Teaching Experience

---

Module lead:

In spring 2022 I will be part of a team delivering a methods class - Putting Research Into Practice at Cardiff University. I will be delivering lectures on digital research methods, specifically using qualitative coding software on social media data. 

At Brunel University in spring 2020, I taught a Research Methods class to postgraduate journalism students in Spring 2020. The class introduced the main research methodologies to the students, such as content and discourse analysis, ethnography, interviewing and surveys. I also took the students through all the elements generally required for an MA dissertation and academic research project. It was delivered as a lecture plus seminar model with the second half of each week giving students opportunities to undertake practical exercises and discuss the subject of the week.

I taught at CAPA - a study-abroad programme for US students based in London. I taught courses in Ethics in the Media (autumn, 2019; spring, 2020), and Social Media and Strategic Communication (spring, 2020). 

I structured the Ethics in the Media course to run mainly as a student-centred discussion class. Classes include weekly reflections by students on a media/ethics issue they encountered that week, group presentations on the week's subject area, case study discussion, practical ethical decision-making exercises and a lecture component. I arranged for guest speakers from leading companies such as Superawesome and Spin Brands to attend the class to discuss their experiences of ethical issues in their work.

For the Social Media and Strategic Communication class I partnered with a leading digital marketing agency, Ayima, who delivered guest lectures to the students on areas of expertise. Students worked in groups to deliver final projects which were communication portfolios for a newly founded social enterprise. Due to Covid-19 plans for final pitches to a team of angel investors had to be changed to virtual pitches hosted on the websites each group produced to host the project elements - samples of these can be seen here: Group 1, Group 2, Group 3. Students also produced personal websites to give them a portfolio of work from the term.

All four classes for spring 2020 went online for the final few weeks of semester. Classes were continued in a mix of synchronous and asynchronous formats with necessary adjustments made to final submissions to account for the change. 

Guest lecturer:

In spring 2021 I was a guest lecturer at Cardiff University on the BA module, The Making and Shaping of News. I will repeat this guest slot in spring 2022.

At Brunel University I delivered guest lectures on the  BA module Journalism, International Politics and Social Issues in autumn 2019. 

I supervised seven BA Journalism student dissertations at Middlesex University in the 2020/21 academic year. I was the supervisor for four students in the 2019/20 academic year.

Seminar Tutor:

Cardiff University, spring 2022. BA module, The Making and Shaping of News (3 seminar groups). BA module, Understanding Journalism (4 seminar groups). BA module, War, Politics and Propaganda (1 seminar group).

Teaching Assistant:

I served as a Teaching Assistant at the University of Wisconsin on two courses:

- J202: Mass Communication Practices - Autumn 2014, Spring 2015, Autumn 2015

Mean Student Evaluation: 4.76 / 5.00

-  J335: Principles and Practices of Reporting. Spring 2017.

Mean Student Evaluation: 4.43/5.00

J202: Mass Communication Practices

J202 is a six-credit class consisting of six hours of TA lab instruction per week. It is the introductory course to the School of Journalism and Mass Communication, teaching students a wide range of communication skills and techniques involved in journalistic writing and strategic communication. Examples of elements taught include: writing breaking news stories, follow-up stories, feature stories, writing and editing for broadcast, editing video content, writing press releases, producing media buy plans, interviewing, publishing web content, utilizing Alternative Story Forms (ASFs), and engaging in product development and marketing. 

The image to the left is an example of work from a J202 student. Other examples are contained through the site.

J335: Principles and Practices of Reporting 

J335 is an intermediary level reporting class for students interested in pursuing a career in journalism. It builds on skills taught in the J202 class, helping students find their journalistic voice and ensuring that they are able to identify the form(s) of journalism which most interests them. The course is also a prerequisite for Masters Students undertaking the professional track MA. 

Teaching Qualifications and experience

I also have  a Post-Graduate Certificate (PGCE) in Education and Mathematics from the University of Southampton, United Kingdom. I hold Qualified Teacher Status (QTS) in the UK.

I taught mathematics to GCSE level to learners aged 11-16.  I also taught numeracy to young adult learners at a community college, and English as a Second Language (ESL). 

PhDigital Bootcamp

I was selected as a fellow for the PhDigital Bootcamp  Spring 2019. The bootcamp is designed to train communication educators to lead curriculum innovation, particularly in connection with digital communication. I was one of only 20 attendees selected to attend the course which is fully funded by the Knight Foundation. 

As part of the course I learned how to teach concepts and skills such as immersive storytelling, data analytics and visualization, coding, social media and drone journalism. As part of this course I developed a syllabus for a data journalism unit which included sourcing data, interrogating data, scraping data, displaying data and writing with data. This experience made me appreciate how multimedia journalism now means something different than what it did just five years ago and will mean something different again in five more years. But also, that tools are there to help journalists communicate, and good use of such tools requires good journalists with a rounded training. Much of what was covered by this course placed me in an excellent position to transfer this knowledge of digital media to students.