Simone Titus

Simone Titus is a Teaching and Learning Specialist in the Interprofessional Education Unit (IPEU) in the Faculty of Community and Health Science at the University of the Western Cape. Her current portfolio entails developing teaching and learning strategies in health science and interprofessional education. Her research interests are focused on game-based learning and using emerging technologies to foster cross cultural interaction and engagement in higher education. She has a growing number of Masters and PhD students under her supervision. She is currently the recipient of the Black Academic Advancement Programme and her research focus is on the use of Augmented and Virtual Reality in Health Sciences Education.

Shanali Govender

Shanali is a lecturer within the Academic Staff Development unit at the University of Cape Town’s Centre for Innovation in Learning and Teaching. Her particular brief in the staff development team is to support part-time and non-permanent teaching staff. She currently teaches on the Postgraduate diploma in educational technologies, co-convening the Online Learning Design module. She has designed several online staff development short courses, and teaches two academic staff development online courses, Core Concepts in Learning and Teaching and An online introduction to Assessment. Shanali also has strong interests in relation to inclusivity and education, working largely in the practice space with colleagues to create more inclusive teaching and learning environments.

Nicola Pallitt

Dr Nicola Pallitt is an Educational Technology Specialist at Senior Lecturer Level. She coordinates the efforts of the Educational Technology team in the Centre for Higher Education Research, Teaching and Learning (CHERTL) at Rhodes University. Nicola offers professional development opportunities and learning design support for academics to design effective blended, hybrid and online learning experiences for their students. Nicola supervises postgraduate students, co-teaches formal courses in Higher Education and co-designs and co-teaches online short courses. She enjoys meeting and supporting practitioner-researchers in the Educational Technology field and is also part of the e/merge Africa team.

Ass Prof Daniela Gachago

Dr Daniela Gachago is an Associate Professor at the Centre for Innovation in Learning at Teaching at the Centre for Higher Education Development at the University of Cape Town. Her research focuses on academic staff development to transform teaching and learning in higher education, with a particular focus on socially just pedagogies such as digital storytelling. She is also interested in innovative course and curriculum design drawing from co-creative approaches such as design thinking. She received a PHD from the School of Education at the University of Cape Town. She has published more than 50 peer-reviewed articles and book chapters and is the managing editor of CriSTaL, the journal for critical studies in teaching and learning in higher education.