Staff profile

Dr Nicholas Bowskill


Senior lecturer in Education

Nicholas wearing a jumper and shirt

Subject

Education, Childhood and SEND

Department

University of Derby Online Learning

Email

n.bowskill@derby.ac.uk

About

I am a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy and have over 25 years of experience within different universities. I have conducted fieldwork in both the UK and China and worked on national and international research projects to do with technology and learning. 

I am a former External Examiner for MSc in Digital Education for Xi'an Jiaotong Liverpool University in China. 

I am interested in group-based theories and practices for learning and teaching particularly as they relate to technology and research. I am currently exploring collaborative learning with AI. I spend most of my time thinking and doing work on how theory and practice can be organised, managed and implemented using technology.

I was a former Kelvin-Smith Scholar at the University of Glasgow. I am a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy. I am the lead tutor for the SEDA online workshop on Introduction to Educational Change and a Senior Lecturer in Education (UDOL) at the University of Derby. I am a reviewer for various published journals including Assessment and Evaluation in Higher Education, Interactive Learning Environments and International Journal of Art and Design Education and Journal of Learning Development in Higher Education.

SharedThinking is an independent consultancy.

Teaching responsibilities

I currently lecture in the following courses:

I am an External Examiner for MSc in Digital Education for Xi'an Jiaotong Liverpool University in China.

Research interests

I am interested in research supervision which I currently do at postgraduate and doctoral level. I am interested in applications of AI for learning and teaching. My interests extend to social and group learning in general but also to technology. I am interested in group-related theory for learning and the use of technology. I created a technique, and then a consultancy practice, called SharedThinking from my PhD which provides practice for reflecting and invoking a sense of belonging in groups. I am also interested in Online Peer Observation as another collaborative learning strategy.

Membership of professional bodies

Qualifications

Recent conferences

Experience in industry

In my previous life before working as an academic, I worked as an export manager covering all of Africa, the Middle East and Northern Europe. During that time I travelled extensively throughout these countries and beyond including America and Australia.  

International experience

I worked on the e-China Project with Lancaster University, the University of Sheffield and Open University. Carried out fieldwork interviewing online tutors in China. Tutored online in a teaching team consisting of tutors from the UK and China as the lead tutor.

I am an External Examiner for MSc in Digital Education for Xi'an Jiaotong Liverpool University in China.

Recent publications

  • Bowskill, N., Harrogate, M. and Hall, D. (2025) 'What educational participatory archiving taught us about online altruism and collective knowledge', in Syska, A. Buckley, C. Sedghi, G. and Grayson, N.J. (eds.) Transformative Practice in Higher Education: Innovative Approaches to Teaching and Learning, London: Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003503149
  • Bowskill, N., Hall, D., Harrogate, M., Eziefuna, E., Marler, B. (2025) “Staff development for generative artificial intelligence and collaborative learning using Iterationism as a theoretical framework”, Journal of Learning Development in Higher Education, (33). doi: 10.47408/jldhe.vi33.1261. Available at: https://journal.aldinhe.ac.uk/index.php/jldhe/article/view/1261 
  • Bowskill, N. (2023) 'Student-Generated Induction: A Belonging-Based Practice', in Rossi, V., (author) Inclusive Learning Design in Higher Education: A Practical Guide to Creating Equitable Learning Experiences. New York: Routledge, pp. 100–104.
  • Bowskill, N., Hall, D., Harrogate, M., and Hutchinson, L., (2022), "Nostalgia, belonging and mattering: an affective institutional framework for digital collegiality drawn from teachers’ experiences of online delivery during the first wave of the Covid pandemic." Journal of University Teaching & Learning Practice 19(4). https://ro.uow.edu.au/jutlp/vol19/iss4/17/

  • Bowskill, N., Hall, D., Hutchinson, L. & Harrogate, M. (2021) When Online Student Numbers Double During a Pandemic. Journal of Learning Development in Higher Education (22): doi:10.47408/jldhe.vi22.661
  • Bowskill, N. (2021) Student-Generated Induction in a Lecture Theatre, in Hrastinski, S. (ed), Designing Courses with Digital Technologies: Evidence and Examples by and for Higher Education Instructors, Routledge
  • Kotera, Y., Cockerill, V., Green, P., Hutchinson, L., Shaw, P. & Bowskill, N. (2019) Towards another kind of borderlessness: online students with disabilities. Distance Education, 40(2), 170-186
  • Bowskill, N. (2017) SharedThinking: A Social Identity Approach to Critical Thinking. Journal of Pedagogical Development, 7(2), 37-46
  • Bowskill, N. (2016) What Concerns UK Support Professionals Most Regarding Student Induction? A View from 3 years of Professional Development Workshops for ‘Student-Generated Induction: A Social Identity Approach’. ALDinHE Bulletin, 11
  • Bowskill, N. (2013) A Social Identity Approach To Learning With Classroom Technologies. PhD Doctoral Thesis. University of Glasgow
  • Bowskill, N., Lally, V., Draper, S., Cutts, Q. & Brindley, S. (2010) Transforming Reflective Practices with Shared Thinking. On Reflection (20)
  • Bowskill, N. & McConnell, D. (2009) Collaborative Reflection in Globally Distributed Inter-Cultural Course Teams: Sino-UK eLearning Programme, in Berg, G. (ed), Cases on Online Tutoring, Mentoring, and Educational Services: Practices and Applications. Hershey, PA: IGI Global
  • Bowskill, N., Luke, R. & McCarty, S. (2006) Global Virtual Organizations for Online Educator Empowerment, in Weiss, J., Nolan, J., Hunsinger, J. & Trifonas, P. (eds), The International Handbook of Virtual Learning Environments. Dordrecht, The Netherlands: Springer, 789-819
  • Bowskill, N. & Foster, J. (2005) Networked Staff Development: A Case Study, in Fallows, S. & Bhanot, R. (eds), Quality issues in ICT-based higher education. London: Routledge, 135-147

Courses