About us

We are Chrissi Nerantzi and Christine Smith, and we used to work together at the University of Salford. We have been and continue to work together on a number of projects - all related to developing and enhancing best practice in support of learning and teaching.

Chrissi Nerantzi is a Principal Lecturer in Academic CPD, in the Centre for Excellence in Learning and Teaching at Manchester Metropolitan University. Chrissi is an experienced Teacher Educator and Academic Developer. She supports individuals and teams to enhance teaching practices. Chrissi’s approach is playful and experimental and she specialises in creative learning and teaching approaches. Chrissi models and promotes these actively through her practice and related research activities. Her current research interests are game-based learning, the use of Lego in Education, flipping the classroom, the use of video for observations of teaching and open academic practice. For more information about Chrissi, please visit http://www.linkedin.com/in/chrissinerantzi

Dr Christine Smith is Quality Enhancement Manager at University Campus Suffolk (UCS). Christine Smith has been at UCS since February 2013, leading the enhancement of learning, teaching and assessment across the institution. Christine has been involved in higher education for over 23 years, and spent 17 years as a lecturer in educational research at Lancaster University where she designed and led on a number of distance learning and online learning programmes. She also worked as Director of Open Learning, developing distance learning at the University of Windsor in Ontario, Canada. Christine became Head of Academic Practice at the University of Salford in 2009, setting up a new postgraduate certificate in academic practice including promoting the use of action research as an evidence-based approach to enhancement of academic practice. Her broad area of research interest is in the design and development of open, distance and flexible learning environments particularly using learning technologies and social media for continuing professional development. Christine’s research sits within a socio-constructivist theoretical framework, with the following foci: online collaborative learning; distributed communities of practice; and the creation and use of open and media-rich resources in online learning environments including e-portfolios. Her PhD explored participatory action research in its methodological perspective. She has also researched into aspects of research supervision and is interested in exploring learning transitions and academic identity, especially from a community of practice theoretical perspective.