Lecturer in Digital Media Practice - 0.5

Candidate Information Pack Lecturer in Digital Media

Practice 0.5

Contents

• About UCL
• About UCL Institute of Education
• About the Department of Culture, Communication and Media
• Staff Benefits
• Our Commitment to Equality, Diversity and Inclusion
• How to Apply
• Job Description and Person Specification

About UCL

Founded in 1826 in the heart of London, UCL is London's leading multidisciplinary university, with more than 18,000 staff and 51,000 students from over 150 different countries.

We are a diverse community with the freedom and courage to challenge, to question, and to think differently.

Through a progressive approach to teaching and research, our world-leading academics, curious students and outstanding staff continually pursue excellence, break boundaries, and make an impact on real-world problems.

Since 1826, we have challenged orthodoxy and applied ourselves to making the world better, seeking to serve society through the generation and application of ‘useful’ knowledge, with a particular focus on leading interdisciplinary discussion and debate.

UCL is now one of the world’s top universities, with broad disciplinary excellence in research, innovation, education and impact. We operate on a large scale and nevertheless deliver exceptional academic performance: an achievement that has few parallels internationally.

Find out more about UCL here.

About UCL Institute of Education

Working across education, culture, psychology and social science, we create lasting and evolving change in a real-world context. We embrace cross-pollination, collaboration and excellence to create a future that is inclusive and just. We do this through world-leading education, research and enterprise, and have been ranked number one for education worldwide every year since 2014 in the QS World University Rankings.

We merged with UCL in December 2014 and have grown our community to 6,000 students, 1400 staff and hundreds of thousands of alumni who push the boundaries of knowledge and lead challenging conversations.

UCL Institute of Education comprises six academic departments:

• Culture, Communication and Media (CCM)
• Curriculum, Pedagogy and Assessment (CPA)
• Learning and Leadership (LL)
• Psychology and Human Development (PHD)
• Education, Practice and Society (EPS)
• Social Research Institute (SRI)

UCL Institute of Education is also home to the Centre for Languages and International

Education (CLIE).

Find out more about UCL Institute of Education here.

About the Department of Culture, Communication and Media The Department of Culture, Communication and Media (CCM) is a department of UCL Institute of Education. It is committed to excellence in teaching, research and consultancy in the areas of: Media and Cultural Studies, Art, Design and Museology; Academic writing; English education: Applied Linguistics; Music Education; Multimodality studies; Learning with Digital Technologies.

CCM has an exciting research portfolio of projects funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council, Economic and Social Research Council, Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council, Government and a variety of charities. It is home to one of the IOE's leading research units, the London Knowledge Lab, which investigates learning and teaching with digital technologies in a wide range of settings and provides innovative programmes at Masters and Doctoral level.

CCM also hosts the following centres and research groups

• Academic Writing Centre
• Art, Design and Museology
• Centre for Applied Linguistics
• Centre for Chinese Language Education (CCLE)
• English Education
• International Centre for Intercultural Studies
• International Music Education Research Centre
• Research in Media, Arts and Play (ReMAP)
• UCL Knowledge Lab

Staff Benefits

UCL is a dynamic, global university based in one of the most exciting capital cities in the world. Not only does working at UCL offer the opportunity to work with game changers in your field, but also provides competitive terms, conditions and benefits.

UCL benefits and policies apply equally, whatever the sexual orientation and/or gender identity of employees. Benefits and policies relating to employees partners include both different sex and same sex partners.

Annual leave

27 days of annual leave plus six closure days at Christmas and Easter (pro rata for part time staff) as well as statutory holidays.

Work life balance

We facilitate flexible working such as flexitime, annualised hours, term-time working, shift working, staggered hours, job share/job splitting, part-time working, compressed hours, career breaks and planned remote working.

Professional development

People development is at the heart of everything we do at UCL. Colleagues have access to a comprehensive range of training programmes and development opportunities that are organised by our Organisational Development team.

Find out more about our other staff benefits here.

Our Commitment to Equality, Diversity and Inclusion As London’s Global University, we know diversity fosters creativity and innovation, and we want our community to represent the diversity of the world’s talent. We are committed to equality of opportunity, to being fair and inclusive, and to being a place where we all belong.

We therefore particularly encourage applications from candidates who are likely to be underrepresented in UCL’s workforce.

These include people from Black, Asian and ethnic minority backgrounds; disabled people; LGBTQI+ people; and for our Grade 9 and 10 roles, women.

IOE holds an Athena SWAN Silver award, in recognition of our commitment to advancing gender equality.

EDI Networks

Our staff equalities networks are open to all staff. They are places where people with shared identities and backgrounds can connect with colleagues and make positive change across the university.

Find out more here.

Equality Areas

Information on various types of equality, including disability, race, gender, sexual orientation and religion, as well as the various charter marks UCL participates in.

Find out more here.

How to Apply

Before completing your application, ensure that you have thoroughly read the job description and have had reviewed the IOE website.

Your application form should address all the person specification points and should clearly demonstrate how your skills and experience meet each of the criteria.

It is important that the criteria are clearly numbered and that you provide a response to each one.

Your responses to all the selection criteria form an essential part of the selection process and a failure to provide this information will mean that the application will not be considered. An answer to any of the criterial such as 'Please see attached CV' will not be considered acceptable. Following the selection panel's shortlisting process, you will receive notification of the outcome of your application.

Please note that any offer of employment is conditional on your right to work in the UK.

For British passport holders, as part of our standard pre-employment check process, we will be submitting your details to Experian to complete the mandatory RTW checks. For non-UK passport holders, we arrange a Teams phone call to verify your share code certificate and status, prior to your start date.

Further information on the application process can be found here.

Job Description

Grade 8 /FTE 0.5 Lecturer in Digital Media

Practice 0.5

Department of Culture,

Location: UCL East Communication and Media

Reports to

In undertaking these responsibilities, you will be responsible to the BA Media Programme

Leader.

Context

UCL's BA Media blends creative media production and critical thinking through practiceas-research. Unlike purely practical film production or game development programmes, students critically engage with theories of media and technology, addressing these concepts directly within their practical work. Students explore digital and neural media, interactive storytelling, worldbuilding, fine art, programming, and animatics through making, experimentation, and reflection.

The Lecturer in Digital Media Practice will support students in developing technical fluency in experimental web and mobile creative programming, while demonstrating a nuanced and critical understanding of the relationship between art-making, technology, and culture. The postholder will bring experience of creating inclusive and equitable learning environments, including the decolonisation of thought and the promotion of diversity within art and technology.

https://www.ucl.ac.uk/prospective-students/undergraduate/degrees/media-ba The postholder will play an important role in the delivery of the BA Media. They will also contribute an important specialism to the range of expertise required by the programme.

They may be asked to teach on any of the following modules: Year 1: Introduction to Creative Media Practice Year 1: Designing Games and Interactive Experiences

Year 1: Creative Media Lab

Year 2: Designing Games with Narratives

Year 2: Designing for VR/AR

Year 3: Designing Advanced Games and Interactive Experiences Year 3: Creative Project, Degree Show and Practice-based Dissertation In addition to teaching at undergraduate level, the post-holder may contribute to Masters and PhD programmes in media, and to research, knowledge exchange and consultancy activities.

Duties and responsibilities

Research

• Contribute to the advancement of scholarship in the field of game design and production, through teaching and practice-based research.
• Initiate, design, and lead externally funded research programmes.
• Undertake a range of research, knowledge transfer and/or consultancy activities.

Curriculum Development

• Contribute to the academic development of courses and programmes within UCL’s CCM department, and UCL East, as appropriate, including the design of new modules.
• Contribute to the development of industry placements.

Learning and Teaching

• Make a significant contribution to teaching on the BA Media
• Develop innovative mode of delivery in studio practice
• Contribute to the review of industry skill development and its integration into the curriculum Staff and Professional Development:

•Pursue academic excellence through a continuing commitment to academic, professional and personal development

General

Follow and actively promote the UCL Ways of Working.

Takes responsibility to carry out duties in a way that embodies UCL's environmental and social sustainability values, actively supporting UCL's Sustainability Strategy, policies and objectives within the remit of their role.

Carry out any other duties within the scope, spirit and purpose of the job as requested by the line manager.

This job description may be reviewed and be subject to amendment in consultation with the post holder.

Person Specification

Assessment

Essential Criteria

Qualifications, experience and knowledge

• A doctorate (completed or close to completion) or comparable professional practice and/or industry experience, in arts and technology or creative computing, and industry experience in creative industry and relevant sectors.
• Sound knowledge of key concepts, debates and challenges, especially in relation to interactive, generative, and/or web-native creative work (installation, games, net and post-internet art, data visualisation, platform economy, interactive and environmental narratives), and familiarity with relevant critical theoretical frameworks (critical code studies, internet studies, digital- and post-humanities, algorithmic aesthetics, or related fields).
• Sound knowledge of collaborative workflows (e.g. Git), interdisciplinary production pipelines and demonstrable practice in JavaScript/TypeScript and creative-coding frameworks (e.g. three.js, p5.js, WebGL/GLSL, or equivalent).

method

• Evidence of potential to produce internationally excellent, original and significant practice and research including exhibitions, showcases, products, and relevant publications, and potential for successful funded research and practice-based methodologies.

• Knowledge of programming, animation and 3D modelling, VR and AR, standard graphics pipelines and shaders: ability to teach code as an expressive and conceptual medium, not solely a technical skill
• Experience of teaching in different contexts and learning environments, including practical studio and lab work.
• Experience using game engines and other related applications (Blender, Unreal Engine, Maya etc.)
• Understanding of the relevance of Equal Opportunities policy to the workplace.

Desirable Criteria

• Experience with mobile-context creative practice (responsive/touch interaction, PWAs, or frameworks such as React Native/Capacitor).
• Experience of collaborative interdisciplinary academic or professional work.
• Experience contributing to assessment design and external moderation.

COVER PHOTO: MATT CLAYTON ucl.ac.uk/jobs