Spotlight on Dr Jenny Marie

This week the spotlight is on Dr Jenny Marie, a Principal Teaching Fellow in 

ucl.ac.uk/teaching-learning/about-us/arena-centre">UCL Arena Centre for Research-based Education  and director of UCL ChangeMakers.  

What is your role and what does it involve?

I direct UCL ChangeMakers, which is UCL's flagship student engagement initiative. I am responsible for ensuring that the programme meets its three objectives, which are to: support a culture of student/staff partnership at UCL; enhance the student learning experience in line with UCL's Education Strategy and Doctoral Education Strategy; and to provide a positive experience for those participating by giving them the opportunity to develop employability skills and enhancing their motivation and sense of belonging to UCL.

How long have you been at UCL and what was your previous role?

I first came to UCL as a Medicinal Chemistry undergraduate student in 1995. I ended up graduating from the Physics Department without having studied any physics (but quite a lot of chemistry and maths). Since then, I've kept coming back, first to do a PhD in History of Biology and then to work on student skill development in 2005.

What working achievement or initiative are you most proud of?

I think it's the Student Reviewers of Teaching practice, where students and staff discuss their perspectives on different aspects of the staff member's teaching practice, such as face-to-face teaching, a Moodle site and assignment brief. It's now an option in Peer Dialogue for staff. The feedback we've had on it from all participants has been really positive and I think it's the closest I've experienced of a genuine staff/student partnership.

Tell us about a project you are working on now which is top of your to-do list?

At the moment, I'm working with a colleague to pilot a new version of Meet the Researcher, which aims to develop students' feedback literacy by showing them how researchers use peer feedback to develop their academic work. Assessment and feedback is a major issue for the Higher Education sector and I think this is one area where the philosophy of research-based education can really help, by providing role models for feedback usage.

What is your favourite album, film and novel?

The Resistance by Muse, Spirited Away and The Amber Spyglass.

What is your favourite joke (pre-watershed)?

What do you get if you cross a sheep and a kangaroo: a woolly jumper.

Who would be your dream dinner guests?

This is a toss up between Jarvis Cocker and Ronnie O'Sullivan (who knows what would happen if they met?) but actually I think it will have to be the members of Blur, so we can listen to Blur and the Gorillaz, I can look at the stars with Alex and maybe he will even bring some cheese.

What advice would you give your younger self?

It's okay to be wrong.

What would it surprise people to know about you?

I'm not bad at flipping beer mats and I love watching snooker.

What is your favourite place?

Cannizarro in Wimbledon.

Apply for UCL ChangeMakers funding by 15 June 2018.