I’m now retired from running workshops and giving keynotes, but continue to write and publish on assessment, feedback, learning and teaching in higher education.
My passion is about ‘making learning happen’, in an approachable way, without recourse to jargon, acronyms or elitism. People say I have the knack of making complex things understandable!
My most popular book is ‘The Lecturer’s Toolkit’ the 5th edition came out in 2019, and a flyer can be downloaded here: The Lecturer’s Toolkit Flyer (1)
I started as a scientist, but gradually became an educational developer. I completely failed to take early retirement in 1995, and again when I retired from Leeds Met in 2010, and was even busier until 2015. Nowadays, apart from the odd workshop or keynote, I enjoy being a granddad.
My work was recognised in 2007 by the Higher Education Academy awarding me a National Teaching Fellowship, and the status of ‘Principal Fellow’ from 2012. I remain a Visiting Professor at Plymouth University, who awarded me an Honorary Doctorate in Education in 2012, and also at Edge Hill University.
Home is Newcastle upon Tyne. My other passion is classical music, (see the ‘Classical Music’ page of this website) and I am an accomplished performer on the CD player and iPod.
Three old videos
(useful if you suffer from insomnia – I’ll soothe you to sleep in no time)
There are various bits and pieces on youtube but many of these are now quite old – my views may have advanced since they were made!
Back in 2014, to mark the publication of the 3rd edition of ‘Making Learning Happen’, Rachael Plant of Sage interviewed me, leading to three short videos, which you can link to here.
(1) About making learning happen in general: http://tinyurl.com/l7yddya
(2) Five top tips for lecturers: http://tinyurl.com/nxhohe3
(3) on being an author, and the changes in the 3rd edition: http://tinyurl.com/oqfkkdc
My Webmaster
For those who ask me about how this site has been set up and maintained, my Webmaster is Ed Phillips, who was great at setting up my site in the first place, and teaching me how to update the site in a really straightforward way on an almost daily basis, and who has always been at the end of an email whenever advice was needed or problems experienced. If you’d like his email address, so he can help you do something similar, please simply email me – link at the right-hand-side of all pages.