Professor Philippa Levy

Professor Philippa Levy
  • Biography/ Background

    Philippa joined the University of Adelaide as Pro Vice-Chancellor Student Learning in April 2015. Also in 2015, she was appointed Visiting Professor at the Centre for Higher Education Management at the University of Bath, UK.

    Phil previously was Deputy Chief Executive, and Director of Academic Practice, of the UK’s body for the enhancement of learning and teaching in higher education, the Higher Education Academy (HEA). At the HEA she led national enhancement strategy and services, including commissioned educational research, across all academic disciplines and in a range of thematic areas such as employability, internationalisation, student retention and success, flexible learning, online learning and ‘students as partners’. She also led the HEA’s work on a range of national strategic projects in areas including grade point average, teaching excellence, learning gain and college-based higher education.  

    Phil joined the HEA in 2012, seconded from the University of Sheffield where she continued part-time in her position as Professor of Learning and Teaching Enhancement in Higher Education, based in the Information School (iSchool). Between 2010 and 2012 she served as Head of School and, between 2005 and 2010, as Director of a national Centre for Excellence in Teaching and Learning also based at the University of Sheffield. The Centre ran a substantial £4.85M enhancement programme focusing on inquiry-based learning and undergraduate research across the disciplines.

    Phil joined the University of Sheffield as a beginning academic in 1989, and was promoted to Professor in 2009. At the iSchool, she taught in areas including: educational informatics; information and digital literacies; educational/learning issues in information/library systems and professions; aspects of information and knowledge management including leadership and management of information services; professional learning in knowledge-intensive environments. In 2002 she received a University of Sheffield Senate Award for Excellence in Teaching, in the first round of the scheme. Her professional activities include numerous invited presentations, a number of personal consultancies and, in 2009, time spent in New Zealand as a Visiting Fellow sponsored by HERDSA (Higher Education Research and Development Society of Australasia). She is a member of the editorial board of the journal Teaching in Higher Education. She served as Deputy Convenor of the Education panel for the Hong Kong Research Assessment Exercise, 2014.

    Academic and professional qualifications

    PhD Networked Learning in Higher Education (University of Sheffield); MA Librarianship (University of Sheffield); MA 19th Century French Literature and Society (University of Warwick); BA (Hons) French and Drama (1st class) (University of Birmingham)

    Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (FHEA); Fellow of the Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts Manufactures and Commerce (FRSA)

    Research Interests

    Phil’s research is directed towards informing the development of academic and learning support/development practice. Her areas of interest include: pedagogy, curriculum, student experience; inquiry-based learning and undergraduate research; technology-enhanced learning; design for learning; information and digital literacies; educational role of information specialists; institutional enhancement strategy; scholarship of learning and teaching; qualitative and action research methodologies. She has published widely in these areas.

    Indicative publications

    Levy, P. (2014). Technology-supported design for inquiry-based learning. In: Mang Li and Yang Zhao (eds). Exploring Learning and Teaching in Higher Education. pp.289-304. Berlin: Springer.

    Levy, P. (2012). Developing inquiry-guided learning in a research university in the United Kingdom. In: Lee, V. (ed.) Inquiry as a Way of Learning in Undergraduate Education. New Directions for Teaching and Learning. pp.15-26. San Francisco, CA: Jossey Bass.

    Lameras, P., Levy, P., Paraskakis, I. and Webber, S. (2012). Blended university teaching using virtual learning environments: conceptions and approaches. Instructional Science, 40(1) 141-157.

    Levy, P. and Petrulis, R. (2012). How do first-year university students experience inquiry and research, and what are the implications for inquiry-based learning? Studies in Higher Education, 37(1) 85-101.

    Levy, P., Little, S. and Whelan, N. (2011).  Perspectives on staff-student partnership in learning, research and educational enhancement. In: Little, S. (ed). Staff-student Partnerships in Higher Education. 1-15. London: Continuum.

    Levy, P., Aiyegabyo, O. and Little, S. (2009). Designing for inquiry-based learning with the Learning Activity Management System. Journal of Computer-Assisted Learning, 25 (3) 238-251.

    Expertise for media contact

    Categories        Higher education learning and teaching

    Expertise          Educational practice in higher education: learning and teaching, curriculum, student experience; inquiry-based learning and undergraduate research; technology-enhanced learning; information and digital literacies; quality enhancement and innovation 

     

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Entry last updated: Thursday, 11 Jun 2015