Virna Rossi BA PGCert MTeach PFHEA FSEDA NTF

She has been awarded the prestigious National Teaching Fellowship by AdvanceHE, JLDHE Reviewer of the Year and has been added to the SEDA Roll of Honour.

Virna recently won Teacher of the year award and came runner up for the Change Maker academic award at Ravensbourne University London.

She is the author of an innovative book (by Routledge) on inclusive learning design.

Preview or order Virna Rossi's book 'Inclusive Learning Design in Higher Education - A Practical Guide to Creating Equitable Learning Experiences' from Routledge or from Amazon

Find out more about the inclusive learning design approach on the website inclusivelearningdesign.com

With an MA in Teaching (IoE) and several awards, Virna has been active in research and knowledge exchange for many years, with a keen interest in:

• Curriculum design
• Inclusivity
• Threshold concepts
• Visual representation of assessment briefs

Here is a sample of her research and knowledge exchange activities.

Books

V. Rossi (2023) Inclusive Learning Design - Inclusive Learning Design in Higher Education

A Practical Guide to Creating Equitable Learning Experiences. London: Routledge. Available here.

Companion website. Available here. 

Rossi, V. (forthcoming) Designing better PGCert provisions – creating impactful staff development experiences – London: Routledge.

Articles

Rossi, V., Stevenson, C., Tilbury, A. (2024) “The power of three”. Educational Developments Spring 2024 issue, available at www.seda.ac.uk 

Rossi, V. and ChatGPT (2023) Perspectives on the use of ChatGPT for PGCert courses [blog post]. thesedablog - Supporting and Leading Educational Change. SEDA, 13 February. Available here.

Rossi, V. (2023) Roots to shoots: a holistic approach to inclusive learning design. AdvanceHE. Available here. 

Rossi, V. (2023) Root to shoots: A holistic route to designing high quality inclusive learning environments. QAA. Available here. 

Rossi, V. (2021) “Just-in-time pandemic CPD using short screencast videos”, Journal of Learning Development in Higher Education, (22). doi: 10.47408/jldhe.vi22.677

Rossi, V. (2020) Just-in-time CPD [blog post]. thesedablog - Supporting and Leading Educational Change. SEDA, 20 November. Available here.

Compton, M. and Rossi, V. (2019) Teaching observations, teaching quality and grading: ‘A huge can of worms’ [blog post]. thesedablog - Supporting and Leading Educational Change. SEDA, 4 Dec. Available here. 

Knowledge transfer activity

2022 to date active member of the SAGE Pedagogy Advisory Board (a special consultancy body)

2021 to date EE for BIMM - guest speaker on the PGCert/MA at BIMM and curriculum design advice

2020 to date ongoing collaboration/exchange with Aga Khan University 

2019 staff development events for Morley College

A sample of recent public speaking

2024

May: The power of three, Island of Innovation (Liverpool University) presentation with A. Tilbury and C. Stevens; ‘Roots to shoots’ inclusive learning design workshop ICED conference Kenya.

Jun: ‘ Roots to shoots’ inclusive learning design’, Oxford Brookes International T&L Conference. Cross-pollination for innovation, keynote speaker at Solent University and South Wales University.

Jul: PGCert refresher, SE Academic Development Network - UoL session for PGCert students.

Sep: Can we deliver effective student engagement when learners dip in and out? QAA conference.

 2023

Jan: Inclusive Learning Design, challenges and opportunities – Half day workshop for UoL Student success/CODE Fellows event. More information here. 

Feb: Academic communities – QAA conference panel member

July: Inclusive Learning Design, Roots and Shoots with Virna Rossi - #MyFest23 More information here. 

2022

Feb: How ‘contextual analysis’ helps us plan better, more personalised learning – Aga Khan University

Mar: Inclusive by design, A roots to shoots approach - EDI AdvanceHE conference

Apr: Inclusive Learning Design at TU Dublin -  Staff development session - TU Dublin

Jul: Inclusive by design, opportunities and challenges - Centre for Distance Education, UoL

 2021

Mar/Apr: Rear-view mirror, reflecting about practice through the lens of Universal Design for Learning principles and practices - Webinars: UoL Experiences in Digital Learning; INCLUDE

Jun: Roots to Shoots, Inclusive Course Design to support wellbeing - Greenwich University; UoL

Jul: Keynote, Intentionally Inclusive - University of Liverpool Learning and Teaching Conference. More information here. 

July: The case for using Threshold Concepts for Learning Design in Creative Education - 2021 Threshold Concepts conference

Sep: Threshold Concepts in the context of curriculum design – Speakeasy event

 2020

Apr/May: Global webinar series, Starters/Main activities/Closures - Ravensbourne University London

Sep: Inclusive feedback, Principles and practices - UEL Teaching & Learning Symposium

Nov: Keynote 360° inclusive feedback - University of the Highlands and Islands, Assessment & feedback symposium

Other outputs in the public domain

Rossi, V. (n.d.) Educational Developer's Padlet Collection, EDTA. University of York (Canada). Available here. 

 Rossi, V. (n.d.) Quick Transition to E-Learning  [video series], INCLUDE Collaboratory. Available here.