Rob Farmer

Learning Designer

2016 conference: Videos that make the lecturer a star

I am a Learning Designer at the University of Northampton. I have a BA (Hons) in Philosophy, an MA in Film Studies, a Postgraduate Certificate in Online and Distance Education, and a Certificate in Education (Post-Compulsory Education). I am a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy and a Certified Member of the Association for Learning Technology. In 2014, the Learning Technology Team in which I work was awarded the Learning Technology Team of the Year Award by the Association for Learning Technology (ALT).

Prior to becoming a Learning Designer I worked as a Learning Technologist, and before this I taught for ten years. I taught at levels three, four and five, and led courses in Philosophy, Critical Thinking and Digital Film-Making. I have had work published in journals and books, have presented at a number of conferences in the UK and Europe, and have had documentaries screened on Channel 4 and at film festivals and conferences.

I am interested in many aspects of learning and teaching and the ways that technology can be used to enhance learning. My current areas of interest, activity and research include designing and creating open online courses, designing and developing blended learning courses, mobile friendly design, active learning, the flipped classroom, patchwork text assessment, e-portfolios, collaborative learning and communities of learning, critical/engaged pedagogy, Socratic method and the importance of dialogue and discussion in education.

I work with and support a number of educational technologies on a regular basis, including Blackboard Learn, Blackboard Collaborate, Turnitin, Panopto, Kaltura, Edublogs (WordPress), PebblePad, and Xerte. In addition to this I have a good knowledge of film-making, sound recording and photography, and of video and audio editing software and graphics packages, including Apple Final Cut Pro, Soundtrack Pro, Compressor and iMovie, Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator, and Audacity. In the past I have trained on and used Apple Shake and Motion, Adobe Flash and Captivate, and on ProTools and Avid, but I no longer use these programs regularly. I have a good knowledge of the standard Microsoft Office applications and regularly use a wide variety of internet/cloud-based applications, such as Dropbox, iCloud, Google Tools, and Skype.

If you would like to get in touch with me, please do so at: robert.farmer@northampton.ac.uk.

Twitter: @RobFmr