Laura Heels

Biography

I am a lecturer in Computing Education at School of Computing’s EPiC (Education Practice in Computing) research group. My expertise is in researching equitable, inclusive computer science education practices through a critical pedagogical lens. This is coupled with my work responsibilities in Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion (EDI), where I am the current Director of Culture and Inclusion for the faculty of Science, Agriculture and Engineering.

Projects

I am interested in advancing equity and inclusive cultures within STEM fields. My work also focuses on critical approaches to AI, particularly examining issues of bias, fairness, and social impact. In addition, I am interested in developing effective approaches to teaching DevOps within Computer Science, ensuring students gain both technical expertise and an understanding of collaborative, industry-informed practice.

Publications

Barnes J, Colquhoun J, Devlin M, Heels L, Lord P, Marshall L, Napier C, Solaiman E, Speirs N, Talbot L, Ushaw G, Witty C. Designing a Portfolio-Oriented Curriculum using Problem Based Learning. In: CEP 2020: Proceedings of the 4th Conference on Computing Education Practice. 2020, Durham, United Kingdom: ACM.
- Marshall L, Heels L. Brief Encounters. In: CEP 2020: Proceedings of the 4th Conference on Computing Education Practice. 2020, Durham: ACM.
- Heels L, Devlin M. Investigating the Role Choice of Female Students in a Software Engineering Team Project. In: CEP ’19: Proceedings of the 3rd Conference on Computing Education Practice. 2019, Durham, United Kingdom: ACM.
- Heels LE, Marshall LF. “Two heads are better than one” in Collaboration and mentoring to enhance professional learning in higher education. In: Prof Helen King, ed. Developing Expertise for Teaching in Higher Education. London: Taylor and Francis, 2022
- Marshall L, Heels L, Riddle S. Developing assessment literacy in Stage One BsC Computing Students. In: HEA Transforming Assessment in Higher Education Symposium: Assessment literacy. 2017, HEA, York, UK: HEA.
- Devlin M, Heels L, Marshall LF. It’s the transition that’s troublesome. In: HEA STEM Annual Learning and Teaching Conference. 2014, Edinburgh, UK.