Jill Griffiths Head of SODA, Reader in Pedagogical Innovation

Jill Griffiths

I am Head of the School of Digital Arts (SODA) and Reader in Pedagogical Innovation. As Head I provide leadership, strategic direction and operational management for SODA.

Before SODA I was Section Leader and Principal Lecturer for Manchester Metropolitan iSchool; Research Fellow within CERLIM, the Centre for Research in Libraries and Information Management, and Research & Project Manager for MDR Partners. I am currently External Examiner for Degree Apprenticeships at Kingston University, London.

My academic expertise and leadership focus on creating and driving innovation in pedagogy and curriculum, delivery models and programmes to ensure sector leading education within creative and digital arts, including the development of degree apprenticeship programmes. As one of three academics who developed the first degree apprenticeship for Manchester Metropolitan University in 2015, the highly successful BSc (Hons) Digital and Technology Solutions, I am an advocate for new approaches to higher education that open up opportunities to those who might not otherwise study for a degree.

Most recently I led on the new BSc (Hons) Digital User Experience degree apprenticeship programme and provided guidance for the development of the new BA (Hons) Creative Digital Design degree apprenticeship for SODA and have experience with Trailblazer Groups through to development, approval and delivery of degree apprenticeship programmes.

My teaching and research/knowledge exchange focus on user experience (UX) and the study of behaviour and interaction in different digital contexts including cultural collections and academic and commercial sectors, and have been undergraduate Programme Leader as well as teaching across multiple courses from foundation to postgraduate.

As an internationally recognised academic I have research experience spanning over 20 nationally and internationally funded projects, including leading Evaluation and Field Trials for the international PATHS project – Personalised Access To cultural Heritage Spaces (EC funded under the FP7 programme to develop a prototype system for personalised access to digital cultural heritage collections in order to enhance sense making, learning and collaboration). Most recently I have undertaken UX consultancy for a commercial global organisation. I am an invited speaker at international conferences and workshops and have published widely in edited collections and journals, for example the International Conference on Applied Human Factors and Ergonomics, the International Journal of Cultural Policy, the International ACM SIGIR conference on Research and development in information retrieval and Museums and the Web.

Email: j.r.griffiths@mmu.ac.uk