Find out about PHDs, projects and research themes from various disciplines.
Pedagogic research themes at the University of Greenwich
Flipped Learning in Higher Education (FLinHE)
The FLinHE group brings together the research activities of academics from different disciplines to design, implement and evaluate Flipped Learning models. We have special interests in the following topics:
- Learner autonomy and learning behavioural changes
- Learning processes and assessment of learning gain
- Pedagogical designs for flipped learning
Game Enhanced Learning
The group specializes into two strands of research work. One strand is focused on learning gamification and learner engagement. The other strand is focused on game-based learning and how to shape teacher's roles, and the interactions between teachers and students in game-based learning scenarios.
Digitalisation of Higher Education Teaching and Learning
The group is active in conducting empirical pedagogical studies to explore how digital technologies might facilitate or impede student learning and how digital teaching change the topography of higher education. The digital technologies we are interested to evaluate are:
- Virtual labs
- Slack
- Ipad
- Learning analytics
Assessment and Evaluation in Higher Education
Assessment and evaluation are some of the major challenges of Higher Education today. Together with our TESTA and MMP (Map My Assessment), our special interest group conducts research in the following topics:
- Feedback in assessment
- Peer assessment and peer learning
- E-assessment
Employability and Competence Development
The group is interested in the development of graduates' employability skills and other generic skills at the university. They are also interested in gaining understanding of students' evaluations of the usefulness of their HE education.
Learning and Teaching at a Culturally Diverse University
At Greenwich, diversity and multilingualism are on the agenda on a daily basis. The group works as a hub to meet regularly to discuss emerging pedagogical practices in HE which address diversity and inclusivity. They focus on the following topics:
- Learning community building: appreciation of diversity and tightening social bonding
- Teaching in multilingual classrooms and evaluation of communication strategies
Projects
| Sept 2018- Aug 2019 | Medway Learning and Teaching Festival Collaborative Projects Fund on Gameful Learning @ Medway (GLAM): Introducing Medway students from the three universities to critical thinking and employability skills through discussion and games | £1000 | Yang Yang Barbara Sheehy, Silvia Colaiacomo, Mary Andall-Stanberry |
| 1st May 2016 – 30th April 2020 | H2020 Marie Skłodowska-Curie Research and Innovation Staff Exchange (RISE) project called GEO-SAFE (Geospatial based Environment for an Optimisation System Addressing Fire Emergencies). Focus is on knowledge exchange with Australia and Corsica, and includes a large training element using the Pandora+ training system. 13 participants. Grant agreement number 691161. | €1,080,000 EU contribution, €153,000 to Greenwich. | Professor Liz Bacon, Professor Lachlan MacKinnon |
| Sept 2015 – August 2018 | H2020 EU project TRILLION (TRusted, CItizen - LEA coILaboratIon over sOcial Networks), 13 partners. Grant agreement no: 653256. Includes training for Law Enforcement Officers using the Pandora+ training tool. Overall value of the project €4,263,408, €335,513 to Greenwich. | €4,263,408, €335,513 to Greenwich. | Professor Liz Bacon, Professor Lachlan MacKinnon, George Loukas |
| Sept 2017 – Jun 2018 | Developing Chinese students critical thinking and problem solving skills through learning gamification, funded by UKCISA | £2000 | Michael Downes, Yang Yang, Viktor Krastev |
| 2017-19 | National Mixed Method Learning Gain, HEFCE | £10,000 | Simon Walker, Yang Yang |
| Awarded Oct 2016 | The funding for this project enabled the Cornell Roybal Center Aging ePainCare to host a Consensus Conference in New York on 7th April 2017 which involved all stakeholders including healthcare professionals and patients. The conference produced a report on establishing a Research Agenda on Mobile Health Technologies and Later-Life Pain which included setting the agenda for the education of healthcare and patients. |
National Institute on Ageing (part of NIH), R13 Conference Grant 37,500 US dollars | Professor Liz Bacon, Professor Lachlan MacKinnon |
| June 2016 | Development of a briefing paper on 'Digital skills development and use across the lifetime and future challenges' for the UK Government Office for Science – link to article | UK Government Office for Science £4K | Professor Liz Bacon, Professor Lachlan MacKinnon |
| April 2016 – March 2018 | Newton fund project "Aconcagua Knowledge Destination: A framework for a Special Interest Tourism Management Planning in Aconcagua Valley, Chile" which included a focus on education in the tourism industry. | ~£45K | Professor Lachlan MacKinnon, Professor Liz Bacon |
| 2015-17 | REACT Collaborative Development Programme. HEFCE Catalyst. One of 12 minor partners. | The project received £566,965 funding. | Simon Walker (PI for Greenwich) |
| 2015 | Student Change Agents' Network, Jisc. | £13,500 | Simon Walker, Project Director |
| 2014-16 | Greenwich Connect | £387,144 | Simon Walker, Project Director |
| 1/9/14-30/4/15 | Training of L1 Computing At School Master Teachers to teach computer science | DfE-funded Network of Excellence programme £13,600 | Professor Liz Bacon, Professor Lachlan MacKinnon |
| 1/4/14 – 31/3/16 | EU FP7 project Pop-Alert preparation of societies and populations to cope with crisis and disasters. 11 Partner project generating 998,848.38 Euros of funding. Grant agreement no: 608030. Overall project coordinators. | Greenwich funding €121,873 | Project Coordinator and Greenwich Principal Investigator |
| 1/11/13 – 31/10/15 | EU Erasmus Lifelong Learning Programme: SocialiseIT: Social Workplace Learning Using CCD. 8 partner project worth 299,390 Euros. | Greenwich funding €44,347 | Professor Liz Bacon, Professor Lachlan MacKinnon |
| Dec 2015 – Dec 2016 | Phase 2 of the Monitor project identified below, to extend the tourism system to the whole of Norway. | 350K Norwegian Kroner, ~£30K | Professor Lachlan MacKinnon, Professor Liz Bacon |
| 2014-16 | Greenwich Connect. | £387,144 | Simon Walker, Project Director |
| July 2013 – Dec 2015 | Monitor Project in conjunction with Buskerud University College, Kongsberg, Norway. Development of a management system for the tourism industry using data warehouse and dashboards to measure the development of the tourism industry in Norway. | 1 million Norwegian Kroner ~£110,000 | Professor Lachlan MacKinnon, Professor Liz Bacon |
| Autumn 2013 | Maritime City funded by South London Membership Council Innovation, Diffusion and Excellence Awards in Healthcare Education and Training | South London Membership Council £39,555.60 | Dr Karen Cleaver, Ryan Flynn, Avril Hocking, Professor Liz Bacon and ??? |
| 2012-13 | Open Learning Design Studio (OLDS) - MOOC Consortium bid led by the Open University | £5000 | Simon Walker, Project Director |
| Feb-July 2010 | Maritime City: Development of an immersive virtual reality training environment for Health and Social Care Practitioners | Internal funding of £16,000 | Ryan Flynn, Professor Lachlan MacKinnon, Professor Liz Bacon and others |
| June 2013 | Pandora Development | Training4Resilience £39,750 | Professor Liz Bacon, Professor Lachlan MacKinnon |
| 2012 | Student Change Agents' Network, Jisc | £30,000 | Simon Walker, Project Director |
| 2011 | Digital Literacy in Transition. Jisc | £200,000 | Simon Walker, Project Director |
| Jan 2010-March 2012 | EU FP7 project PANDORA. Advanced training environment for crisis scenarios. 10 European partners. Grant agreement no: 225387. Overall project coordinators. | €2.93million, Greenwich allocation €340,423 | Professor Liz Bacon, Professor Lachlan MacKinnon |
| 2008 | International Baccalaureate e-Learning Laboratory. BECTA | £15,900 | Simon Walker, Project Director |
| 2006 | eLISA eLearning Independent Lifelong Learning Project. | £35,000 | Professor Jill Jameson, Simon Walker |
| 2005 | Collaborative Approaches to the Management of e-Learning (CAMEL). HEFCE. | ? | Simon Walker, Project Director |
| 2005 | Emerald funding, Showtime Conference Development | £30,000 | Simon Walker, Project Director |
| 2004 | e-Learning Independent Lifelong Learning Project (Jisc) | £150,000 | Professor Jill Jameson, Simon Walker |
Current PhDs (working titles)
- The design of on-line instructional material to optimise student learning and achievement
- Examining the Impacts of Social Media Engagements on Learners Motivation in MOOCs
- Exploring the use of regular tools in collaborative learning activities
- An investigation of models for the teaching of computer programming at secondary school and identification of best practice.
- An investigation into multisensory interactive 3D game environments to enhance teaching reading using phonics in dyslexia
Completed PhD titles and dates
- "A Study into the Characteristics of Game-Based Learning Software that Appeal to 11-14 Year Old Girls", November 2017
- "Empirical evidence that proves a serious game is an educationally effective tool for learning computer programming constructs at the computational thinking level", July 2013.
- "Design, Development And Evaluation Of Technology Enhanced Learning Environments: Learning Styles As An Evaluation Tool For Metacognitive Skills", Dec 2012.
- "Impact of learner control on learning in adaptable and personalised e learning environments", Feb 2011.
- "Intelligent Monitoring of Business Processes using Case-Based Reasoning", Nov 2012.
- "The use of tagging to support the authoring of personalisable learning content", July 2012.