Dr Mary Jacob

BA (San Diego), MA (Harvard), PhD (Aberystwyth), CMALT, SFHEA, PGCTHE, SFSEDA

Dr Mary Jacob is a Lecturer in Learning and Teaching, primarily responsible for the Postgraduate Certificate in Teaching in Higher Education (PGCTHE) programme and the ARCHE scheme for Advance HE Fellowship. She coordinates the university's Generative AI Working Group.

She seeks out events and resources that are useful for teaching staff and shares them via the Weekly Resource Roundup on the LTEU blog.

She holds a PhD in Creative Writing from the English and Creative Writing department at Aberystwyth University and a Master's degree in Regional Studies - East Asia from Harvard University. In 2023, she attained Senior Fellow status in the Staff and Educational Development Association (SFSEDA). In 2017, she attained Senior Fellow status in the Higher Education Academy (SFHEA). In 2014, she earned the Postgraduate Certificate in Teaching in Higher Education (PGCTHE). In 2013, she was awarded the AU Learning and Teaching Fellowship. Since 2009, she has been a holder of Certified membership in the Association for Learning Technology (CMALT). 

She has presented at conferences, podcasts, and webinars including Active Learning Network Global Festival, Association for Learning Technology Winter Summit 2023, Future Teacher Webinars, Digitally Enhanced Education Webinars, L&T Chatshow Podcast, Pedagodzilla Pedagogical Podcast, University of Birmingham's HEFi PGCert in Teaching in Higher Education Symposium, Developing Expertise for Teaching in Higher Education: The Artistry of Teaching, HEA Future Directions, Blackboard Teaching and Learning, the Association for Learning Technology, University of Liverpool's Islands of Innovation, Global Festival of Active Learning, Talis Elevate Teach Learn Collaborate Repeat, e-Assessment Association, the UCISA Innovation Forum, and others. 

From 2006-2017, she served in the E-learning Group as E-learning Advisor, developing and delivering training sessions in the use of technology to enhance learning, with an emphasis on effective pedagogy. She has played a key role in projects such as Aber Academy, AU Exemplary Course Award, HEA e-learning benchmarking, HEFCW Gwella, JISC Building Capacity, and Techdis HEAT4Wales. In 2015-17, she coordinated the Aberystwyth University Learning and Teaching Conference (AUTEL), which is organised by the E-learning Group.

Prior to coming to AU, she was a lecturer in Chinese at UC Davis, where she developed online materials for her classes.

I completed and passed my PhD in Creative Writing in 2024. I organised the Words& poetry reading series from 2014-2018 in the Aberystwyth Arts Centre.

Module Coordinator

• PDM0430 - Professionalising your Teaching in HE
• PDM0530 - Action Research and Reflective Practice in HE

Coordinator

• PDM0430 - Professionalising your Teaching in HE
• PDM0530 - Action Research and Reflective Practice in HE

PDM0430 Professionalising your Teaching in HE, module coordinator December 2017 onwards

PDM0530 Action Research and Reflective Practice in HE, module coordinator December 2017 onwards

WR10420 Introduction to Poetry, postgraduate tutor 2016-17

IT Skills, International English Centre, part-time adjunct tutor 2008-2013

Chinese language and literature (multiple modules), UC Davis lecturer 1998-2005

I am interested in two main areas of research.

Associated with my post as Lecturer in Learning and Teaching, I am involved with the pedagogy of teaching in higher education. I am particularly interested in ways to apply active learning in the classroom and using technology to help students learn. I have a commitment to student-centred teaching and have carried out projects in the area of 'Students as Partners'. Effective and ethical use of Generative AI for learning and teaching has been a strong theme in my work since November 2022.

In connection with my PhD research, I'm interested in methods of accessing unconscious material for poetic production. This includes Surrealist games, OuLiPo constraints, and L=A=N=G=U=A=G=E and other postmodern poetry experiments. I based my experiments on recent research in the neuroscience of creativity, making use of Default Mode Network (DMN) and Executive Control Network (ECN) activation. 

• Friday 14:00-16:00