MsMoira Sarsfield

In May 2026 I became an Honorary Research Associate in the Department of Life Sciences, Faculty of Natural Sciences, conducting education research in conjunction with members of the FoNS EdTech Lab and colleagues in the faculty.

Previously I was Director of the Faculty of Natural Sciences EdTech Lab, retiring in April 2026. In this role I led and managed the EdTech Lab team to provide excellent pedagogic and technological support to academic and professional staff across all departments in the faculty. I also worked collaboratively with colleagues at the institutional level to ensure policies and infrastructure were in place to support the educational aims of the faculty and institution. This involved contributing to relevant institutional and faculty committees and working groups, chairing the Faculty’s Digital Learning Group and co-chairing the Digital Tools Sub-group of Imperial’s Teaching and Learning Board, the Generative AI Pilot Project, and the Platform Integration and Migration workstream of the Digital Education Platform Project, which implemented the insitutional move from Blackboard/ Insendi to Canvas.

Specific activities I was involved in included: 
• Leading and/or contributing to institution-wide projects to review, procure, and implement new digital tools or to develop new functionality within existing systems to meet agreed functional requirements and enhance teaching, learning and assessment activities across Imperial, e.g. Digital Education Platform Project, Celcat-Panopto Integration, and Learning Analytics Infrastructure Development.
• Organising and contributing to events that showcase new teaching, learning and assessment approaches and/or edtech tools at department, faculty and institution level, e.g. Innovation in Learning and Teaching (2020), FoNS Active Learning Summer Challenge (2018), and Technology for Teaching and Learning (2016).
• Contributing to institution-wide educational development and edtech initiatives such as the Anatomy of Assessment project, the Evaluation Toolkit, Case Studies on Remote Teaching, Threshold Level Specification for Online Modules and Principles for Online and Blended Learning.
• Developing technological solutions to enable innovative educational initiatives proposed by teaching staff in the Faculty of Natural Sciences and provide support for delivery and evaluation of these. Recent examples include the development of confidence-based marking for a Medicinal Chemistry module and solutions for concept mapping for ISTEMM modules run by academics in Maths and Physics.
• Running online and face-to-face training activities and workshops to support pedagogic transformation and use of edtech tools, for both individuals and groups, e.g. ABC workshops, Active Learning in Teams training sessions.
• Supporting teaching and professional staff in undertaking curriculum development, pedagogic transformation, and digital innovation projects: providing pedagogic and technical input and support for developing proposals for funding, advice on evaluation and research options (including requirements for ethical approval where required), and coordinating ongoing support for the project from the FoNS EdTech Lab.
• Supporting the professional development of EdTech Lab members.