lecturer digital media, 2024-2025

Working within a joint venture partnership between the University of Stirling and Chengdu University, my role was centered on bridging the gap between high-level media theory and the fast-paced requirements of the contemporary creative industries. As a Lecturer in Digital Media, I redesigned and led undergraduate modules in Interactive Filmmaking, Digital Storytelling, and an Introduction to the Creative Industries. The challenge in this specific cross-cultural context was ensuring that academic rigor, expressed through critical essays and reflective journals, remained deeply integrated with technical production.

During the 2024-2025 academic year, I initiated a successful redesign of the instructional methods and assessment strategies for my core modules. The objective was to move away from passive learning and toward a student-led, practice-based model. This transition required a careful balance between providing technical guidance and building the independent research capabilities of the students.

By restructuring the coursework, I was able to achieve the following:

  • Integrate Narrative Logic: Help students translate complex media theories into tangible digital projects, preparing them for hybrid careers in the global media landscape.

  • Maintain Academic Rigor: Develop assessment frameworks that valued the process of creation as much as the final output, utilizing reflective practice to deepen the learning experience.

  • Lead Technical Teams: Mentor a team of teaching assistants to ensure consistency in delivery across a large and diverse student body.

The pedagogical focus remained on preparing students for the complexities of hybrid media careers where technical skill must be matched by a capacity for critical reflection. This involved managing the end-to-end lifecycle of creative projects while ensuring that every technical choice was grounded in narrative intentionality.

Beyond the classroom, I supervised final year capstone projects, guiding students through the complex journey from initial concept to festival-ready execution. This experience in Chengdu reinforced a core tenet of my educational philosophy: that the most effective media education is one that treats the studio as a laboratory for both technical mastery and critical inquiry. By creating an environment of practice-as-research, the program successfully bridged the divide between institutional learning and the professional standards of the international film and media sectors.