Centre for Bioscience

I lecture in anatomy and physiology at De Montfort University, and prior to this role worked at Nottingham University and in the food manufacturing industry. Whilst at Nottingham I started to develop an interest in creating multimedia resources to support anatomy and physiology teaching to nursing students, and since that time have developed an expertise in animation and the development of interactive teaching materials. I am currently focusing on enhancing student laboratory skills through openly available on-line multimedia resources.

I have always believed in the concept of sharing resources, of course within the boundary of copyright and or commercial restrictions that may exist. But there is nothing more frustrating than going to a conference and seeing a wonderful resource demonstrated, or finding a link to a resource on a university website yet not being able to access it. Therefore my philosophy has been where possible to make resources available on the internet, whether they are teaching aids for students, or training resources for staff.

The HEA Bioscience project to produce an “interactive fieldwork and laboratory manual” is wholly appropriate as open release and will provide the bioscience educational community with high quality resources that are current, innovative and engaging to students. There are numerous benefits to individuals, universities and the HEA sector, including the fact the project is preserving and repurposing material that would otherwise be lost, and that it is providing time and cost effective solutions for teaching repetitive skills or technical instruction across the university sector.

The HEA Bioscience project will provide a working template for future open educational materials, having ironed out issues with copyright, technical aspects, where and how to store and retrieve. Hopefully it will seed future developments within the bioscience community.