Q&A with Domi Sinclair

Domi Sinclair, Learning Technologist (UCL Digital Education) shares plans for a Moodle summer upgrade as well as predictions for the next five years in higher education.

What are you working on at the moment?

The main thing I am currently working on is the summer Moodle upgrade. I am also working on developing vlogs, blogs and online exams at UCL.

What advice would you give to someone looking to develop the way they teach?

Make sure you find some time to sit down and think about what it is you want the students to learn and how you want them to do it. Then I would recommend booking an appointment to talk to someone in UCL's Centre for Advancing Learning and Teaching or Digital Education (or both!) who can advise you on various different ways you might develop your current delivery or provide new ones. It is helpful to have an idea of where you’d like to go first though.

How do you expect higher education to change in the next five years?

I would expect to see more online provision. This includes both more online activities for campus based courses, and also an increase in wholly online courses. There is a demand for distance learning, especially those students have full or part-time jobs and wish to have flexible delivery of content. There is also a big demand for face-to-face time with tutors. This could be done by making more content and activities available online so that face-to-face time can be used differently.

What piece of technology do you find invaluable in your teaching?

Video. I find it a really useful method of communicating with students, whether I am trying to demonstrate something or communicate a point, video can be a useful and engaging way of doing this. It also works well as people can stop and pause if they want to clarify something and can watch at their own convenience.

What achievement are you most proud of?

It would probably be getting to present at MoodleMoot Baltimore in 2013 and being chosen to be on the panel discussion at the end of the conference. Either that or publishing two books about Prezi with Packt Publishing.

Dr Par Engstrom asks (UCL Institute of the Americas) asks, "what innovations in student assessment would you like to see developed?"

Personally I would like to see more portfolio styled assessments that include reflective logs to encourage the students to engage with their own learning practice. It would be great to enable students to stop and think where their knowledge gaps might be and how they can rectify that. It is great for all of us to stop and reflect every now and then, building this into formal education helps build good life learners.

What question would you like to pose to the next interviewee?

Does UCL need to increase the speed with which it innovates teaching and learning practice across the university?

Do you work at UCL? Would you like to be featured here? Email: teaching.learning@ucl.ac.uk