About Us

Dr Liz Falconer, E-Learning Development Unit Manager

Liz started her working life as an Environmental Health Officer in a local authority in Cheshire in 1978, moving on to private industry (British Oxygen) after 6 years of public sector practice in health and safety at work. In 1987 Liz joined University College Salford, later part of the University of Salford, lecturing in occupational safety and health. Her interest in distance and online learning developed as the designer and course director of the MSc in Occupational Safety and Health, a flexible, multi-mode programme that used Blackboard 5TM as the VLE platform. In 2001 Liz moved to the University of Bath as Director of the Centre for Distance Education, and then joined UWE in July 2003. She completed her MPhil at Manchester Polytechnic in 1992 and her PhD at Salford University in 2001.

Manuel Frutos-Perez, E-Learning Development Unit Deputy Manager

Manuel started his academic career teaching Spanish Culture at the Johannes Kepler University of Linz in Austria after completing his first degree in Spanish and German Philology at the University of Salamanca in Spain. He moved to London in 1997 where he held different academic posts teaching Spanish language and culture at several institutions (University of Greenwich, London Business School, Goldsmiths College, Open University and Tower Hamlets College). After completing his MA in Management of Language Learning at the University of Greenwich he went on to work as an E-learning Academic Consultant for the Open University of Catalonia (UOC) in Spain from 2000 until joining UWE in 2003. The UOC is Europe's first completely virtual university. Since his time in Linz he has always been interested in the use of ICT for teaching and learning and he has participated in the production of interactive CD-ROMs with the Open University and WIDA Software. He has also written and contributed to numerous textbooks and e-learning interactive materials.

Dr Olivia Billingham, E-Learning Research Fellow

Olivia joined the E-Learning Development Unit as an E-Learning Research Associate on the Research Observatory project in September 2005. Her main role is to develop content for the Research Observatory by designing learning objects or liaising with academic staff in order to transform existing teaching materials into learning object format. Olivia's first degree and PhD are in the field of molecular biology and genetics. More recently Olivia has achieved a postgraduate qualification in Law. Throughout her varied academic and professional career, Olivia has developed a keen interest in the delivery of complex information in a format appropriate and comprehensible to the end user whether in a commercial or teaching context.

Mark Shand , E-learning Development Officer

Mark joined the E-Learning Development Unit in September 2008 on an 18 month secondment. His main role is to help support various e-learning initiatives and systems used across the university and to help promote the use of e-learning in general.

Glenn Duckworth , E-learning Development Officer

As a first degree Glenn studied Behavioural Sciences – a combination of Psychology, Sociology and Research Methods. Since then he has worked as Researcher, Lecturer and Technical Manager for Psychology at the University of Huddersfield.

Glenn joined the ELDU at UWE in September 2009 as e-Learning Development Officer for Bristol Business School. His interests include the production of multimedia based interactive tutorials, video production and more generally, the use of technology to support learning and teaching in Higher Education.

Dr Julian Green , E-learning Development Officer

Julian began his academic career studying psychology and music at Keele University, continuing on to read for a master’s degree in musicology at the University of Southampton. After teaching psychology for several years, Julian completed his PhD at Cardiff University in 2008 - examining the aesthetic relationships between painting, music and a listener, and drawing on various critical theoretical models, including metaphor, phenomenology and reader-response theory.

Alongside these studies, Julian also gained employment as a study skills and assistive software tutor for the Disability and Dyslexia Unit at Cardiff University, developing skills and knowledge in many aspects of e-learning. More recently, Julian worked as a learning technologist at University of Wales, Newport, and in September 2009 he joined the E-learning Development Unit at UWE as a learning technologist for the Bristol Business School.

His research interests include explorations of the processes and mechanisms which lie behind our immersive learning experiences in 3D virtual worlds, such as Second Life.

Surabhi Srivastava, Research Associate

Surabhi has worked as an IT Trainer at further education colleges in Midlands and South West for over 10 years. She enrolled on MSc IT in 2008 at UWE and has joined the ELDU team in Jan 2010 as a Research Associate.

Her research interest is in Technology Enhanced Learning in Higher Education and her current research is on 'Second Life usage in UWE in creating an Immersive Learning Environment'.

You can find her as Aliceiw Innovia- her 'Alice in Wonderland' avatar in Second Life. She is also involved with other projects in E-learning.