Congratulations to Dr. Kay who was appointed as a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy.
Advance HE (formerly the Higher Education Academy) is the British professional body for all those associated with teaching in higher education. Professional recognition is gained through fellowships; becoming a fellow is typically a condition of appointment for a new academic. Senior fellows are the next level above that, and are required to demonstrate not only a sustained commitment to teaching excellence, but leadership of others.
Dr. Kay's application was wide-ranging, covering his teaching prize for innovation within the Introduction to Applied Mathematics module, and his development of the new module on Scientific Programming, which has a substantial focus on employability. A theme throughout was the use of technology in the classroom. This was particularly evident during lockdown, when his work both at departmental and school level helped to minimise the disruption caused by a rapid switch to online teaching. His work ensured that colleagues had a clear workflow for providing the required blend of simultaneous online and in-person teaching, and that asynchronous resources such as Moodle provided a higher quality, consistent interface to all the information that students needed. For example, he drove the introduction of STACK within Moodle, used for asking quiz questions that can accept formulae as answers. Not only did Dr. Kay use this tool extensively within his own teaching, but supported other staff members across EPMS in introducing it in their own teaching.
