Louise has been at Sheffield for 24 years, teaching Physiology to undergraduate and postgraduate students, putting support for students at the very heart of her learning and teaching philosophy. She has received recognition for outstanding and innovative teaching from her students, her institution, and her learned society, winning a range of awards such as the prestigious Senate Award for Sustained Excellence in Learning and Teaching (2009) and the Otto Hutter Teaching Prize (2017).
Louise is well known for championing the use of digital technologies, particularly lecture capture, something she has used for several years. Through her passionate championing of this technology, she has influenced her department, institution, and the wider Higher Education (HE) sector. She was appointed as the institutional lead for lecture capture implementation at the University of Sheffield, which now has some of the best lecture capture statistics in the Russell Group.
In addition, her work as part of a collaborative team led to the production of an important paper on top tips for using lecture captures. Aspects from this paper and the associated student guide are used by institutions across the world to support staff and students. As well as recording her lectures, Louise has pioneered students’ learning by doing; she incorporates active problem solving activities into all her teaching. Using online, anonymous polling, Louise provides a low-risk environment for all students to participate, allowing them to evaluate their knowledge and ability to apply this knowledge to solve problems. Her expertise with digital technologies was never more important than during the COVID-19 pandemic when she not only expertly delivered her own teaching but also led her department to transition teaching online with three days’ notice.
As a recognised expert, she also contributed to a valuable set of institutional resources. Louise also contributed to one of the key papers of 2020; Ten simple rules for supporting a temporary online pivot in higher education. This paper was extensively used across the sector to help with planning for online and blended teaching, illustrating the wide impact Louise has in learning and teaching.
