About the Visual Learning Lab

The Visual Learning Lab is a Centre for Excellence in Teaching and Learning (CETL).  Our core mission involves research and development work on the visual aspects of learning and teaching in higher education. We work with academics and students in a wide range of discipline areas to study, evaluate, adapt and develop approaches which influence the effectiveness of learning, in many cases utilising modern visual technologies. We take a holistic view of the role of visuals within education, and our foci include technology, space and pedagogical techniques and their role within informal and formal learning.  We are a multi-disciplinary team working with collaborators locally, nationally and internationally.

The VLL has invested in both research and infrastructure in order to stimulate exciting new ways of using visual technologies in HE to enhance the teaching and learning experience of staff and students. 

This investment has taken the form of:

• Innovative projects in fields such as video-conferencing; interactive whiteboards; video-making
• Student interns , bridging the gap between staff, students and technologies
• Research in fields such as learning spaces; mobile technologies; videoconferencing; interactive whiteboards, and much more; 
• Key central infrastructure on level 1 in Hallward Library, the VLL on Jubilee, and KMC editing suites

Through this work, thousands of students have had access to pedagogically-informed cutting edge technologies, actively engaging in activities including:

• Submitting video as part of their assessments
• Engaging in collaborative group-work in the Hallward library around the interactive flipchart
• Conversing with students in Europe and China via videoconferencing technology
• Making their own biomolecular slides
• Developing archives of images for their use and use by future generations of students
• Enhanced lab work through access to digital microscopes, large and small-scale visualisers and mounted plasms-screens

These experiences have allowed the students to:

• Develop their group-work and communications skills; become more confident communicators;
• develop visual literacy skills; gain employability skills in the fields of IT skills, confidence, communication, interpersonal skills, and much more.

 Please contact the VLL Core Team to find out more about their work.