Consultant in learning and teaching technologies
Lou has worked as an independent consultant in digital transformation and learning and teaching technologies (Lou McGill Consultancy Ltd.) since 2008. During the last 22 years she has worked directly with a range of organisations including Jisc, CETIS, Open University, Commonwealth of Learning, Glasgow Caledonian University, Doncaster College and MyScience. As a regular consultant for Jisc she has worked with a range of higher and further education organisations including some focused consultancy work with specific organisations such as Bangor University and Coventry University. Her consultancy work has spanned a wide range of areas including curriculum design and delivery, online teaching and learning, digital capabilities of staff and students, digital wellbeing, accessibility and inclusion, digital transformation, digital repositories and open education, open badging and digital content management. Current and recent work is listed on the consultancy page.
Managing Library Services
She has over 20 years experience as a Librarian in the field of learning and teaching, both for government and National Health Service organisations as well as academic institutions. Much of this experience has been in the capacity as a service, project or programme manager.
Learning technologies and digital repositories
As a JISC Programme Manager on the eLearning team, she was responsible for developing a new ‘Learning Resources and Activities’ strand of work, which aimed to develop a holistic approach to the effective use of educational content. She developed and led on the 2008 national conference ‘Using learning resources: transforming the educational experience’ which was successful in engaging the community in discussion around sharing and re-purposing of learning materials and also managed the JISC online innovating eLearning conference which focused on institutional transformation and lifelong learning.
Lou has worked on a range of projects and programmes that focus on digital repositories and learning materials, including Digital Libraries in the Classroom (DLiC), Exchange for Learning (x4l), Repurposing and re-use of digital university-level content and evaluation (ReProduce) and the SFC eLearning Transformation Programmes. Lou was on the Steering Group of the CD LOR (Community Dimensions of Learning Object Repositories) Project and also worked on the Stor Curam Project – a storehouse of learning resources for social care.
Professional interests
Professional interests include: the impact of information and communication technologies on learning and teaching; learning literacies (digital capabilities) of students and staff ; cultural and organisational issues affecting institutions, individuals and communities involved in learning and teaching; development, management and use of digital content; student generated learning resources and curriculum design; open education, open badging and OER.
Lou is committed to supporting collaborative working and believes that a cross-sector approach and multidisciplinary team-work are the keys to effecting transformational change in the world of learning and teaching. Her experience across many sectors and both professional and subject disciplines has developed a wide-ranging network of contacts.
Lou has strong writing, synthesis and presentation skills, experience of face-to-face and online teaching, and has carried out research and evaluation during several projects.
