I offer consultancy in technology to enhance learning and information systems for education. I am particularly interested in supporting the sharing, discovery and selection of appropriate learning resources. My main areas of expertise are: semantic technology approaches to the description and management of educational resources and courses; technology for open education and OERs; and the evaluation of computer based resources for engineering and physical science education.
Much of the work I do is with Cetis LLP, a cooperative consultancy for innovation in educational technology. This has included work on metadata standards such as LRMI (the Learning Resource Metadata Initiative), schema.org and, in the past, IEEE Learning Object Metadata. Also with Cetis I helped support the dissemination and discovery strategy for resources released by the UKOER programme. As well as being a partner at Cetis LLP, I am founder and director of PJJK Limited, my own educational technology consultancy.
I work on many projects developing vocabularies for linked data, several of which have contributed to schema.org. Through a consultancy with Credential Engine I help develop the Credential Transparency Description Language (CTDL), and contribute to related standards efforts such PESC JSON Transcripts project, W3C Verifiable Credentials for Education (VC-Ed) and Dublin Core Tabular Application Profiles (DC TAP). I chair the DCMI LRMI task group, and the T3 Open Competency Framework Colloaborative Network (OCFC) Technical Advisory Workgroup (TAW); in the past I chaired the Schema Course Extension, the Educational and Occupational Credentials and the Talent Marketplace Signaling W3C Community Groups. In the the even dimmer past, I have contributed to the effort to create a Application Profile of Dublin Core for Education, and edited and co-authored the IMS Meta-data Best Practice Guide for IEEE 1484.12.1-2002 Standard for Learning Object Metadata.
For 20 years I worked at Heriot-Watt University, as part of the Institute for Computer Based Learning (ICBL) and in the School of Mathematical and Computer Sciences. During that time I worked on projects such as the Learning Technology Dissemination Initiative, helping promote the uptake of technology for teaching and learning at Scottish Universities; with the LTSN and HE Academy Subject Centre for Engineering evaluating innovations in university teaching, and for several Jisc-funded resource discovery projects.
At Heriot-Watt I taught “Design for Online Learning” and “Critical Thinking” to Information Systems students, and “Interactive Systems” to first year students on a range of Computer Science related degree programmes.
I also contributed supporting the use of technology to enhance learning and teaching at departmental, school and institutional levels, including leading the sourcing, procurement and implementation of an online exam system for Computer Science. The absolute high point of my teaching career was being nominated for a HW Student Union Teaching and Learning Oscar by my students. I am a member of the Association for Learning Technology.
I started in academia studying physics at Bristol University, before doing a PhD and four further years of research on polymer crystallization. The micrograph on the left shows the polymer on which I did my PhD and was released as an OER by a project (CORE Materials) on which I worked.