Steve Wright (PhD, FHEA, MSc, BA (Hons))
Lecturer in Clinical Education
Address
- Street
-
The Chancellor's Building
49 Little France Crescent - City
- EDINBURGH
- Post code
- EH16 4SB
Background
My passion is teaching - and inspiring others to teach. However, my background is in information technology design and development. I started using the internet as an undergraduate in 1994 before the web was even available on the Uni network when it was all command line FTP and Gopher rather than web browsers . I then worked as a web designer and software interface developer In the heyday of the dot.com boom. For the last 20 years I've been involved in supporting health professionals as postgraduate students and designing, developing and also researching effective online learning. I previously worked at Lancaster University in the Faculty of Health and Medicine, as well as the Department of Educational Research. I then moved to the University of Central Lancashire (UCLan) as a lecturer and then course director for the online PG programme in medical education. I worked with student representatives and the external examiner for the UCLan programme to redesign assessment to focus on formative peer review processes as an E-Learning Community. The assessment design created spaces for creative and innovative uses of generative AI, as well as more critical and cautionary tales, explored in my ASME 2025 ePoster.
I've provided extensive support as consultant and trainer in computer assisted qualitative data analysis software (CAQDAS), supporting diverse research students and teams across traditional qualitative approaches of coding interviews, through to exploring and developing new methods to use machine learning on larger datasets. I've created teaching datasets for SAGE research methods which give detailed step-by-step guidance for students together with example projects and data on using CAQDAS software for data extraction in systematic reviews, creating and working with automatic transcripts, writing up research findings and software supported interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA). I'm particularly interested in developing critical and informed methods to utilise large language models (LLMs) and generative AI tools that are being increasingly integrated into these packages. From 2024-25 the past year I've delivered a keynote on AI in qualitative analysis for the social research association (SRA) annual conference and the Cathie Marsh memorial lecture for the SRA - both with qualitative methods expert Christina Silver.
CV
158848.pdf
Qualifications
Academic Qualifications
-
2014: PhD Technology Enhanced Learning and e-Research, Lancaster University.
- PhD Thesis an ethnographic study of sensory evaluation practices https://eprints.lancs.ac.uk/id/eprint/71741/
- Supervised by Professor Mary Hamilton,
- External Examiners: Dr Eric Laurier, Professor of Geography and Interaction, University of Edinburgh, Professor Tara Fenwick, Emeritus Professor in Education, University of Stirling
- 2004: MSc Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (Computer Applications for Language Learning) , University of Stirling.
- 1997: BA (Hons) Communication Studies, Class 2:1, Goldsmiths College, UoL.
Teaching Qualifications
- 2016: FHEA - Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (FHEA)
- 2002: CELTA - Certificate of English Language Teaching to Adults, Cambridge/RSA.
Professional TEL and e-Research Qualifications
- 2022: Certified MAXQDA Trainer, MAXQDA
- 2021: Certified Quirkos Trainer, Quirkos International
- 2020: CAST: Certified ATLAS.ti Senior Trainer, Scientific Software Ltd.
- 2018: Certified NVivo Trainer, QSR International
- 2018: Certified NVivo Expert , QSR International
- 2014: CAPT: Certified ATLAS.ti Professional Trainer, Scientific Software Ltd.
- 2009: CMALT - Certified Member of the Association of Learning Technologists, Association for Learning Technology.
Postgraduate teaching
Course lead: Critical Literature Review (2nd year, optional, PGCert/Dip/MSc Clinical Education)
Course Lead: The Curriculum (1st year, compulsory, PGCert/Dip/MSc Clinical Education)
Course lead: Clinical Education and Digital Culture (2nd year, optional, PGCert/Dip/MSc Clinical Education)
Open to PhD supervision enquiries?
Yes
Current PhD students supervised
Dr Katherine Wainwright, PhD Medical Education, Lancaster niversity. Co-Supervision with Prof. Cliff Shelton (Professor in Anaesthesia and Perioperative Medicine) and Dr Dawn Goodwin. (Senior Lecturer in Social Sciences), Lancaster University Medical School.
Research summary
My research interests are around the ways that technologies and infrastructures shape and influence learning. This has spanned the sensory assessment of craft beer to the analysis of student feedback and critically exploring the research on mobile learning, I've drawn on scholarship and research from science and technology studies in which Edinburgh has been a leading centre. That body of work provides a rich and comprehensive set of intellectual tools and practical methods to explore and critically analyse the relationships between technologies and practices and their intersection with and influence on clinical education.
I also continue to explore this intersection with regard to the development and teaching of social research methods. I have extensively taught, researched and consulted on computer assisted qualitative data analysis software (CAQDAS), including creating teaching datasets for SAGE research methods which give detailed step-by-step guidance for students together with example projects and data on using CAQDAS software for diverse analysis tasks including data extraction in systematic reviews. I'm particularly interested in developing critical and informed methods to utilise large language models (LLMs) and generative AI tools that are being increasingly integrated into these packages. Over the past year I've delivered a keynote on AI in qualitative analysis for the social research association (SRA) annual conference and the Cathie Marsh memorial lecture for the SRA - both with qualitative methods expert Christina Silver.
Invited speaker
Social Research Association: Cathy Marsh Memorial Lecture, March 2025: Generative-AI in Qualitative Research: Step-Change, Abomination, or…? with Christina Silver
Social Research Association: SRA conference keynote, June 2024: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly of AI in Qualitative Analysis with Christina Silver
Participant
Conference Presentations
Wright, S. and Lagendyk, L. (2021) Wrestling with Right-to-Left Scripts: Practical Workarounds for Using NVivo with Arabic, Hebrew, Urdu and Farsi NVivo Virtual Conference 2021,
Wright, S. (2019)) Automated categorisation of COVID-19 Press Conference Narratives using the QDPX Exchange format. For NVivo Virtual Conference 2019, Qualitative Research in a Changing World
Wright, S (2018) Towards Qualitative Big Data: Enabling and Enhancing the Analysis of Student Comments in HE Surveys. For HEA Surveys Conference 2018, Leeds, May 9th
Wright, S. (2017) Choosing and Using CAQDAS software for e-Lexicography, For European Network of E-Lexicography Conference, Waterford, Ireland, June 6-8th
Wright, S. (2015) Why merge codes? Seeking scale-free data exploration and a better understanding of the agency of qualitative data analysis software through actor-network theory. Paper presented at Qualitative Data Analysis and Beyond: Berlin, August 29-31, 2015
Wright, S. (2015) Using ATLAS.ti for Conversation Analysis, Discursive Psychology and other Ethnomethodological Approaches. Pecha Kucha presented at Qualitative Data Analysis and Beyond: Berlin, August 29-31, 2015
Wright, S. (2015) What can informal mobile learning teach us? Presentation at Work on the Move Workshop, Lancaster, UK http://bit.ly/1YzCZAz
Wright, S. (2012). 52: scaling up a VLE/blended and distance learning model for staff and student induction. Paper presented at Moodlemoot 2013, Dublin, Ireland
Wright, S. and Hollyhead, A. (2012). The trials and tribulations of Using Mahara as a PhD Learning Journal – and trying to get anyone else to do the same. Paper presented at Mahara UK12, Lancaster University, UK
Papers delivered
Wright, S (2023) Working with Automated Transcripts: Three Approaches to Enhancement of Immersion, Focus or Scale of Qualitative Research at 7th World Congress on Qualitative Research, January 25-28 Faro, Portugal
Wright, S (2018) Systematic Reviews with Software at 3rd World Congress on Qualitative Research, October 8-10, Lisbon, Portugal
Wright, S. (2016). Exploring Actor-Network Theory And CAQDAS: Provisional Principles and Practices for Coding, Connecting and Describing Data Using ATLAS.ti In Proceedings of Qualitative Data Analysis and Beyond: Berlin, August 29-31, 2015 http://bit.ly/ANTandATLASti
Wright, S. and Bhatt, I. (2016). Teaching-led research? Exploring the digital agencies of software in qualitative research Proceedings of the 10th International Conference on Networked Learning, Lancaster, UK. http://bit.ly/1WD510q
Wright, S. (2014). Actor-Network Theory in Network Learning Double- Symposium Proceedings of the 9th International Conference on Networked Learning, Edinburgh, UK http://bit.ly/1ccRMP1
Bigum, C., Rowan, L., Hamilton, M., Wright, S., & Haxell, A. (2014). Looking for black cats and lessons from Charlie: exploring the potential of public click pedagogy. Proceedings of the 9th International Conference on Networked Learning, Edinburgh, UK. http://bit.ly/1ccRMP1
Wright, S. (2014). Testing Tasting: methods assemblages in an online exam. Proceedings of the 9th International Conference on Networked Learning, Edinburgh, UK. http://bit.ly/1ccRMP1
Wright, S., & Parchoma, G. (2012). Mobile Learning and Immutable Mobiles: using iPhones to support informal learning in craft breweries. Proceedings of the 8th International Networked Learning Conference, Maastricht, The Netherlands. http://bit.ly/1HE30Hw