Dr Andrew M. Cox

Lecturer, Director of Learning and Teaching

BA (Open), MA (TVU), MSc (UWA), MA (Open), MEd (Sheffield), PhD (Loughborough)

After graduating from Aberystwyth with an MSc in Library Studies, I spent a number of years working in development projects around the use of ICT in library contexts, funded by EC, JISC and others. I completed my PhD at Loughborough in 2006. The topic was knowledge sharing among web management professionals, on and off line. I have continued an interest in online community/social media and professional identity in later work.

Teaching

My main areas of teaching are:

• Library applications of ICT. I am the coordinator of the MSc in Digital Library Management.
• Virtual community, social networks and information. This encompasses web2.0 applications like Flickr and also applications in corporate contexts (under the broad heading of KM), e.g. around communities of practice and virtual communities of practice.
• Digital exclusion.

I have been heavily influenced in my teaching style by the inquiry led approach promoted by CILASS (http://www.shef.ac.uk/ibl/cilass).

In 2010 I completed M.Ed in Teaching and Learning in Higher Education (http://www.sheffield.ac.uk/education/courses/taught-masters/part-time/teachlea/index). My dissertation explored students’ experience of space, and this is an interest I have continued, working with colleagues, e.g. using photography to explore academics’ experience of space as teachers and using model making to explore students of perceptions around space and group work, in the context of internationalisation. I have also done other teaching related research, e.g. in the areas of inquiry based learning and digital literacies. I am also interested in the use of multimedia and digital storytelling as assessment methods.

I won a senate award for teaching in 2009-10. I am a fellow of the Higher Education Academy.

I am currently Director of Learning and Teaching for the School.

Research interests

My main interests are in online community and use of social media, be that on the open web, eg on Flickr, in organisations (including communities of practice)and in learning contexts. I'm interested in the intersection of information and media/cultural studies paradigms. I am increasingly interested in the practice approach, drawing on writers such as Schatzki, Gherardi and Orlikowski. Most of my research uses qualitative methods.

I am particularly interested in supervising PhDs in the area of online community/social networks.

Internet studies; Communities and networks; Professionalisation and professionalism; Discourse and identity; Visual methods; The choice, implementation and appropriation of information/knowledge systems; Family history, local history and local studies librarianship.

I am course coordinator for the MSc in Digital Library Management (formerly Electronic and Digital Library Management).

Recent publications

In press

Published

(2012) An exploration of the practice approach and its place in Information Science, Journal of Information Science, 38 (2) 176-188.

(2012) with L.Brewster and B.Sen “Legitimising bibliotherapy: evidence-based discourses in healthcare” Journal of Documentation 68 (2) 185-205.

(2012) with T.Herrick and P.Keating, Accommodations: staff identity and university space. Teaching in Higher Education, iFirst article, published online 13-3-12. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/13562517.2012.658554

(2012) with Steve Spencer, Sheffield then and now: myths of place in local history picture books, in Environment, space, place 4 (1) spring 2012

(2011) with Clough, P. and Siersdorfer, S. Developing Metrics to Characterize Flickr Groups, Journal of the American Society for Information Science and Technology, Volume 62(3), pp. 493-506. Full text pre-print version on White Rose Repository

(2011) Students' experience of university space: An exploratory study, International Journal of Teaching and Learning in Higher Education, 23 (2) http://www.isetl.org/ijtlhe/pdf/IJTLHE953.pdf

(2011) with Megan K. Blake 2011 Information and food blogging as serious leisure, Aslib Proceedings, 63 (2/3) 204-220. Full text pre-peer review version on White Rose Repository

(2011) with Holmes, P. Every group carries the flavour of the admins´: leadership on Flickr International Journal of Web Based Communities, 7 (3) 376-391 Full text pre-print version on White Rose Repository

(2011) with Marris, L. Introducing elevator speeches into the curriculum Journal of Education for Library and Information Science, 52 (2) 133-141.

(2010) with Vasconcelos, A. & Holdridge, P. Diversifying assessment through multimedia creation in a non-technical module: reflections on the MAIK project, Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education, 35 (7), 831-846. Full text pre-peer review version on White Rose Repository

(2009) "Visual Representations of Gender and Computing in Consumer and Professional Magazines" New Technology Work and Employment, 24 (1) 89-106. Full text pre-peer review version on White Rose Repository

(2009) With Tam, W. & Bussey, A. Student user preferences for features of next-generation OPACs: a case study of University of Sheffield international students, Program 43 (4)349-374. Full text pre-print version on White Rose Repository
Catalan version

(2008) "Flickr: A case study of Web2.0" Aslib Proceedings 60 (5) 493-516. Full text pre-print version on White Rose Repository

(2008) "An exploration of concepts of community through a case study of UK university web production." Journal of Information Science 34 (3) 327-345. Full text pre-print version on White Rose Repository

(2008) With Clough, P. & Marlow, J. "Flickr: a first look at user behaviour in the context of photography as serious leisure." Information Research 13 (1) http://informationr.net/ir/13-1/paper336.html.

(2008) With S. Tapril, P. Stordy & S. Whittaker, "Teaching our grandchildren to suck eggs? Introducing the study of communication technologies to the 'Digital generation'". ITALICS 7, 1 http://www.ics.heacademy.ac.uk/italics/vol7iss1.htm.

(2008) With P. Levy, P. Stordy & S. Webber. "Inquiry-based learning in the first-year Information Management curriculum" ITALICS 7, 1 http://www.ics.heacademy.ac.uk/italics/vol7iss1.htm.

(2007) "Beyond information: factors in participation in networks of practice, a case study of web management in UK Higher Education." Journal of Documentation, 63 (5) 765-787. Full text pre-print version on White Rose Repository

(2007) "Reproducing knowledge: Xerox and the story of knowledge management." Knowledge Management Research and Practice, 5 3-12. http://www.palgrave-journals.com/kmrp/journal/v5/n1/full/8500118a.html


(2007) "The power and vulnerability of the `new professional´: Web management in UK universities." Program, 41 (2) 148-70. Full text pre-print version on White Rose Repository

(2007) With Emmott, S. "A survey of UK university web management: staffing, systems and issues." Campus Wide Information Systems 24 (5), 308-330. Full text pre-print version on White Rose Repository

(2007) With Urquhart, C. & Spink, S. "Collaboration on procurement of e-content between the NHS and HE." Interlending and Document Supply, 35 (3) 164-70.

(2006) Portals: people, processes and technology. London, Facet.

(2004) "What are communities of practice? A comparative review of four seminal works." Journal of Information Science, 31(6) 527-540. White Rose Repository

(2003) With Yeates, R. "Library portal solutions." Aslib proceedings, 55(3) 155-165.

Note that full text of a pre-print of many of these articles can be accessed via the White Rose Repository.

Under review

 Information Management graduates’ accounts of their employability

Information in social practice: a practice approach to understanding information activities in personal photography

Membership and identity in a community of practice: being different and "elusive" in food blogging

Women´s identity positioning in university web site production work

Recent conference papers

Keynote “Refreshing the information focus” SLA (Gulf chapter) conference, Bahrain, April 2012.

With Prue Chiles "Owning and sharing space: promoting inter-cultural encounters". Paper "Visualising shared space on campus" accepted Second International Visual Methods conference, Open University, September 2011.

With Steve Spencer, Lloyd Samuels "Negotiating the Territory: Composite Visual Methods for Examining `Sense of Place´"

"Information in everyday practice: a discussion" I3 conference, University of Aberdeen, June 2011.

"Photographic self-portraiture: Empowerment through user generated content?" at the New visual technologies: Challenges and opportunities' workshop, Open University, 13th May 2011.

"Information in an every day practice: 365 self portrait projects" at the workshop `Researching everyday life´ 13th January 2011 at The University of Sheffield

"Enhancing international student engagement through making and sharing films" 11th Higher Education Academy-ICS Annual Conference, Durham University, 24th August - 26th August 2010.

With Peter Holdridge, Phil Levy, Peter Stordy, Ana Vasconcelos and Sheila Weber. "Enhancing engagement in the Department of Information Studies" Innovative Approaches to Student Engagement Workshop, 28th June 2010, University of Hertfordshire.

"Tales from teaching committee: engaging learners, lecturers and libraries" European Library Automation Group Conference, Helsinki, 9-11 June 2010.

With Nashrawan Taha "Social network dynamics in international students' learning", Networked learning conference 3-4 May 2010
http://www.lancs.ac.uk/fss/organisations/netlc/past/nlc2010/abstracts/PDFs/Taha.pdf.

"Using visual methods in the era of networked digital photography: researching identity practices in food photoblogs", First International Conference on visual methods, Leeds, September 2009

1)The shaping of mass participation in Web2.0: photoshop contest on Flickr; 2)The role of groups in Flickr (with Stefan Siersdorfer & Paul Clough) Association of Internet Researchers Conference, Copenhagen, October 2008.

"Diversifying assessment through multimedia creation in a non-technical module: Preliminary considerations for the MAIK project." Higher Education Academy Subject Centre for Information and Computer Science's 2008 Annual Conference August 2008, Liverpool Hope University.

"Sitting in the middle: progressive narratives among women in web careers". Discourse, Communication and the Enterprise IV, Nottingham. 10-12 September 2007.

"Flickr: What is new in Web2.0?" Towards a Social Science of Web2.0, University of York. 5-6 September 2007.

Projects

RDMRose - learning materials for Research Data Management

Mapping Broomhall (2011). This study involved interviewing people about a suburb of Sheffield and exploring where they find information.

Inquiry in Information Management. This was developing inquiry based learning material for UG students.

Opened up learning. This project explored students creating videos and digital stories as an assessed task. Some of the work students created is on youtube.

To have your cake and eat it: food, photoblogging and personhood. This project involved interviewing food bloggers.

MAIK project funded by HEA-ICS explored the creation of multimedia as an assessment exercise in a non-technical module.

Early career stories of Information Management graduates. This project involved interviewing graduates of the BSc in Information Management to explore their transition to work and their conceptions of Information Management.

Departmental roles

Departmental Director of Learning and Teaching from September 2010.