Academic Anniversaries

Today is the twenty-fifth anniversary of my arrival in Edinburgh to take up a post at the University of Edinburgh. It’s also—it’s time to acknowledge here—my first anniversary of no longer working there. In between was the best part of my academic career. That first position was as research fellow—essentially a postdoc—with the Scottish Centre for Research into On-Line Learning and Assessment, a cross-institutional centre with branches at Edinburgh, Heriot-Watt University (also in Edinburgh) and the University of Glasgow. I was attached to its policy wing under Professor Jeff Haywood, building on my experience as IT Policy Adviser to the Australian Vice-Chancellor’s Committee in 1999–2000 and an earlier role as what would come to be called a learning technologist. SCROLLA introduced me to colleagues across Scotland and Europe (the latter through supporting some EU-funded Coimbra Group projects Jeff was involved in), as well as in Edinburgh itself. I was based at the Faculty of…