Quality Assurance Manager
Resume:
Administrator and
Art Historian
acczzg@r.postjobfree.com
Professional Profile
Student-centered and experienced in traditional pedagogies as well as digital learning platforms with a decade’s experience in the oversight of adult education programs in a widening participation context. Over two decades teaching learners of varied cultural backgrounds, aims and abilities. Thought-leader in implementing and raising standards of course delivery and ensuring instructional effectiveness in compliance with government, university and personal academic metrics. A seasoned and sensible policy-forger in all financially self-supporting open and inclusive learning or academic environments, who boosts enrolments and raises standards and profile, a meticulous manager of compliance standards with University and National assessment criteria; consistently exceeding standards with students achieving their learning outcomes and enjoying the process. Magisterial lecturer and tutor in my mastered disciplines of Art History, Visual Culture and Book Culture (Bibliography and Codicology), and, most importantly, an adaptive, flexible and engaging educator, in the rapidly evolving era of no student being ‘typical’.
“Loura….has a passion for her subject area that permeates her approach to teaching, often finding opportunities for injecting additional resources or activities that help to bring a subject to life….I… look back on Loura’s teaching as an educator and see clearly the extent to which she embodied the principles of student-centred learning that is so important to ensure students are encouraged to become deep learners.”
David J. Stevenson, former student, now a Course Supervisor in Festival and Culture at Queen Margaret University
Academic Qualifications
Masters of Science in Material Cultures and History of the Book
Awarded with Merit in 2011 from the University of Edinburgh, Scotland
While working full time: Palaeography and Codicology: transcription and translation of texts from 700-1600; Cultures of the Book: from the Dead Sea Scrolls to the Internet; Working with Collections: cataloguing, conservation and preservation; The Road to 1611: the physical evolution of the Bible. Completed a 15,000 word dissertation of original research on Albrecht Dürer’s Apocalypses, marked as ‘distinguished’.
Masters of Arts with Honours in Art History and English
Awarded with Merit in 1991 from the University of Saint Andrews, Scotland
Applied directly from American High School and completed History of Art: History of Art I and II, Modernism, Post-Modernism, Aesthetics, Word and Image; and for English: Anglo-Saxon, Middle English, Romanticism, Shakespeare and Theory & Practice of Literary Criticism. Outside courses in Philosophy, French and Psychology. Dissertations for each major subject originally researched and translated.
Professional Experience: all part-time positions listed here were held concurrently
Course Organizer (US Equivalent: “Head of Department” / Academic Program Manager”)
Office of Lifelong Learning, University of Edinburgh October 2003 to October 2013
http://www.ed.ac.uk/studying/short-courses
The Office of Lifelong Learning offers over 500 wide-ranging part-time extension courses for the general public per year, for academic credit purposes as well as interest. I oversaw a topical, broad, and engaging Humanities curriculum targeted at aspiring undergraduates and the general public with the supervisory role of academic sections / department as follows:
2003-13 -Art and Architecture (World Visual Culture) 44 courses / 17 tutors / 531 enrolments
2004-09 -History (World and Scottish History) 50 courses / 28 tutors / 725 enrolments (approx.)
2005-08 -Literature (World and Scottish Literature) 20 courses / 16 tutors / 475 / 725 enrolments (approx.)
2007-13 -Scottish Tourist Guides Association 1/2 course / 12 tutors / 22 candidates
This involved:
Being an empathetic and effective Director of Study for all enrolled students and contact point for members of the public, professional bodies and relevant institutions on a national level.
Selecting, developing and ensuring the academic rigor and appeal of tutor-proposed courses through relevant submitting to and participating within Boards of Study and Validation Board within the College of Humanities and Social Sciences (History, Scottish History, Literature, Visual Culture, Scottish Studies and Education).
Working with internal and external colleagues in the Schools of History, Classics and Archaeology and Arts, Culture and Environment, serving as external member of the Undergraduate Studies Committee for both Schools, responsible for all course documentation.
Recruiting, mentoring and line-managing 50+ academic staff per year, creating effective and diverse offerings of in-semester short courses, summer programs, weekend intensive courses and an industry training course for professionally accredited Blue Badge Tourist Guides (STGA).
Contributing to the academic governance and prospectus publications of Open Studies via the Academic Policy Group, also liaising with the STGA as regards evolving and improving assessment metrics and industry realities, and managing the cultural as well as practical changes to assessment following the introduction of the Scottish Credit and Qualifications Framework.
Continuous Quality Assurance development, monitoring of student and tutor feedback, addressing disciplinary and study support issues and steadily improving course presentations, academic quality and public appeal in both granular and strategic terms.
Course Organizer (continued)
Office of Lifelong Learning, University of Edinburgh October 2003 to October 2013
http://www.ed.ac.uk/studying/short-courses
Achievements:
Personally negotiating the gratis use of teaching space at national art collections and historic sites with the following external entities: Historic Scotland; The National Archives; The Royal Museum; National Museums Scotland; The National Library; The Royal College of Surgeons and National Galleries Scotland to name but a few.
Giving every OLL student has the chance to learn about art in a public gallery, archaeology at a prehistoric site, or engage with Scotland’s military history above the jail in Edinburgh Castle. Internal entities such as the University of Edinburgh Centre for Research Collections and Edinburgh College of Art now open the strong room doors and enable students to turn the pages of illuminated Bibles, or explore the paintings in the four Scottish National Galleries with an expert over their lunch hour.
Re-developing the 120-credit, 12-subject, 2 year part-time Blue Badge Tourist Guide course from the brink. I worked with the accrediting body (STGA) and brought it up to external and internal (University of Edinburgh) national accreditation and assessment standards and internal ones within three months, and to the “gold standard in tourist guide training” within one year (Rosalind Newlands, OBE: Presidential Address to the World Federation of Tourist Guide Associations, Bali, 2009).
Balancing the need for long-term stability in training professionals for Scotland’s primary industry, with an adaptive approach to, for example, Homecoming or the Commonwealth Games, with tenders always on time, always on the ‘excellent’ mark for compliance checks, and always on budget. The success rate was 100%: every student qualified to take the Scottish Tourist Guide Association Admittance Exam, and 95% of those students are fully employed in their chosen profession / vocation. I selected and ran a staff of twelve subject experts, worked with tourism professional trainers and project-managed the course in such a way as to set one of the European benchmarks, within the structure of several intertwined and sometimes contradictory committees.
Raising the profile of the OLL and greater University of Edinburgh through these activities, representing OLL on Open Days, and various external committees, such as Rosslyn Chapel and Glen Education. While in charge of the Literature section, I was able to greatly strengthen Edinburgh University Library’s contribution to the bid to be UENSCO’s first ever European City of Literature –and we got it!
People-managing a period of intense change for OLL, over a decade which saw us downsized, merged with The Institute for Applied Language Studies, restructured, rebranded and physically moved from where OLL had been for around 100 years. I managed to retain staff and student interest, adhere to the core standards and created an inclusive learning culture throughout, which was fiscally self-sufficient.
Teaching Experience
Associate Lecturer (“Associate Professor” – NB: Master’s is the base requirement in the UK)
The Open University in Scotland and Ireland January 2002 to December 2013
www.open.ac.uk/Arts/arthistory/index.shtml
Teaching Art History courses
Art and its Histories (A216); Exploring Art and Visual Culture (A226); Siena, Florence and Padua: Art, Society and Religion 1280-1400 (AA350); Renaissance Art Reconsidered (AA315)
Supervised, marked and moderated continuous assessed work for twenty or more students per course, as well as Masters’ theses on 60-credit distance learning Arts (“Humanities”) courses
Produced effective and engaging learning materials, and led face-to-face tutorials and gallery visits
Designed and delivered online tutorials
Consistently achieved ‘excellent’ in monitor reports as well as consistently excellent student reviews
Supported students with additional requirements such as dyslexia, mental health or language issues; offered one to one support as well as group teaching
Pass rate 95%, Satisfaction rate 95%, Complaints: 0
Tutor / Lecturer (“Lecturer” – NB: a Master’s degree is the base requirement in the UK)
Office of Lifelong Learning, University of Edinburgh September 1994 to October 2013
www.course-bookings.lifelong.ed.ac.uk/courses/B/art-and-architecture
Planning, research, development and delivery of short, vocational or accredited – and often interdisciplinary Art History courses to a wide variety of learners at freshman and sophomore college level, including:
Art in Europe (I, II, III): 3 x 10-week surveys, 10 credit points each, from cave paintings to Banksy
Albrecht Dürer: Life and Art – 6 hour day school
How Art Works (with extra study skills support): 1 x 10-week survey - 10 credits
The Northern Renaissance (I, II): 2 x 10-week surveys - 10 credits each
Art in the Age of Faith I and II: 2x10-week surveys on European religious art from 700-1600
Treasures of the University Collection : 6 hour day school
Lunchtime Lectures at National Galleries Scotland: Italian and Northern Renaissance Art
Publications
“Reconsidering the Renaissance through Dürer,” Paper given at the Open University Arts Associate Lecturers Annual Conference, 21 November 2007.
"Damien Hirst and the Sensibility of Shock," The Contemporary Sublime: Sensibilities of Transcendence and Shock, ed. Paul Crowther, Art and Design; V.10 (London: Academy Editions, 1995)
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