Debbie Meharg
Debbie Meharg

Dr Debbie Meharg

Associate Professor

Biography

Debbie Meharg is Head of Applied Informatics within the School of Computing, Engineering and the Built Environment. She has been involved in teaching, management and research for over 20 years. She is a Senior Fellow of the HEA, SICSA Education Champion and active member of the teaching fellows community. Meharg’s research interests sit within the Centre for Higher Education Research (CHER) and focus on access, inclusion and transitions. Graphical methods such as photovoice and participatory research methods are are areas of interest and she is always looking out for interesting partnerships and good PhD students.

News

Events

Esteem

Advisory panels and expert committees or witness

  • SQA Qualification Support Team
  • Member Scottish Qualification Authority Sector Panel for Computing

 

Conference Organising Activity

  • Conference Chair Articulation Centre of Excellence Conference

 

External Examining/Validations

  • External Examiner, Department of Computing, Degree Apprenticeship Programmes, Sheffield-Hallam University
  • External Academic - Software Development, University Centre Grimsby

 

Fellowships and Awards

  • Best Poster, SRHE Research Conference
  • Senior Fellow of the HEA

 

Invited Speaker

  • RGU Teaching Seminar: Supporting Direct-Entrants
  • SICSA Education Panellist: The Education Session included a full panel discussion comprised of Professor Fincher, the SICSA Director of Education and the SICSA Education Champions.
  • NI FE Colleges Digital Skills IT Conference - Delivered talk exploring Transitions from FE to HE
  • Dundee College - Delivered presentation titled "Transitions from FE to HE"
  • SQA Computing Conference 2018: delivered talk providing overview of transition from FE to HE in Computing

 

Media Activity

  • Blog Post: Exploring the SQA NextGen project and the impact on student transitions

 

Membership of Professional Body

  • Member of British Educational Research Association (BERA)
  • Member of Society for Research in Higher Education (SRHE)
  • Member of British Computer Society

 

Public/Community Engagement

  • SICSA Education Champion - dissemination to colleagues, event organisation, reviewing documentation

 

Reviewing

  • Frontiers in Education 2024
  • International Journal of Educational Research
  • International Journal of Educational Research
  • Reviewer, IAFOR Journal of Education, Inclusive Education
  • Reviewer, IAFOR Journal of Education, Technology in Education
  • Enroute Reviewer - assessing applicants for Fellowship of the HEA
  • Reviewer - 48th Annual Frontiers in Education (FIE) Conference
  • Reviewer - 45th Annual Frontiers in Education (FIE) Conference

 

Date


28 results

The shifting goalposts of Digital Technology Skills in Scotland

Conference Proceeding
Meharg, D., & Tungli, T. (2023)
The shifting goalposts of Digital Technology Skills in Scotland. In SRHE International Conference 2023
Digital technologies and skills are critical to economic growth and embedded in everyday life 1. This paper presents a work-in-progress study that examines the effect of educa...

The Visual Design of Mouse Icons for Digital Literacy and Inclusion

Presentation / Conference
Mortimer, J., & Meharg, D. (2023, December)
The Visual Design of Mouse Icons for Digital Literacy and Inclusion. Presented at SRHE International Conference 2023, Birmingham

Direct entrants as route guides to the higher education landscape

Conference Proceeding
Taylor-Smith, E., Meharg, D., & Fabian, K. (in press)
Direct entrants as route guides to the higher education landscape. In SRHE International Conference 2022
Students who study for an HND at further education college and then join the university directly into the 3 rd year of their honours degree are a valuable segment of our acade...

Transactional distance in the context of online and blended learning

Presentation / Conference
Fabian, K., Smith, S., Taylor-Smith, E., & Meharg, D. (2022, September)
Transactional distance in the context of online and blended learning. Paper presented at Association for Learning Technology Annual Conference, Manchester
Moore’s (1993) transactional distance theory recognises that communications and psychological distance between learner and teacher are affected by course structure, dialogue b...

COVID-19, Students and the New Educational Landscape

Conference Proceeding
Siegel, A. A., Zarb, M., Anderson, E., Crane, B., Gao, A., Latulipe, C., …Meharg, D. (2022)
COVID-19, Students and the New Educational Landscape. In ITiCSE '22: Proceedings of the 27th ACM Conference on on Innovation and Technology in Computer Science Education (574–575). https://doi.org/10.1145/3502717.3532167
Students have experienced incredible shifts in the in their learning environments, brought about by the response of universities to the ever-changing public health mandates dr...

'A journey that motivates': Discovering the associate student experience

Thesis
Meharg, D. 'A journey that motivates': Discovering the associate student experience. (Thesis)
Edinburgh Napier University. Retrieved from http://researchrepository.napier.ac.uk/Output/2951063
Higher education has seen huge growth in the past two decades with degree study becoming an anticipated next step after high school. But access to higher education is still ri...

Identifying factors influencing study skills engagement and participation for online learners in higher education during Covid-19

Journal Article
Fabian, K., Smith, S., Taylor-Smith, E., & Meharg, D. (2022)
Identifying factors influencing study skills engagement and participation for online learners in higher education during Covid-19. British Journal of Educational Technology, 53(6), 1915-1936. https://doi.org/10.1111/bjet.13221
The Covid-19 pandemic disrupted education across the world as campuses closed to restrict the spread of the virus. UK universities swiftly migrated to online delivery. The exp...

A journey that motivates: Exploring the Associate Students Transition Framework

Conference Proceeding
Meharg, D., Varey, A., & Cairncross, S. (2021)
A journey that motivates: Exploring the Associate Students Transition Framework. In 2021 IEEE Frontiers in Education Conference (FIE)https://doi.org/10.1109/FIE49875.2021.9637158
This research to practice full paper presents empirical work exploring the transition experiences of transfer students into computing degrees in Scotland. Students on this jou...

Earn as you learn: Widening participation through apprenticeships as debt-free degrees

Presentation / Conference
Meharg, D., Smith, S., Taylor-Smith, E., & Khristin, F. (2021, March)
Earn as you learn: Widening participation through apprenticeships as debt-free degrees. Presented at Advance HE Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Conference 2021, Online
Apprenticeship Degrees provide opportunities to study for a degree without incurring debt. Collaborations between employers and HEIs enable new or established employees to ear...

Associate Student Project: Facilitating computing students’ transition to higher education

Presentation / Conference
Taylor-Smith, E., Meharg, D., Fabian, K., & Varey, A. (2021, March)
Associate Student Project: Facilitating computing students’ transition to higher education. Presented at Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Conference 2021, Online
The Associate Student (ASP) project supports Computing students who study two years at a Further Education college (achieving an HND) then transfer directly into third year, s...

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