UCL Knowledge Lab

Director: Professor Allison Littlejohn
Associate Director (Media/ReMAP): Professor John Potter

The UCL Knowledge Lab is a research laboratory working to reduce social barriers to knowledge, bringing together experts with imagination and insight from across different disciplinary backgrounds to undertake cutting edge research on digital media and technologies.

Our research spans four themes:

• Technology, body and communication, led by Professor Lesley Gourlay.
• AI and education, led by Professor Kaska Porayska-Pomsta.
• Media arts and play, led by Professor John Potter.
• Media, culture, technology, led by Professor Diane Carr.

We centre multimodality and co-design as methodological approaches.

About us

Our values

• Innovation – we value interdisciplinary collaboration and pride ourselves on our creativity in developing innovative and participatory methods in multimodal, design-based and practice-based research.
• Integrity – we strive for an honest and respectful approach in our interactions with colleagues, students and external collaborators and aim to conduct ethical research with positive and lasting impact on people’s lived experience.
• Inclusion – we value diversity and are strongly committed to developing ways of working with technology which contribute to equity and social justice.

Background

The UCL Knowledge Lab extends the legacy of the London Knowledge Lab.

The London Knowledge lab was led since 2004 by Professors Richard Noss and Alex Poulovassilis as a collaborative initiative between educators from IOE and computer scientists from Birkbeck, funded by the Science Research Investment Fund.

In 2016 the collaborative initiative ended and the UCL Knowledge Lab was established. Our common legacy includes over a decade of interdisciplinary research funded by ESRC, EPSRC, AHRC, EU, JISC among others; a variety of knowledge exchange and public engagement activities; and a distinctive postgraduate training programme.

Our people

Director

• Allison Littlejohn, Professor of Learning and Technology

Associate Director

• John Potter, Professor of Media in Education

Past Directors

• Richard Noss, Professor of Mathematics Education (Founding Director)
• Carey Jewitt, Professor of Learning and Technology (Director)
• Jeff Bezemer, Professor of Communication (Interim Director)

Academic staff

• Feryal Awan, Lecturer in Media and Postcolonial Studies
• Jeff Bezemer, Professor of Communication
• Michelle Cannon, Lecturer in Media Education
• Diane Carr, Professor of Media and Cultural Studies
• Alison Clark-Wilson, Professorial Research Fellow
• Alison Croasdale, Lecturer in Digital Media: Education
• Mutlu Cukurova, Professor of Learning and Artificial Intelligence
• Bruno De Paula, Associate Professor
• Sophia Diamantopoulou, Senior Teaching Fellow
• Francisco Durán del Fierro, Research Fellow
• Hakan Ergul, Associate Professor
• Andrea Gauthier, Lecturer and Programme Leader in MA Education and Technology
• Makeda Gerressu, Research Fellow
• Kate Gilchrist, Lecturer in Digital Media: Critical Studies
• Lesley Gourlay, Professor of Education
• Sara Hawley, Lecturer in Digital Media
• Wayne Holmes, Professor of Critical Studies of Artificial Intelligence and Education
• Carey Jewitt, Professor of Learning and Technology
• Eileen Kennedy, Professorial Research Fellow
• Kata Kyrola, Associate Professor in Media Studies
• Allison Littlejohn, Professor of Learning and Technology
• Kit Logan, Learning Technology Fellow
• Manolis Mavrikis, Professor of Artificial Intelligence and Analytics in Education
• Tim Neumann, Learning Technology Fellow
• Martin Oliver, Professor in Educational technology
• Ceja Omar Salgado, Lecturer (Teaching) Media Production
• Kaska Porayska-Pomsta, Professor of Artificial Intelligence in Education
• Sara Price, Professor of Digital Learning
• Jennifer Rode, Associate Professor of Education and Technology
• Christopher Rhodes, Lecturer in Digital Media Production 
• John Twycross, Lecturer in 3D Animation 
• Asimina Vasalou, Professor of Learning with Digital Technology
• Pauline van Mourik Broekman, Lecturer in Critical Media Practice
• Lucia Gloria Vazquez Rodriguez, Lecturer in Digital Media Production
• Karen Wilkes, Lecturer in Critical Media Studies

Lab staff based at UCL East

• Anne Preston, Associate Professor (Teaching) of Interdisciplinary Practice and Media Communities
• Ao Chen, Lecturer in 3D Design
• Ariel Cane, Lecturer in Media Practice
• Beny Wagner, Lecturer in Media Production
• Brigitta Zics, Professor of Digital Media
• Dane Sutherland, Lecturer in Media Practice
• Eunju Hwang, Lecturer in Entrepreneurship
• Fawzia Mahmood, Lecturer in Film Producing
• Gyorgy Beck, Associate Professor
• Jamie Rhodes, Lecturer in Creative Writing
• Jelena Viskovic, Lecturer in Games Design
• Justin Hardy, Lecturer in Film
• Livia Nolasco-Rózsás, Lecturer in Media Practice and Curation
• Luciano Piazza, Lecturer in Documentary Film
• Michael Hrebeniak, Lecturer in Documentary Film
• William Sykes, Lecturer in Games Programming

Administrative and technical staff

• Abel Drew, Studio Technician
• Holly Nyx, UCL Knowledge Lab Administrator
• Johan Redderson, Games/Interactive Experiences
• Matt Taylor, Programme Administrator
• Monique Wan, Programme Administrator
• Robin Billingham, Studio Technician
• Sustika Limbu, BA Media Technician: Equipment and Resource Management
• Tamas Czuper, Technician – Sound Production
• Yasmeen Conraad, Programme Administrator

Emeritus Professors

• Andrew Burn, Professor of English, Media and Drama
• Celia Hoyles, Professor of Mathematics Education
• Diana Laurillard, Professor of Learning with Digital Technologies
• Richard Noss, Professor of Mathematics Education
• Rose Luckin, Professor of Learning with Digital Technologies

Honorary academics

• Alice Hansen
• Ben Bachmair
• Cary Bazalgette
• Canan Blake
• David Buckingham
• Didem Ozkul
• Ernesto Laval
• Ivan Kalas
• Jade Henry
• Jim Knight
• Jos Boys
• Kate Cowan
• Kerstin Leder Mackley
• Nikoleta Yiannoutsou
• Robin Samuelsson
• Rym El Moussaoui
• Simon Knight
• Sokratis Karkalas
• Stuart Edwards
• Vanessa Pittard
• Rod Bristow

20 Years of Knowledge Lab

In 2024 we celebrated #20YearsKnowledgeLab. The Lab, based at Emerald Street in High Holborn, London, and hosted by UCL IOE is widely acknowledged as one of the world’s leading research centres in human learning, media and technology. It was established by Professor Richard Noss and colleagues from Birkbeck in 2004 as the London Knowledge Lab. The Lab provided an interdisciplinary space for educators from the Institute of Education to collaborate with computer scientists from Birkbeck, initially funded by the UK Government Science Research Investment Fund. Lab Director Professor Allison Littlejohn set up number of 20 year anniversary events to celebrate the achievements, impact and forward vision of the Lab. The centrepiece was the Richard Noss Lecture delivered by Professor Diana Laurillard on 24 October 2024.

Research and activities

Find out more about current and past research from the UCL Knowledge Lab.

• Ongoing projects
• Completed research
• Tools

More about our researchers, publications, activities, groups and themes:

• UCL Research Portal

Join our events

The seminars are free to attend and are open to staff, students, alumni and the public. For booking instruction for non-UCL attendees, please view the individual event pages.

• See seminar series schedule

The Richard Noss Lecture is our yearly public lecture. You can view past versions of this event here.

We also host occasional Visiting Lecturers, guest academics, and collaborators with the Lab.

Follow the UCL Knowledge Lab Twitter for updates.

Consultancy services

We have substantial experience and expertise in carrying out consultancy and research projects for international, national, regional and local authorities and organisations including government departments, business and the IT sector, and voluntary groups.

Our services range from one-day training or staff development initiatives to longer-term research and evaluation work. Examples include:

• The Future Classroom Toolkit: Innovative Technologies for Engaging Classrooms (European Schoolnet)
• UK Scoping Report for the Further Education Online Academy (JISC).
• 2030 Vision for using learning technology for STEM (Royal Society)
• Piloting Media Assessment Framework (Scottish Qualifications Authority)
• The Home Access Programme Evaluation (British Educational Communications and Technology Agency)
• Automated Tutor Grading: 1 to 1 online tutoring to monitor tutor quality and learning outcomes (Third Space Learning)
• Evaluation of UK Online Paediatric care (Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health)

Study with us

Programmes

Join us and carry out post-graduate Masters, Doctoral and Post-Doctoral research on the design, critique and implementation of digital media and technologies for education and beyond.

Undergraduate taught

• Media BA

Graduate taught

• Digital Media: Critical Studies MA
• Digital Media: Education MA
• Digital Media: Production MA
• Education and Technology MA

Doctoral and Post-Doctoral research

We have an active programme of teaching and support for doctoral students with experienced staff offering research supervision across a range of topics and research methods, including: digital learning technologies; technology enhanced communication and collaboration; digital making, media and play; discourse, technology and the body; digital ethics, inclusion and diversity.

Further info:

• Graduate research

Contact us

UCL Knowledge Lab
Department of Culture, Communication and Media
IOE, UCL's Faculty of Education and Society
University College London
23-29 Emerald Street
London WC1N 3QS

Follow us 

Tweets by uclknowledgelab

Google map link

Newsletters

• May 2022
• May 2023
• January 2024
• July 2024

Research themes

Technology, Body and Communication led by Professor Lesley Gourlay

This theme explores the relationship between humans and digital technologies stimulating new forms of communication and new ways of knowing. It builds on our longstanding work on meaning-making such as the theoretical and methodological development of the concept of multimodality, and work on literacy and numeracy in digitally-mediated environments. It extends these perspectives and approaches to explore new forms of meaning-making in the contemporary ‘postdigital’ world. The theme builds on our methodological innovation at the intersection of technology and the body, exploring shifting relations between technologies and humans through the study of phenomena such as digital touch, bio-tech hybrid systems and haptic design. The embodied lived experience of human-technology relations is brought to the fore using perspectives from social sciences, science and technology studies and the philosophy of technology. Work under this theme investigates phenomena such as generative AI and synthetic authorship, and the entanglements of the body, digital surveillance and smart campus technologies. It also includes work using perspectives from science and technology studies such as sociotechnical imaginaries, analysing education as part of a web of wider sociotechnical systems which involve complex embodied, affective, relational and sociotechnical assemblages of human and nonhuman agency. 

Artificial Intelligence and Education (AIED) led by Professor Kaska Porayska-Pomsta

For 20 years the Lab has been conducting leading-edge research, blending globally recognised expertise in both computing and the learning sciences. Our interdisciplinary research has been shaping AI’s role in complementing and enhancing human learning, interrogating how AI can best support human learning and development across diverse socio-economic and cultural contexts, and age groups, and engaging in critical study of the ethical and human rights issues arising in and because of AIED. Our work bridges AI engineering – including robotics, affective computing, natural language processing, and learning analytics, using both machine learning and symbolic computational methods – with deep insights from the cognitive, social, and educational sciences. Our research pushes the boundaries of knowledge and educational technology, from developing adaptive learning environments that meet the needs of diverse learners, to pioneering multimodal learning analytics that support educators’ real-time practices, and defining human-centred AI that meets human needs and protects human values and rights. Our work informs international policy and shapes responsible AI practices worldwide. We are driven by a mission to understand and leverage responsible AI for education, that empowers teachers and enhances learner agency, towards globally accessible, effective, and safe education for all.

Media Arts and Play led by Professor John Potter

‘Media, Arts and Play’ encompasses research and teaching in the agentive and productive use of digital media in the arts and humanities, drawing on arts practice, film, music, media literacy, media education, games and game authoring, and play, on and offscreen. The theme is associated with the ReMAP Centre, which is based at the UCL Knowledge Lab but which also has membership from other parts of Culture Communication & Media, and wider UCL. Its theoretical lenses are drawn from media and cultural studies, arts and humanities, identity, representation, new literacies, multimodality, sociomateriality, and emergent postdigital and posthuman thinking. Its methodological stance is mainly qualitative and encompasses participatory, practitioner and practice-based research techniques. Its work frequently connects digital media arts practice with issues of equity and social justice, coloniality, mental health, wellbeing, and curriculum (re)development. It overlaps and intersects with other themes at the lab, in particular with ‘Media, Culture, Technology’ and ‘Technology, Body and Communication’. Its distinctive focus brings digital media into alignment and dialogue with cultural theory and media arts practice, employing innovative methodologies and analytical techniques, seeking funding from UKRI, several research institutions and foundations, and internal grants connected to UCL knowledge exchange and grand challenges themes. 

Media, culture, technology led by Professor Diane Carr

‘Media, Culture and Technology’ encompasses research and teaching that engages with the cultural politics of media and digital technologies. It addresses questions of exclusion and precarity, agency and resistance. The theme incorporates research based in the arts and humanities, arts practice, and the social sciences. It shares ground with ‘Media, Arts and Play’ and is also closely associated with the ReMAP Centre. Research in this theme is affiliated with cultural studies and media studies. As such, it draws from and contributes towards a range of fields and frameworks including, for example, feminist epistemologies, queer studies, games and player research, critical race theory and disability studies, platform studies, decolonization, studies of social media and datafication, and critical AI studies. Our methodologies are reflexive, tending towards the collaborative, participatory, community-orientated, and practice based. This theme is also home to research that explores power, ethics, experience and marginality in academic practice. Research associated with this theme has been funded by major research councils and foundations, and by UCL.