STAFF PROFILE
Dr Li Ping Thong
Dr Li Ping Thong is a digital media designer, educator and researcher. She is a Senior Lecturer of the Bachelor of Design (Digital Media) program.
Her work focuses on the thoughtful crafting of digital media experiences for meaningful and positive social impact.Her skills include User Experience (UX) design, Interactive Design, Virtual Reality (VR), Augmented Reality (AR), Digital Storytelling, Mobile App Development, Web Design, Digital Illustrations, 2d/3d animation, Motion Design and Serious Games.
As a Digital Media designer and Senior Lecturer, Dr Li Ping Thong has vast experience practicing, teaching and researching in a myriad range of digital media specialisations, including 2D/3D animation, interactive media, app development, motion design, digital illustration, serious games, Virtual Reality (VR), Augmented Reality (AR).
Dr Li Ping Thong was the Program Manager of the RMIT Bachelor of Design (Digital Media) program from 2018-2020 and led a dynamic team of academic staff in the future-focused delivery of one of the most successful digital media undergraduate degrees in Australia. An experienced design practitioner in the industry, she is also an experienced educator, having over 16 years of internationalised higher education teaching experience across Malaysia, Vietnam and Australia.
A highly collaborative digital media specialist, Li Ping's research projects are often cross-disciplinary with a strong industry and community focus, having successfully worked with external partners such as Foodbank Australia, Porter Davis, Federation Square, Melbourne Girls Grammar School and Golden Plains Shire Council. Of core importance to Li Ping is research that entails in meaningful impact to society, education and the digital design discipline. She had been consistently successful in acquiring external and internal grants for research and teaching/learning.
If you seek a collaborator with Li Ping's digital media expertise, please feel free to get in touch for further discussion.
Key Roles
- Program Manager - Bachelor of Design (Digital Media) (2018 – 2020)
- Postgraduate Supervisor
- Researcher, Fight Food Waste CRC
- Selection Officer
- Course Coordinator
Teaching Activities
Selected Studio Courses
- Golden Plains Stories (2022) - Externally funded WIL project
- Remembering Australian Army Nurses (2021) - Externally funded WIL project
- Design for All studio with Foodbank and YWaste app (2020) - CRC funded WIL project
- Digital Media Creative Collaboration (2018, 2019) - Study tours, funded by New Colombo Plan
- Xperience VR (2017) - Industry funded WIL project
Other core courses taught (Selected List)
- Digital Media Studio
- Interactive Media
- Advanced Electronic Imaging
- Advanced Web Authoring
- Advanced 3d Imaging and Animation
Engagement
External Engagement
- Technologist in Residence – Innovation Grant - Melbourne Girls Grammar School (2021, 2019)
- CSIRO ON Prime program team (2018)
- Science Week Guest Speaker - Digital Media Talk – Hazel Glen College (2018)
- STEM-in-situ – encouraging girls in STEM careers - Virtual Reality workshop series (2017-2018)
- Virtual Reality workshop – Northcote High School (2017)
- Transhumanism workshop series - teaching collaboration with State University of New York (2017)
- INTERACT staff exchange – staff exchange with University of the Arts London and Danish School of Media and Journalism (2016)
- International Games Concept Challenge – study tour and workshop collaboration with Nanyang Polytechnic, Singapore (2016)
RMIT Engagement
- Voice Story language learning app development – RMIT School of Education (2018 – 2019)
- Virtual Reality Simulation for Early Childhood Educators – RMIT School of Education (2018- 2019)
- Acupressure Framework website development - RMIT School of Health and Biomedical Sciences (2018)
- Sexual Harassment on Public Transport - app design workshop series - RMIT School of Economics, Finance and Marketing (2017 – 2018)
Li Ping's research projects are often cross-disciplinary and applied research by nature, with existing and emerging digital media technologies being designed and developed across a diverse array of contexts, such as education, health, architecture, etc. Her recent project involves collaborating with Foodbank Australia, YWaste and Fight Food Waste CRC to work alongside Industrial Design/Digital Media students and staffs to redesign UI/UX design of YWaste app and campaign strategies for nationwide adoption of the app, with the aim of solving the food insecurity and food wastage crisis in Australia.
Li Ping’s PhD study investigated the learning effectiveness of digital role-playing games (RPG) to accomplish learning outcomes in digital media education, in which she interrogated how situated learning could be achieved through game-play in an immersive 3d environment. She designed and developed a serious game – Virtual Designer. Utilising non-linear scenarios, the 3d game simulates a design studio. Students role-played as designers and were confronted with various situations typically faced by design practitioners, in which they apply their design knowledge into workplace contexts.
Li Ping's research interests include:
- Virtual Reality (VR)
- Augmented Reality (AR)
- Serious Games
- Interactive Media
- Interactive Storytelling
- 2D/3D Animation
- User experience (UX) and User Interface (UI) design
- Digital Environments
- Technology-based teaching and learning with digital media technologies
- Innovative Digital Media Projects
- Creative Digital Services in SEA
Funding - Victorian Higher Education State Investment Fund (VHESIF), 2022 - Community Banashi: Stories of place from Australia and Japan
Funding - Australia-Japan Foundation, 2021-2023 - Angels of War: Remembering Australian Army Nurses
Funding - Department of Families, Fairness and Housing, 2021-2022 - Golden Plains Stories: Community History Interactive Web Exhibition Project
Funding - Public Records Office of Victoria, 2021-2024 - Playable Campus - Augmented Reality co-design workshop series
Funding - Melbourne Girls Grammar School, 2021 - Fertile Fields - Augmented Reality Contemporary Art Trail
Funding - Moreland City Council, 2021 - Foodbank Meals via Y Waste App (Phase 2)
Funding - Fight Food Waste CRC, NSW EPA, 2021-2022 - Foodbank Meals via Y Waste App (Phase 1)
Funding - Fight Food Waste CRC, Foodbank Australia, 2019-2020 - Technologist in Residence
Funding - Melbourne Girls Grammar School, 2019 - XperienceVR - Industry Partnered Digital Design studio (Virtual Reality) in partnership with Porter Davis
Funding - Porter Davis, 2017 - Voice Story Language Learning App
Funding - RMIT Research Translation Seed Fund, 2017-2018 - Digital Media Creative Collaboration – Taylor’s University, Malaysia
Funding - DFAT New Colombo Plan (NCP) Mobility Grant, 2019 - Digital Media Creative Collaboration - Multimedia University, Malaysia
Funding - DFAT New Colombo Plan (NCP) Mobility Grant, 2018 - Vietnam study tour
Funding – RMIT Mobility Grant, 2019
- PhD in Computing (Serious Games), Coventry University
- Master of Multimedia (E-Learning Technologies), Multimedia University
- Bachelor of Multimedia (Film and Animation), Multimedia University
- Graduate Certificate in Tertiary Teaching, RMIT University
- Autodesk 3d Studio Max End User Certification
- Final Cut Pro End User Certification
- 2015 – Current: Senior Lecturer (Digital Media), RMIT University (Melbourne)
- 2018 – 2020: Program Manager (Digital Media), RMIT University (Melbourne)
- 2008 – 2015: Senior Lecturer (Design - Multimedia Systems), RMIT University Vietnam (Ho Chi Minh)
- 2006 – 2008: Lecturer, Taylor's university (Kuala Lumpur)
- 2005 - 2006: AV Application Specialist, Taylor's University (Kuala Lumpur)
- 2005 – 2008: Designer, Hunter Studios (Kuala Lumpur)
- 2005: Photographer/Graphic Designer, Fotorex Holdings (Kuala Lumpur)
- 2004 – 2005: Animator/Graphic Designer, Flextronics Asia (Kuala Lumpur)
- 2004: Animator/Line Artist, FAT Lizard (Kuala Lumpur)
- Park, H.,Cooper, G.,Thong, L. (2022). Designing an Immersive Virtual Reality Classroom Exploring Behaviour Support Strategies In: Video Journal of Education and Pedagogy, 35, 1 - 17
- Thong, L.,Anich, J. (2022). Foodbank Meals on Y Waste App - Phase 2 In: Fight Food Waste Cooperative Research Centre, NSW EPA, Foodbank Australia Adelaide, Australia.
- Anich, J.,Thong, L. (2022). Foodbank Meals Via Y Waste App In: Fight Food Waste Cooperative Research Centre Adelaide, Australia
- Cooper, G.,Park, H.,Nasr, Z.,Thong, L.,Johnson, R. (2019). Using virtual reality in the classroom: preservice teachers' perceptions of its use as a teaching and learning tool In: Educational Media International, 56, 1 - 13
- Wilks-Smith, N.,Thong, L. (2019). Transformative language use in and beyond the classroom with the Voice Story app In: Studies in Self-Access Learning Journal, 10, 282 - 295
- Marquez, J.,Greuter, S.,Thong, L.,Duckworth, J. (2019). A card game designed to teach english pragmatic markers In: Proceedings of the 13th International Conference on Game Based Learning (ECGBL 2019), Odense, Denmark, 3 - 4 October 2019
- McCauley, B.,Nguyen, N.,Nkhoma, M.,Thong, L. (2018). Green Turtle Hero In: Green Turtle Hero App HCMC, Vietnam
- Cooper, G.,Thong, L. (2018). Implementing Virtual Reality in the Classroom: Envisaging Possibilities in STEM Education In: STEM Education: An Emerging Field of Inquiry, Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, Netherlands
- McCauley, B.,Thong, L.,Nkhoma, M.,Nguyen, N. (2017). Vietnam run: an alternative approach to mobile learning In: Proceedings of the 20th Informing Science and Information Technology Education Conference (InSITE 2017), Ho Chi Minh (Saigon), Vietnam, 31 July-5 August 2017
- McCauley, B.,Thong, L.,Nkhoma, M. (2017). Developing a mobile game with social impact In: Proceedings of the 2017 Australia and New Zealand Marketing Academy Conference (ANZMAC 2017), Melbourne, Australia, 4-6 December 2017
4 PhD Completions
- Creative Digital Services in SEA (VHESIF Pool 1 - Asia Trade and Innovation Hub). Funded by: Victorian Higher Education State Investment Fund (VHESIF) - Pool 1 from (2022 to 2022)
- Community Banashi: Stories of place from Australia and Japan. Funded by: Australia-Japan Foundation (AJF) Grant 2018 onwards from (2021 to 2023)
- Angels of War: Remembering Australian Army Nurses. Funded by: Victoria Remembers Minor Grant Program from (2021 to 2022)
- Golden Plains Stories: Community History Interactive Web Exhibition Project (administered by Golden Plains Shire Council). Funded by: Local History Grants Program 2020-2021 from (2021 to 2024)
- Foodbank Meals on Y Waste App – Phase 2 (Project 1.4.4). Funded by: Fight Food Waste CRC from (2020 to 2023)