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Dr Simon Lavis

Learning Designer

Email
s.lavis@uos.ac.uk
School/Directorate
Learning and Teaching
Simon Lavis staff profile photo

Simon is an experienced educator and learning designer who joined the Centre for Excellence in Learning and Teaching’s (CELT) Learning Design team in 2022. Here, he leverages his experience from designing and leading a variety of in-person, hybrid and fully online undergraduate courses to aide staff from the School of Technology, Business and Arts to make the most of BrightSpace and other tools to enhance our students’ learning experience here at the University of Suffolk.

He earned his Ph.D. from The Ohio State University where he focused on media effects, principally in the areas of narrative communication and political entertainment, and has also completed graduate and undergraduate degrees at the University of East Anglia and Swansea University respectively.

Simon has nearly five years’ experience teaching a variety of undergraduate courses in the area of communication as a social science at The Ohio State University. These courses varied from more introductory survey courses in the discipline (Communication in Society; History of Communication) to more practical modules (Communication Industry Research Methods; Public Speaking; Persuasive Communication). He has taught in a variety of contexts, ranging from smaller in-person courses to large, 100-200 person fully online courses.

In addition, he was employed as a facilitator with Ohio State’s Institute for Teaching and Learning where he led or co-led sessions for incoming graduate student instructors, and regularly undertook continuing professional development through this Institute. With this experience of teaching, learning and development, he is able to advise on the following:

  • Best practices for learning management systems/online learning environments
  • Backwards learning design (useful when revalidating existing or creating new courses)

Active learning options in in-person, hybrid and remote spaces

Simon is not engaged in any ongoing research currently, but has an interest in pedagogy and best teaching practices in this role and is willing to collaborate with anyone working in this area if his experience with quantitative methodologies and data analysis are useful.

Whilst undergoing his doctoral studies, Simon developed a body of research in the area of media effects and political entertainment. He has also collaborated on survey research on the topic of cyberterrorism, based on an earlier role as a research intern.

  • Long, J. A., Jeong, M. S., & Lavis, S. M. (2021). Political comedy as a gateway to news use, internal efficacy, and participation: A longitudinal mediation analysis. Human Communication Research, 47, 166-191. doi: 10.1093/hcr/hqaa011
  • Macdonald, S., Jarvis, L., & Lavis, S. M. (2019). Cyberterrorism today? Findings from a follow-on survey of researchers. Studies in Conflict & Terrorism, 1-26. doi: 10.1080/1057610X.2019.1696444
  • Knobloch-Westerwick, S., & Lavis, S. M. (2017). Selecting serious or satirical, supporting or stirring news? Selective exposure to partisan versus mockery news online videos. Journal of Communication, 67, 54-81. doi: 10.1111/jcom.12271