Clara O'Shea
Associate Lecturer
- Institute for Education, Community and Society (IECS)
- Moray House School of Education and Sport
- University of Edinburgh
Contact details
Address
- Street
-
Moray House School of Education and Sport, SJ
- City
- University of Edinburgh (Holyrood Campus)
- Post code
- EH8 8AQ
Background
I worked first at the Australian National University - initially in admin roles as I got through my undergraduate degrees (a BA (Hons) in History, a BSc in Psychology). I then worked as part of a project looking at undergraduate learning, where I created and coordinated the University's campus-wide peer mentoring system (SIGN).
After moving to Edinburgh, I worked on a number of projects related to e-learning and curriculum design, some of which tied closely to ideas of work-based learning (e.g. the Scottish CLD Consortium project). During this time I also completed a Masters in Online Education and another in Science and Technology Studies.
I'm now happily ensconced with the MSc Digital Education programme working with colleagues there on research around online, distance learning. I’m also working towards a PhD on ‘Kinds of learning and kinds of play: an exploration of identity development in formal and informal digital environments’.
Postgraduate teaching
I teach on the MSc Digital Education. My current courses are
- Assessment, Learning and Digital Education
- Introduction to Digital Games-Based Learning
- Introduction to Digital Environments for Learning
- Understanding Learning in Online Environments
I've also taught on 'Course Design for Digital Environments' and 'Language, Culture and Communication in Online Learning'.
To find out more about these courses, visit either the programme schedule or check out the course handbooks.
Research summary
My research interests coalesce around ideas of digital culture and education , with specific interests around how we learn within online spaces (touching on community, place, identity, presence, enculturation, self regulation, assessment and feedback).
Project activity
Exploring Divergence and Congruence between Learning and Assessment Practices in University and Professional Workplaces.
PI: Tim Fawns. Co-investigators: Gill Aitken and Dai Hounsell.
This is a one year scoping project using a sociomaterial lens to generate a contextualised and fine-grained picture of where and how academic and workplace settings diverge and converge around learning and assessment practices
PhD research
Kinds of learning and kinds of play: an exploration of identity development in formal and informal digital environments
Supervisors: Sian Bayne and Hamish Macleod
I’m interested in how people learn to take on particular identities in collaborative, digital environments. My research draws on the work of Ian Hacking to position learning to take on an identity as a form of human (or social) kind. I am exploring collaborative learning particularly and how formal learning in digital environments might contrast with informal learning, such as that of massively multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPGs) like World of Warcraft.
Past projects
Dissertations at a Distance: researching online distance learning at the University of Edinburgh
PI: Jen Ross. Co-investigators: Philippa Sheail, Gill Aitken, Siân Bayne, Sarah Henderson, and Erin Jackson
This project is exploring what online, distance learning students want and need from their dissertation experience. We will be examining what connections exist between programme and supervisor practices and student outcomes, and how student and supervisor understandings and experiences of ‘success’ map onto available dissertation-related data on four ODL programmes.
Student Writing: Innovative Online Strategies for Assesment and Feedback
PI: Jen Ross. Co-investigators Sian Bayne and Hamish Macleod
This project involved working in partnership with students on the MSc E-Learning programme to explore existing feedback and assessment practices on the programme and identify principles for successful feedback on and assessment of digital writing.
Student Writing project website
As part of this project, my colleagues Jen Ross, Sian Bayne and Hamish Macleod and I have developed a Manifesto for Teaching Online.
EdinSpace: New Geographies of Learning
PI: Sian Bayne. Co-investigators Jen Ross and Hamish Macleod
This project explored at the nature of place and space for online distance learners
This project also involves working in partnership with students, this time to generate narrative and visual data around the themes of place, home and institution.
Other past projects have related to curriculum design, vocational education and the transition from further to higher education. Some have involved focused research, others have been about specific developments.
- Coming to the University of Edinburgh: Community Education. The University of Edinburgh. (PI: John Bamber)
- The Scottish Community Learning and Development Work-Based and Part-Time Training Consortium, The University of Edinburgh. (PI: John Bamber)
- The Defining Undergraduate Learning Project. The Australian National University. (Including the development of the peer mentoring scheme the Student Information and Guidance Network) (PI: Pam Roberts)
-
Evaluative judgement of working practices: Reconfiguring assessment to support student adaptability and agency across complex settings
In:
Italian Journal of Educational Technology
DOI: https://doi.org/10.17471/2499-4324/1027
Contribution to journal › Article (E-pub ahead of print) -
Distributed Learning and Isolated Testing : Tensions in Traditional Assessment Practices
(8 pages)
Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Conference contribution (Published) -
Learning how kinds matter : A posthuman rethinking Ian Hacking’s concepts of kinds, dynamic nominalism and the looping effect
(8 pages)
Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Conference contribution (Published) -
Manifesto for Teaching Online 2016
(2 pages)
(Published) -
A new conceptual frame for group work: group connoisseurship
(17 pages)
Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Conference contribution (Published) -
That ever-ephemeral sense of “being” somewhere : Reflections on a dissertation festival in second life
(190 pages)
Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Chapter (peer-reviewed) (Published) -
Group connoisseurship : creating shared understandings of quality in online collaborative assessments
In:
Brookes eJournal of Learning and Teaching, vol. 6, no. 2
Contribution to journal › Article (Published) -
Disruptions and Dialogues : Supporting Collaborative Connoisseurship in Digital Environments
(273 pages)
Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Chapter (Published) -
Manifesto for teaching online
(Published) -
Towards effective partnerships in training community learning and development workers
(350 pages)
Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Chapter (peer-reviewed) (Published)