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Prof Rhona Sharpe

Fellow, Visiting Fellow

Centre for Teaching and Learning

Professor Rhona Sharpe was the founding Director of the Centre for Teaching Learning at the University of Oxford, where she brought together educational development and digital education teams to develop approaches to digitally supported inclusive teaching, and implement these in partnership with academic and professional services departments. She oversaw the creation of the Centre’s portfolio of services which use course and assessment design as the primary location for situated professional development. The Centre also developed a portfolio of accredited role-based professional development for those who teach and support learning, learning technologists and learning developers. A variety of evaluations and student partnership activities provided key insights into students’ experiences at Oxford.

Rhona has held leadership positions in UK universities in Teaching and Learning, Education Policy and Enhancement, Technology Enhanced Learning, and Staff and Educational Development. Examples of projects include the development and implementation of a new Digital Education Strategy for Oxford, a Captured Content Policy for the University of Surrey and embedding of graduate attributes at Oxford Brookes University. She has been awarded a National Teaching Fellowship and a Principal Fellowship of the Higher Education Academy.

Rhona’s research interests are in learning design, teacher development, and programme evaluation, with interests in practice-based research which enables change, including participative research approaches with students, developmental evaluations of institutional initiatives and evidence-based reviews. Her most recent publication is the Handbook of Digital Higher Education for Elgar (second edition 2027) edited with Tünde Varga-Atkins and Sue Bennett.

Rhona is an Associate Lecturer for the Institute of Educational Technology at the UK Open University, contributing to the curriculum portfolio of the Institute and teaching on the Masters in Online Teaching. She is an academic advisor for students at Kellogg College.