Educational Design & Engagement supports University teaching and learning by providing a central hub for developing awareness, support for staff and students and leadership for e-learning service improvements. We are part of the Division of Learning, Teaching and Web. All team members contribute to this blog.

Our Team

Stuart Nicol

Stuart is the head of Educational Design and Engagement (EDE) and has worked as a learning technologist for over 20 years at a number of universities and education providers. He joined the University of Edinburgh in 2007, initially in the School of History, Classics, and Archaeology – developing online programmes and digital research tools – and moved to what is now EDE in 2011. He has a master’s degree in Digital Education from the University of Edinburgh and continues to have an interest in critical approaches to open education and practice. He is currently studying for a professional doctorate in education and in what spare time is left plays music and writes songs.

Read Stuart Nicol’s full profile.

Wesley Kerr

Wesley is a senior Learning Technology Advisor and Service Manager. He joined the School of Chemistry in 1991 as a laboratory technician later moving into computer support within the School. From there he quickly became responsible for supporting the School’s first moves into technology enhanced learning. He joined IS in 2007 where his current role is supporting staff and students to get the most out of the learning technologies offered at Edinburgh. With a focus on student engagement and assessment he directly supports Moodle, Questionmark Perception and Top Hat. Away from work you can find him attending exhibitions and events related to art, music and literature.

Read Wesley Kerr’s full profile.

Lorna Campbell

Lorna is a Learning Technology Team Manager leading the University’s OER Service. She has over 20 years experience working in education technology and has a long-standing commitment to supporting open education, policy and practice. Lorna is the founder of the Open Scotland initiative, and a Trustee of Wikimedia UK and the Association for Learning Technology. She blogs about open education at Open World, tweets regularly at @lornamcampbell, and is a member of the #femedtech network. Lorna’s academic background is in Archaeology and she maintains an active interest in historical research, particularly naval history, and the history of gender and sexuality.

Read Lorna Campbell’s full profile.

Lauren Johnston-Smith

Lauren Johnston-Smith is Online Learning Marketing Project Manager. Her role is to identify, deliver and champion development projects to enhance the presence of the University’s online learning portfolio. Lauren has 20 years’ experience in marketing higher education and the arts and has worked at the University since 2010, formerly holding the position of Marketing and Communications Manager in the College of Medicine and Veterinary Medicine, home to the largest number of online degrees at the University. When not enthusing to the world about Edinburgh’s brilliant online courses, Lauren can be found running trails, sea-swimming and knitting.

Read Lauren Johnston-Smith’s full profile.

Rachael Mfoafo

Rachael joined Learning Teaching and Web (LTW) Division in 2016 as an e-Learning Support Officer within the Educational Design & Engagement section. Her role involves providing staff and students with information, advice and training for the University’s core learning technologies. Rachael works closely with Helpdesk and Service Leads to resolve learning technology-related enquiries and maintain service delivery. Currently, she is deputising on Collaborate Ultra and Top Hat services. Rachael is also involved in the delivery of the University’s extensive portfolio of MOOCs (Massive Open Online Courses). Here she acts as project support and liaison for the course production team, subject matter experts and the external partners who host our short online courses. Follow on Twitter @RM_CTD | LinkedIn | Blog: Paper Trail.Read Rachael Mfoafo’s full profile.

Calum MacPhail

Calum is a Media Production officer. With over 8 years experience working in the media industry, both as a freelancer and as part of a studio team. Over the course of his career, Calum has worked with companies ranging from PUMA, the BBC, Channel 4, the NHS, Optical Express, the Philadelphia Orchestra and many more. Working as both a camera operator and video editor, Calum has been able to work on projects from start to finish, always ensuring the best results possible. Calum also specialises in delivering tailored educational content, formatted for portable devices. When he’s not at work, Calum has a passion for film, obscure old video formats, travel and diving.

Charlie Farley

Stephanie (Charlie) Farley provides support and training in the creation and use of OER across the University and maintains the Open.Ed webpages. Charlie runs regular OER, copyright and open licensing, workshops and training sessions, and the popular OER Game Jam sessions for various groups at the University. Additionally, Charlie leads the 23 Things for Digital Knowledge programme, advises on the use of Social Media in Learning and Teaching, and the ISG Playful Engagement themes and goals. Rarely seen without an electronic device in her hand, Charlie is passionate about playful engagement and the uses of technology to enhance open education, access, and information sharing. Twitter: @SFarley_Charlie

Read Charlie Farley’s full profile.

Marcello Crolla

Marcello is an Instructional Designer and is part of the Educational Design and Engagement team in Information Services. With a background in learning technology and design, he supports academic staff in the development of fully online courses, from the initial learning design process to completion, offering pedagogical and technical support throughout the process along with supporting various other streams within the department. Outside of the world of instructional design, Marcello is an avid football fan and you will find him supporting his beloved team.

Read Marcello Crolla’s full profile.

Paul Smyth

Paul is a Learning Technology Advisor and service lead for the Learn virtual learning environment. He has a background in teaching and educational technology, having spent time working on projects such as Building Schools for the Future and as Education Manager for the Scottish school’s intranet ‘Glow’. He is currently a student on the MSc Digital Education here at Edinburgh. When not working or studying he enjoys developing his knowledge in genealogy.

Read Paul Smyth’s full profile.

Robert Chmielewski

Robert joined IS in 2005. Over the years he has developed considerable experience in designing online workflows to support personal/reflective learning, educational blogging, complex/multiple marking, peer-assessment and extra-curricular employability initiatives. Whilst being very familiar with most of the tools supported by the team, Robert is regarded as the PebblePad/ATLAS system expert. He is currently advising programmes on sustainable ways to move their dissertation marking online. Robert has a master’s degree in Polish philology as well as PGCert in University Teaching.

Read Robert Chmielewski’s full profile.

Neil McCormick

Neil works part-time as a policy officer, specialising in developing and consulting on policy and guidance related to educational technologies. This has included developing the University’s opt-out lecture recording policy, introduced in 2019. Having joined the University in 2000 to do computer vision research, he then took on successive student admissions and teaching administration roles before joining EDE in 2017. Neil was born and bred in Ayrshire and can still give a decent rendition of “Tam O’Shanter” when required.

Read Neil McCormick’s full profile.

Andrés Ordorica

Andrés is an Instructional Designer in the Online Course Production team. He has designed online learning materials for Visa, Deloitte, American Express, as well as countless further education institutions in the UK. He has worked on both micro-credential programmes and short online courses for the University. He is an advocate of democratic approaches to education and accessible and inclusive learning models. Andrés is also a published writer and poet and trustee for Artlink Edinburgh.

Read Andrés Ordorica’s full profile.

Lizzy Garner-Foy

Lizzy is an Instructional Designer in the Online Course Production team. Her background is in academic writing, editing, and media production, and she is passionate about creative approaches to learning and teaching. Lizzy works closely with academic teams to design, develop and build online courses, such as MOOCs.

Read Lizzy Garner-Foy’s full profile.

Geoff Fortescue

Geoff is a Media Production Officer. With over 15 years’ experience working in both production and post-production, he has a wealth of knowledge to draw on when producing engaging and creative educational videos. Geoff has worked as a camera operator on a wide variety of productions, from studio interviews to extreme sports and live broadcasts. When he’s not making videos, you can find him climbing, snowboarding, canoeing or open water swimming.

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