This month Dawn Buzzard met with Tatiana Costa from the School of Languages, Linguistics and Film for a chat about her background and her work within the school.

What is your role at QMUL?

I am the Digital Learning Adviser.  I support colleagues apply best practice design principles ensuring our online content and courses meet the QMPlus baseline standards.  I train and support academic and professional service colleagues to use QMPlus and other applications that are relevant to the delivery of our courses. 

I started exploring e-learning in 2016 working in a small tech company that worked in partnership with Universities around the world, specialising in Medicine and Dentistry.  They designed content using Articulate and created SCORM packages ready to import into learning management systems.  This is where I obtained my Moodle experience and was lucky enough to work closely with the company developers which helped extend my knowledge.  I moved onto to work in an international school, ESCP Business School as a Programme Officer. When the pandemic hit, I was well placed to lead the development of online learning, creating guides and training colleagues to use Blackboard Collaborate and teach remotely. 

What are you currently working on?

I have been working on the QMPlus rollover and I am current focused on enrolment mapping and preparing for new colleague and student inductions.  Alongside this I volunteered to get involved in the development of the new CPD Training Platform, Totara creating a few user guides.  This was an interesting project as it enabled me to see other ways Moodle could be implemented and how the use of language differs in a professional environment.  I also loved the networking and working with colleagues across the University. 

I love working in education, every day is different.  The arrival of new apps and tools ensures that I am learning all the time, I am being challenged to problem solve. investigating solutions and sharing my experience. 

What are your interests outside of QMUL?

I love exploring history and the London museums provide lots of opportunity for this. I enjoy walking in the parks, visiting the seaside and going to festivals, this year I went to We are Festival Electronic Music Festival.  Portuguese cuisine is also something I enjoy along with hosting dinner parties. 

Quick-Fire Questions

Favourite Actor, Movie or Genre? 

Robert De Niro particularly in Goodfellas and Taxi Driver, I also like Pulp Fiction. 

Favourite Musician, Song or Music?

Depeche Mode.

Favourite Cuisine?

Portuguese Food, but my favourite dish is Cabidela, its cooked with the blood of the chicken.

Favourite Holiday Destination?

Anywhere with a beach, I went to Lanzarote this year.

Favourite Gadget/Tech you’ve owned/used?

A Wacom, its a device for professional artists to draw on a screen, its better known as a digital ink experience