Guests (2017/8)
Profiles of invited contributors to OKHE
This is an archived version of a topic page from the 2017/8 academic year. We are currently finalising the sessions for 2018/9; please check back soon.
Topic 1: Open practice
Catherine Cronin
Bio shared below under a CC BY-SA license (does not apply to entire page)
Hello and welcome. I’m Catherine Cronin — educator, researcher and PhD candidate in CELT (Centre for Excellence in Learning & Teaching) at the National University of Ireland, Galway. My work focuses on open education, critical approaches to openness, digital identity practices, and exploring the interplay between formal and informal learning. I’m currently working towards a PhD exploring the use of open educational practices in higher education.
I am a member of the advisory board of the Open Education Working Group and a regular contributor to conversations and collaborative projects in the area of open education, within Ireland and globally. My academic background includes a BSc Mechanical Engineering, MEng Systems Engineering, and MA Women’s Studies (Gender & Technology). I’ve been involved in teaching, research and advocacy in higher education and in the community for over 25 years. My most recent work, apart from my current research, includes collaborating to create the GoOPEN wiki, engagement in the global #icollab network, and facilitating workshops on digital identity, digital literacies, and open education for educators and learners in many different settings.
Dr Ang Davies
Ang took OKHE in 2016/7 and is returning to help deliver the first session. Last year, Ang shared thoughts on ‘positive openness’ and running a MOOC, and her second submission for the unit led to Times Higher Education blog on whether MOOCs generate a return on investment (NB: limited free access).
Ang Davies graduated with a BSc in Biochemistry from the University of Bath, before completing a PhD in Molecular Biology at the University of Warwick. From here she completed a postdoctoral research fellowship at AstraZeneca designing a high-throughput method for the expression and purification of proteins in mammalian cells.
Later she moved to Renovo, a biotech company in Manchester as Principal Scientist for the analytics Department within drug development; there, she was responsible for the analytical testing of drugs prior to their use in clinical trials. From 2010–14 she managed the Education and Training Team at Nowgen, a partnership between Central Manchester University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust and The University of Manchester. During this time she was responsible for leading their training programme and designing many new training programmes in particular in the areas of personalised medicine and next generation sequencing.
Ang currently holds the post of Senior Lecturer In the Faculty of Biology, Medicine and Health at The University of Manchester and is Programme Director of the Clinical Sciences (Bioinformatics) masters programme at Manchester, contracted by Health Education England. This programme provides education to develop the UK healthcare scientist workforce in order to realise the benefits to patients of initiatives such as the 100,000 genomes project. In addition she holds a Leadership position in her Faculty having responsibility for their portfolio of genomics, bioinformatics and biotechnology related masters programmes. She also has an interest in the development of pedagogy in the areas of clinical bioinformatics and genomics and in particular co-Led the development and delivery of a massive online open course (MOOC) in Clinical Bioinformatics. Ang also holds the post of Faculty Lead for developing continuing professional development (CPD) for healthcare and the biotech sector.
Topic 2: Open teaching & learning
Dr Sam Illingworth
Sam is a Senior Lecturer in Science Communication at Manchester Metropolitan University, and leads an MSc on the subject. His current research involves using different media (such as a poetry and games) to engender meaningful dialogue between ‘experts’ and ‘non-experts’. He has written and published on a number of platforms and in a number of formats, for example Twitter, blogs, journals, and a book; poetry, theatre, quizzes, and games. Sam is a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy.
Sam communicates his biography in the form of a short play on his website.
John Hynes
John is a former OKHE participant (2015/6). While taking OKHE in its first year, John shared a teaching and learning perspective on open knowledge, and wrote about problems in the academic publishing industry.
John has kindly returned to OKHE to facilitate discussion and activity around some of the above issues. He is a Teaching and Learning Librarian at the University of Manchester Library with a background in the design and delivery of academic and information skills — based training. He is heavily involved in the multi — award-winning My Learning Essentials programme, and has presented at conferences on blended learning, developing independent learners, and information literacy.
As well as OKHE, John is involved in ‘Digital Society’, a unit offered through Manchester’s University College for Interdisciplinary Learning (UCIL), where he facilitates a session on privacy, law and ethics.
Topic 3: Open research
Stephen Pinfield
Stephen is Professor of Information Services Management at the University of Sheffield Information School.
He has a particular research interest in scholarly communication and practice, focusing on open-access publishing and dissemination, and research data management. He has been involved in research and development on open access for over 15 years, including founding the Centre for Research Communications and the SHERPA open-access initiative at the University of Nottingham.
Stephen has been involved in national and international policy development related to open access and open data over the last decade.
Lucinda May
Lucinda took OKHE in its first year, and is a graduate of the University of Manchester PG Cert HE. While taking this unit, she wrote about opportunities for openness through partnership with university presses, and opportunities and challenges of social media use in academia.
Lucinda May is Scholarly Communications Librarian at the University of Manchester Library. She works with researchers to facilitate open access at an individual level, and manages University processes to ensure institutional support. Lucinda is operational co-lead of the Open Access Service, specialising in Gold Open Access, and operational lead for the eThesis Support Service.
Lucinda’s expertise includes academic publishing strategy, OA funding, and funder compliance. As well as the PG Cert HE, Lucy has a Postgraduate Diploma in Library and Information Management from The Manchester Metropolitan University. She is active on Twitter, where she can be found tweeting about Open Access, scholarly publishing, and hygge.
