Nichola Gretton

Nichola studied Design and Technology with Qualified Teacher Status at Loughborough University and has a Masters in Multimedia Design. She has worked in Higher Education for 28 years at six different UK Higher Education providers. 

She began her career at Reading University teaching on the Foundation and Early Years Teacher Training Undergraduate Programme - design and technology strand. Alongside this she was researching 'Technological Practice and Frameworks for Technological Education’. 

After several professional service and eLearning positions across four UK Higher Education Institutions, she became a Programme Manager at Laureate Online Education. Based in Amsterdam, Nichola worked in collaboration with worldwide-based tutors, taught on the orientation programme and was personal tutor to over 400 distance learning students. 

Nichola went on to hold five different digital and pedagogical focussed roles, three of which have been leadership positions, at the University of Leicester. She was awarded a University Distinguished Teaching Fellowship for her ‘leadership in the design, development and delivery of innovative curricula and other teaching and learning enhancement projects that have made a substantial difference to the student learning experience’ (Degree Congregations Programme 2016).

She was Head of Digital Education for four years, where she led the policy development, training and communication strands of the University of Leicester’s institution-wide roll-out of lecture capture. In 2021 she became Digital and Learning Innovation Manager and in 2022 moved to Nottingham Trent University, to be Flexible Learning Manager in the Centre for Academic Development and Quality. She returned to the University of Leicester in 2023, as Academic Practice Development Manager.

Building on the opportunities her participation in the ALT-C ELESIG Scholar Pilot created, she is keen to continue to explore the emotions created by the adoption of learning technologies and the impact this has on developing academic staff digital skills, capabilities and literacy.