Name: Dr Vivien Rolfe
Job title and Department: Associate Head of Department of Bioscience
Organisation: University of the West of England
Year of NTF award: 2012
Summary of teaching career
My background is in gastrointestinal research and my career has included a research fellow ship at the Institute of Child Health in London and also several years in animal nutrition at Pedigree Petfoods, Melton UK. (She has patents in dog food).
She joined the University of Nottingham as a lecturer in biological science, and subsequently De Montfort University in 2004 where as Programme Lead she developed a new degree in Medical Science (BSc Honours). At De Montfort I was part of a vibrant community of teaching fellows, and developed a passion for animation and the use of multimedia in STEM education. This expanded further as part of the UK Open Educational Resource programme (2009 – 2012) and Viv led 3 university projects (Virtual Analytical Laboratory, SCOOTER and Biology Courses), projects sharing open educational materials globally in projects and collaborations that thrive today.
At the University of the West of England, moving there in 2013, Viv heads up a department of 25 scientists working on professionally accredited programmes including Biomedical Science and Healthcare Science (Life Science and Physiology).
Her passion is open education and she works nationally and globally with communities of practitioners and researchers. Her research has included understanding the challenges and benefits of open education from the perspectives of learners – engaging as co-producers, academic staff – enhancing their teaching practices, and senior executive – informing business models and university policy. Recent publications also include the socio-ethical impact of massive online open courses which she has very much enjoyed presenting at the Global OpenEd Conferences (2012, 2013 and 2014).
Favourite things:
Playing the saxophone
Making animations
#DS106
The Dekatron
Research areas: open education, science education, multimedia instruction, animation.
