How long have you worked at the Uni? What does your role involve?
I’ve been here for three years. I started as a learning technologist in the team, and then an opportunity came up to move into the manager’s role six months after that, so I am now the Technology Enhanced Learning Manager.
Our primary focus is to work with staff, both academic and professional services, to think about how technology can enhance what they are doing to enhance the students’ learning and teaching experience. We also help teams think about how technology might help make their job easier.
The team mainly focuses on Moodle, the virtual learning environment, where content gets uploaded and activities and assessment takes place. We often sit down with staff to think about how they can make best use of that space to ensure that students get the best possible experience of teaching online.
We also trial products. This year we're rolling out a trial of online exams for students, and the last one we did was with a cohort of about 200. They were using their own laptops for doing online exams. So we’re trying to both look at the innovation of what we could do at Bath, but also day to day support as well.
The rest of the team also do a lot of academic staff development. For example, staff might come to us and go: “I want to do a quiz, but I'm not quite sure what I want to do”. We sit down and break down what they are trying to achieve, and hopefully give them the best possible advice.
What would you most like to achieve while at the University?
My father has a very cheesy motto, a kind of mantra that got drummed into me as a kid, which is “good, better, best”. So never rest until your good is better, and your better is best. So in some small way, I'd like to do the best that I can possibly do for Bath in terms of its online and digital experience. Whatever we're doing already, which is really, really good, I want to think about how we make that even better. And that's not necessarily for me to say what that should look like, because we have a whole community of experts that we work with, and our students as well. But whatever it is that we can achieve, I'd like us to do that and push ourselves to be the best that we possibly can be.
Name one thing that makes you feel proud to work at the University of Bath?
Basically it boils down to the people, more than anything else. I've worked at a number of universities, and they've all got pros and cons, but at Bath, what's really struck me is the quality of the people that we've got here, and our students as well. I think no one can do their role successfully on their own, so we have to work with other people. The team I've got really deliver as well. I think we deliver because we're working with really great academics and professional services staff, who really are committed to doing the best for students. We all have our day-to-day challenges, but it's the people that lift us up and enable us to do it.
What piece of advice would you like to give to a student?
I’ve just been reading The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, and there's a line that really struck out that said “you learn the best when you're having fun”. I know it's not always easy to have fun when you've got your head in a book or are revising. But enjoy this. This is three or four years of your life where your world will open up, and you'll get opportunities you've never had before. You’ll make friends, who, hopefully, will be your friends for life. Enjoy it.
Who was your most influential teacher/educator, and why?
In University there was a lecturer called Christopher Harper Bill, who was very much an old school type of lecturer. I did medieval medical history for my degree, and he was the epitome of what you imagine an historian to look like, with patches on the elbows of his blazer, and he chain smoked, but his lectures were inspirational.
There’s one lecture in particular where he turned up, and in an hour, off the top of his head with no notes, gave us the highlights of Western History from the Crucifixion of Christ to the Reformation. So nearly 1500 years in an hour. There was one moment where he focused on Christmas Day 800 when Charlemagne, Emperor of a revived ‘Roman’ Empire, was crowned. And the myth was that a dove came down from heaven to anoint him; Christopher got a student to hold a dove on a plastic stick and wave it over his head. And in another moment he knighted another student on the stage with a massive broadsword, who then became his vassal. So his lectures really stood out. No PowerPoints, no technology, just really good teaching.
As a child, what did you want to be when you grew up?
A train driver. As a little kid I was obsessed with Thomas the Tank Engine. That went when I was about 11 or 12, but I remember as a kid really always wanting to be a train driver. It's probably because my stepfather took me on steam engine journeys every weekend. But I am in no way mechanical whatsoever now, and I can't even drive a car!
What was your first job?
I worked at Little Chef. I was a waiter, and that was my weekend job. That taught me about people - a lot about people! It taught me what I wanted to do with my life too. So I very much enjoyed my education.
If you could start your own dream business, what would it be?
I've never been that entrepreneurial, in the sense that I'm not driven by money. My bank balance probably wishes I was, but I’m not! I'm driven by making a difference in people's lives, hence I was drawn to education.
If it was to do anything, it might be to set up a company which works in the parts of the world which don't have access to the world’s best technology, and seeing what we can do to make people's lives better and give them access to what they need. And it might not be using technology, actually. Indeed, our team’s mantra is that technology should not be driving things, you should instead put what you're trying to achieve first.
How do you give everyone in the world the same access to education that we enjoy here?
Where is your favourite holiday destination and why?
If it's abroad, it would be the coastline around Sorrento in southern Italy. It’s beautiful. It's the kind of environment where the sea and sky and blend into one blue. Gorgeous food, gorgeous drink and I just love it down there to really relax.
If it's in the UK, then it's Lyme Regis. My aunt lives there and we used to go there on a Sunday, so I have really fond memories of that. And there's a crazy golf course overlooking the harbour and I love crazy golf, even now.
What’s your favourite book or album and why?
I'm a classical music lover, so I really enjoy opera. There's one in particular by Rossini called La Cenerentola. Basically, it's like Cinderella. I love a good diva when it comes to singing, and my favourite opera singer is Cecilia Bartoli. She did a performance of that which is world renowned, so that’s the one that really sticks out in my mind.
When it comes to books I love anything by Agatha Christie; in particular, Miss Marple. So anything by her makes me happy.
When are you happiest?
Listening to music, or when I'm playing a piano.
If you could meet anyone in the world dead or alive who would it be and why?
This is going to be a really random choice. I did medical history as my PhD and the linchpin of that was the Greek physician, surgeon and philosopher Galen, born about 129 AD. Some of his ideas still ring true today and it's amazing, that even with all of our developments, sometimes the core ideas of what it means to be healthy and human were formed many thousands of years ago and have not really changed since. I’d really like to be in that environment and experience what it would have been like when these ideas were being written down for the first time in history.
What would people be surprised to learn about you?
I am a lover of all things trashy TV. I love RuPaul’s Drag Race, and the UK version is coming soon. I think I surprised my colleagues by quite how low I set the bar of what I will watch! I love switching off and just enjoying the latest series on TV. However, I won’t watch Love Island! I have standards.
Tell us your favourite joke
Why were the days of early history called the Dark Ages?
Because there were so many knights.