On Monday, Liz joined the CEL team.

Liz is an Academic Learning Designer in the Centre for Excellence in Learning at BU. She was previously Professor of Technology Enhanced Learning and Director of the Education Innovation Centre at the University of the West of England, Bristol. Prior to joining UWE, Liz was Director of the Centre for Distance Education at the University of Bath. Prior to that appointment, Liz was a lecturer at the University of Salford, where she was part of the Research Centre for the Built and Human Environment, which received 5* ratings in two successive RAEs. Liz has departmental management experience in both private industry and HEIs and is a Chartered Manager and member of the CMI. She was a finalist in the National Management and Leadership Awards in 2013 and is a Principal Fellow of the Higher Education Academy.

Liz’s current area of research is in learning in immersive virtual environments and virtual worlds, majoring upon situated and contextual learning in immersive virtual environments to support simulation and practice-based learning. She has worked with colleagues in a wide range of academic disciplines, including forensic science, law, history and heritage, business and management and a range of subjects allied to medicine, to help them to successfully embed appropriate learning technologies in their teaching practice.

First and foremost Liz is an educator, with a love of teaching and enabling students to learn. She has developed innovative programmes in education and is an active pedagogic researcher. She has managed and taken part in research and consultancy grants from private industry and public bodies, including Hewlett Packard, Reading University, EU, HEFCE and HEA, amounting to approximately £16m. Developing effective strategies for the adoption and optimization of learning technologies has also been a major strand of Liz’s work, both as a member of HEIs, and by acting as an external consultant in both the HE and FE sectors.