Respect Matters (Australia)

Respect Matters is an online training program designed to support Australian staff and students in higher education institutions. It addresses the realities of gender-based violence and provides guidance on supporting those who have experienced it. The course also helps institutions comply with the Australian National Higher Education Code on Gender-Based Violence (2025).

About the project

Respect Matters was developed in collaboration with subject matter experts Camille Schloeffel and Trent Larkman. The program goes beyond simply meeting regulatory requirements, covering bystander intervention, culture change, legacies of colonialism, and elements of radical justice. It aims to create a genuinely transformative learning experience for higher education communities.

Date:

15 Dec 2025

Client:

Epigeum, SAGE Publications

Project Details

The Australian National Higher Education Code on Gender-Based Violence (2025) requires institutions to provide training on consent and gender-based violence. Building on my previous experience designing programs like Consent Matters (Australian and Aotearoa New Zealand versions), this project addressed the expanded requirements of the new regulations.

The development process brought together multiple Australian universities, subject matter experts, non-profits, and charities to collaboratively design an effective learning solution. Respect Matters built on these foundations and further promoted cultural change.

Key highlights from the alpha review included:

Non-judgmental tone
Use of diverse examples
Thoughtful inclusion of men and male-specific issues

Following the alpha review, additional content was incorporated based on feedback from Australian First Nations contributors, further enhancing inclusivity and cultural relevance. Overall, the project was collaborative, timely, and impactful.

My contribution

As the learning designer for this project, I was responsible for:

Pedagogical design and learner journey
Designing the overall learning structure to support different learning preferences (reading, watching, listening, doing), accessibility needs, and inclusive representation throughout the course. Simplifying a broad range of content while maintaining depth was a key success factor.
Curriculum and content development
Reviewing and shaping course content, including topic selection, sequencing, tone, and format, to ensure clarity, coherence, and impact.
Editorial leadership
Content editing and writing, ensuring consistency, sensitivity, and alignment with regulatory requirements, pedagogical goals and local cultural contexts. This course needed to cover a lot of ground too, so a main consideration was cutting down length without losing nuance.
Project coordination
Managing budgets, commissioning artwork, coordinating with partners, and supporting delivery against key milestones.
Video production
Conducting and editing video interviews across multiple time zones (US, UK, India and Australia) with contributors to support authenticity and learner engagement.