Dr Richard Windle

Dr Richard Windle is an Associate Professor at the University of Nottingham, Faculty Digital Learning Director and a Principal Fellow of the HEA. Ever since appointment as a Lecturer in Health Sciences in 1999, he has had a passion for exploring how digital learning technology can be used to support learner-empowerment and ownership in order to address the learning needs of his students. Over the years his work has progressed in a more strategic direction and Richard now spends much of his time supporting colleagues to develop, deploy and evaluate digital learning interventions within complex, vocational curricula. Impact of work Some of his most impactful work has been in facilitating the creation of multimedia open educational resources by communities of practice drawn from a wide range of stakeholder groups within health, including practitioners, patients and carers. Richard is supported in this work by an award-winning team known as the Health E-learning and Media Team that he co-leads, and by funding from a wide range of health and education organisations. Richard has also pioneered the production of multimedia learning resources by students as co-authors, having worked with 150 students from HE institutions across the UK and Ireland. Richard's work is supported by applied research around pedagogical design and learning effectiveness. The resultant, and growing catalogue of content contains approximately 250 openly available learning resources (www.nottingham.ac.uk/helmopen) on a range of health-related subjects such as dementia, patient safety, pharmacology and learning disabilities. His research has shown that learners value the resources very highly and that they are effective in improving learning outcomes. Learners gain from the unique experience and expertise of these stakeholder communities. The resources have been adopted globally in over 50 countries and by millions of users, including both formal and informal learners, patients and carers. Feedback is overwhelming positive about the impact and effectiveness of the resources. Plans for the future       Richard is continuing to build partnerships with colleagues, individuals and organisations to develop resources, embed them in programmes and release them openly. He also plans to continue his thematic research in this area, particularly focusing on long term impact.