learning in the Faculty of Engineering and Information Technology through studios.
• 2017 Macquarie University Vice Chancellor’s Learning and Teaching Team Award for Outstanding Contribution to Student Learning - Innovative learning analytics solution that enhances the learning and teaching student experience.
  
  

These awards demonstrate a sustained record of educational leadership and innovation spanning almost a decade, with impact extending from individual teaching practice to faculty-wide initiatives that strengthen student success and academic capability.

Institutional Leadership and Service (UTS):

Amara demonstrates sustained institutional leadership through strategic academic service, curriculum leadership and initiatives that strengthen learning, teaching and student success across UTS.

She currently serves as Major Coordinator for the Business Information Systems Management (BIS-M) major, providing academic leadership for curriculum quality, program development and the student learning experience. She has also contributed to student mentoring through the UTS Apple Foundation Program and champions equity, diversity and inclusion as an Academic Staff Ambassador for Women in Engineering and IT (WiEIT).

Her institutional leadership includes serving as FEIT First Year Experience (FFYE) Transition Coordinator (2021–2024), where she led initiatives to strengthen transition, engagement and success for first-year students across the Information Technology discipline. She also served on the Education & Students Ecosystems Alignment (E&SEA) Working Group, a strategic Faculty initiative established to shape future models of education delivery within FEIT. Through this work, she contributed to developing principles for equitable teaching workload allocation, clarifying academic leadership roles, strengthening student communication throughout the student lifecycle, and identifying opportunities for cross-school collaboration to enhance educational quality and student success. She has further supported university governance and academic quality through membership of the FEIT Board, School Teaching and Learning Committee, FEIT Academic Integrity Working Group and FEIT Health and Safety Working Group, contributing to strategic decision-making, curriculum enhancement, academic integrity and institutional effectiveness.

Beyond formal leadership roles, Amara actively builds educational capability across UTS through the FEIT Pedagogy Community, Club Studio and the Education Express Blog, where she shares evidence-informed teaching practices, supports academic colleagues and contributes to institutional conversations on educational innovation and digital learning.

National and International Academic Leadership:
Amara provides leadership within the national and international academic community through conference leadership, scholarly service, editorial contributions and professional engagement.

She currently serves as Track Co-Chair for the General Track of the Australasian Conference on Information Systems (ACIS), providing academic leadership for one of Australasia's leading Information Systems conferences by overseeing the peer-review process and contributing to the quality and direction of conference scholarship.

Amara also contributes to national sector initiatives that shape the responsible adoption of artificial intelligence in higher education. She is a chief investigator on the Australian Council of Professors and Heads of Information Systems (ACPHIS) Generative AI Policy Review Project, a collaborative initiative that analyses and compares generative AI policies across Australian universities to identify emerging practices and inform future policy development for Information Systems education. This work reflects her commitment to advancing responsible AI governance and evidence-informed educational policy.

Amara actively translates her research beyond academia, contributing to wider policy, sector and public conversations on responsible AI, higher education and emerging technologies. Her research and perspectives have been featured across national and international policy, media and sector platforms, including The Policymaker, The Conversation (Editor’s Choice), Times Higher Education, Campus Review, AARE EduResearch Matters and ABC News. These engagements extend the reach of her research to policy, professional and public audiences.

She is also the Early Career Researchers and Students Chair for the ACM SIGCHI Sydney Chapter, leading initiatives that strengthen the Human-Computer Interaction research community through mentoring, networking and professional development opportunities for emerging researchers.

Amara also provides international editorial leadership through appointments with leading Q1 journals. She serves on the Editorial Board of Springr Nature's Humanities and Social Sciences Communications (SJR: Q1) (2026–present) and as Special Issue Editor for Sustainability (SJR: Q1) (2025-2026), leading the special issue Advancing Sustainable Education Through AI and Technological Breakthroughs, and for Education Sciences (SJR: Q1) (2023), leading the special issue Using Learning Analytics for Personalised, Data-Informed Feedback and Support: Studies of Impact, Challenges, and Future Directions. These editorial roles reflect her expertise in artificial intelligence in education, learning analytics, educational innovation and interdisciplinary scholarship while supporting the dissemination of high-quality international research.

Her standing within the higher education sector is further recognised through invitations to evaluate excellence and innovation. She has served as a Judge for the Australian Education Awards (2022), a Judge for the Reimagine Education Awards (2021), widely regarded as the "Oscars of Education" and an Assessor for the ALTA/ACDICT Grants Scheme (2025). These appointments recognise her expertise in educational innovation, learning technologies and higher education practice while enabling her to influence the advancement of teaching and learning nationally and internationally.

Alongside these formal leadership roles, Amara contributes extensively to the advancement of her discipline through editorial service, peer review for leading journals, conference technical program committees, special issue leadership and collaborative international research networks.