I am the Director of Learning and Teaching (DLT) for the School of Computer Science and Informatics, which means I am responsible for the student experience and academic quality and standards across all of our taught programmes and work with the Head of School to determine and implement our teaching strategy. I sit on the School Board and the School Management Team, chair the Schoole Education and Student Experience Committee (SESEC), liaise with our External Advisory Board, and work with everyone in our teaching operations and education support teams.
My teaching philosophy is very much a continual work in progress because I believe that one of the most important parts of being a professional is a commitment to a continual reflective cycle of improvement. I am always learning more about what I do. Reflecting on that and considering what impact it has on my role as a teacher and what I do in the classroom is one of the key parts of my role.
I had significant input into the project that created the Data Science Academy, and I am a member of the Data Science Academy operations group.
Outside of the School I work with colleagues across the college and beyond through the Education and Students, DLT and DPGT forums. I also represent the College of Physical Sciences and Engineering (PSE) on the steering group for the Digital Education Programme.
I spend a significant amount of my time talking to students, either individually when problems are raised or through our regular open forum discussion series where the Head of School and DLT meet with all our students to let them know what’s going on, hear feedback from the students, and discuss relevant issues and decisions that need to be made.
I formed and now chair the Computer Science Scholarship group within the School. We meet regularly to discuss educational issues, plan educational research, discuss and create scholarly outputs, and implement knowledge sharing and teaching training within the School. Recently we have begun a set of School wide teaching seminars for the sharing and discussion of teaching experiences.
In the recent past I was the Deputy DLT in the School, and spent a lot of time focused on Postgraduate students, working as the chair of the Postgraduate Operations Team, Senior Personal Tutor for Taught Postgraduate students, and the Student Rep Coordinator for the postgrad Student-Staff Panel.
I’m the MSc Programme Leader for the MSc in Computational and Data Journalism, a joint course between the School of Computer Science & Informatics and the School of Journalism, Media and Culture here at Cardiff University, a programme I co-designed.
I have significant experience of programme and module design and development, having been involved in many programme developments and redevelopments, most of which have been through a smooth approval process, and some of which have been commended for their quality by the University’s quality and approval panels.
I am currently an external examiner for Exeter University, for their MSc Computer Science, MSc Computer Science with Business, MSc Data Science, and MSc Data Science with Business.
I am a member of the Governing body of two local primary schools. For one of these Schools I serve as the Curriculum Development Governor, working with pupils and staff on the implementation of the Curriculum for Wales 2022.
Current Teaching
Autumn Semester
I am currently part of the teaching team for Fundamentals of Programming (CMT120), primarily teaching front-end web development. This is a core module for MSc Computing, MSc Computing and IT Management and MSc Computational and Data Journalism. I also contribute to Computational Thinking (CMT119) and other modules in our generalist masters programmes.
I was previously Module Leader for Web Application Development (CMT112). This module was core for the MSc Computing, MSc Computing and IT Management, and the MSc Computational and Data Journalism programmes, and at times was an optional module for students on the MSc Data Science and Analytics. It has now been subsumed into the larger ‘Fundamentals of Programming’ module.
I jointly run the harmonisation ‘lab’ seminars between JOMEC and COMSC to help students on the CompJ programme make sense of how what they’re learning in both schools ties together.
Spring Semester
I am Module Leader for Data Visualisation (CMT218), a core module for MSc Data Science and Analytics which is also an optional module for several of the other MSc programmes.
I run the Topics and Research in …(CMT221/CMT222) modules, which are our dissertation preparation modules for the generalist masters programmes.
I also co-teach the Digital Investigation (MCT542) module on MSc Computational and Data Journalism.
Past Teaching
Details of my past teaching can be found on the past teaching page