I’m the Principal Lead, Digital Pedagogy and Curriculum at the University of Southern Queensland. I’m also a Visiting Fellow at the Queensland University of Technology (QUT), where I continue to supervise PhD candidates.
Teaching and learning
Teaching and learning has been a passion for me throughout my academic career. From 2017 to 2019, I worked in a role that didn’t involve actively teaching, but I continued to work on research in the teaching and learning space.
In my current role, I lead a team of academics who work on digital pedagogy and curriculum innovation projects. In 2020, we are focusing on the design and development of minicourses for USQ’s microcredential product, UpSkill, and the development of an innovative new digital-first Master of Business Administration.
In the past, my teaching has been primarily focused in the Information Management and Library and Information Practice majors of a Master of Information Science program. In the Masters program, my teaching focused on online information service provision and emerging and social technologies in information practice, including related areas like information architecture, information design, content management, web governance, social media policy, and online service delivery. I also designed and taught a unit called Social Technologies in a Bachelor of Information Technology program. That unit took a user-focus and explored issues and trends with social technologies. In recent years, I’ve taught research methods for coursework IT students as well as higher degree by research students.
I have a background in teaching dual mode cohorts, with both internal and external students who move fluidly across study modes from course to course and even week to week. In both my own teaching and my work on digital learning innovation projects, my focus is on creating participatory learning experiences that foster engagement.
Research
I hold a PhD in information technology from QUT. My PhD research focused on how new mothers experience information in social media. Information experience has been a focus for my research over the last decade. I also have a track record as an applied research in information studies.
I’m an interpretivist researcher with a strong interest in people’s lived experience of learning, technology and information, and my research sits at the nexus of these interests. I am interested in how people experience information as part of their everyday lives, particularly engagement with information that is mediated by technology. Currently, I’m part of a team of researchers exploring the experience of being an academic in Australian universities. We’ll be developing behavioural archetypes to describe their experiences, with the intention of informing academic development work related to teaching and learning practice.
Service
I currently serve as a member of USQ’s Academic Board, the Program Committee for ALIA Information Online 2021, and the Editorial Board for Public Libraries Quarterly.
Just Kate
When I’m not working, I like to hang out with my family, make stuff (I’m a sewer and crafter), and binge watch TV series.
More
Find out more about my research, publications, workshops and projects at katedavis.info.