Nicola Pallitt

Nicola Pallitt is a Senior Lecturer and Educational Technology Specialist at Rhodes University's Centre for Higher Education Research, Teaching and Learning (CHERTL). She coordinates the Educational Technology team, providing professional development for academics in technology integration and blended/online teaching. Pallitt is also affiliated with the University of Cape Town's Centre for Innovation in Learning and Teaching.

• Rhodes University: Senior Lecturer and Educational Technology Specialist
• Centre for Higher Education Research, Teaching and Learning (CHERTL)
• e/merge Africa: Core team member
• Association for Educational Communications and Technology (AECT): Board member of Culture, Learning and Technology division

Nicola Pallitt's research focuses on learning design, online professional development, and critical perspectives on educational technologies in Higher Education. She values contextually and culturally responsive approaches to learning design, with particular emphasis on promoting inclusivity in the Educational Technology field. Her work explores how to support lecturers in designing innovative technology-mediated learning experiences that enable meaningful student engagement. Pallitt is especially interested in co-creating opportunities for practitioner-researchers working in African Higher Education settings.

Her recent publications demonstrate a clear trajectory toward examining equity considerations in technology-mediated education, particularly evident in her collaborative work on the impact of the Covid-19 'pivot online' on educational inequality. Pallitt's scholarship bridges theory and practice, with strong emphasis on networked learning approaches, the sociomaterial dimensions of educational technology, and the contextual factors shaping learning design in resource-constrained environments.

Nicola Pallitt actively supervises postgraduate students and co-teaches formal courses in Higher Education. Professionally, she contributes to the field through her involvement with e/merge Africa, an online professional development network for educational technology researchers and practitioners based in African Higher Education, and through service on the board of the Culture, Learning and Technology division of the Association for Educational Communications and Technology (AECT).

Pallitt's work demonstrates strong commitment to creating learning experiences that are not only technologically sophisticated but also contextually appropriate and culturally responsive. Her research on learning design in African Higher Education settings has made a novel contribution to understanding local meanings of learning design across the continent.