AADES is the peak professional organisation in Australasia representing school level distance education.
AADES was formed in 1993 and currently has in excess of 1200 members across all Australian states and New Zealand.

For the last couple of years Joel Scott at NTSDE has been developing a range of embedded tasks with rich, individualised, instant feedback along with high repeatability for supporting students in a number of learning areas including Mathematics, Science and Literacy/Numeracy courses. The purpose being to provide opportunities for students to reinforce basic skills and use formative tasks to prepare for summative assessments. Date: Thursday 26th February 2026 Time: 1:00pm AEDT Details in article.

Trauma Informed Practice has been the focus of the second AADES Community of Practice. In this webinar teachers and leaders from across Australia and New Zealand share the imperative of being trauma informed and how this can be translated into practice in the online and distance context. Members shared their learning on their chosen areas of focus, which included Igniting Passion and Purpose, Engagement, Behaviour Regulation and Instructional Planning. The webinar recording is now available for viewing.

The AADES Biennial Conference will be held 3-4 September 2026 at the Sofitel Wentworth, Sydney NSW. Early bird registration (at a reduced rate) is now open. Our conference is an opportunity for distance and virtual teachers to meet, connect, share and learn together with their Australasian colleagues. Our keynote speakers include Doug Fisher, Louka Parry, Dr Jenny Donovan and Kirra Pendergast, with more to come. The program will provide a choice of 24 workshops focused on our themes Lead, Learn, Thrive. The workshops will have a practical focus and are an opportunity to share evidence informed practice from across the jurisdictions.