Mr Gareth Ward

I joined CCCU in 2014, having worked at the institution for over 10 years. I entered lecturing as a way of bringing together all the experiences and knowledge I have gained during my career while enabling me to pass it onto others through formal education. My career has taken me from working in the videogames industry, through a period of time self-employed where I provided IT consultancy and web development services to SMEs, into working in post-compulsory education across multiple different positions. I completed a HND, followed by a BSc in Computing with Canterbury Christ Church University and graduated in 2005, followed by an MSc at Kent University in 2017. I am now researching the use of Virtual Reality in support of university to business collaboration and innovation activities, specifically using the Science Fiction Prototyping technique, Diegetic Innovation Templating.

I am Course Director for the BSc (Hons) Business Information Systems and have teaching responsibilities across the range of courses offered at the university, providing academic support, advice and guidance. Alongside being a Course Director, I am also module lead for three undergraduate modules: - Database Design (Level 5), - E-Business Systems (Level 5), - Using Technology for Business Improvement (Level 5). I have supervisory responsibilities for several final year (level 6) undergraduate students across their final year Individual Project and Individual Study modules, guiding them to complete their final major piece of work in support of their honour’s degree. My interest and involvement in immersive technologies has led to me also providing specialist guest lectures across our computing modules, from foundation year through undergraduate and into postgraduate specifically on the use and adoption of Virtual Reality hardware and software for teaching, learning and business practices.

My main area of teaching is in Computing, having taught modules on Relational Databases, the use of Technology for Business Improvement, preparing students to work with E-Business Systems, alongside Games Design, Web Development, and guest lectures related to Virtual Reality.

 

I have a wide range of research interests, covering technical and theoretical domains. Some of these include user experience and extended realities, how we measure and compare our experiences between those that are digitally simulated and those that take place in the real world, and how as a society, we use digital tools to support collaborations between organisations.

I have been working collaboratively with colleagues on writing academic papers investigating how immersive technologies can be used to enhance learning experiences in higher education, and how such technologies can be used as alternatives to using expensive, potentially dangerous, training environments. My part-time PhD, titled, “Exploring the benefits of combining Diegetic Innovation Templating with VR to promote academic enterprise and foresight innovation”, is currently entering the pilot study phase, with the aim to complete the full research by June 2026.

To help understand my area of interest, here are some example papers that I am in the process of writing as potential outputs from my research, including:

• A Case for an Open Foresight Innovation Paradigm
•  A Literature Review Taxonomy for Diegetic Innovation Templating in VR
• A Perspective on the Evolution of Digital Technologies in the HE Sector
• The Effect of Brand Alignment on Brand Attitude within a VR Simulation
• The Impact of Training Reaction Times and Accuracy with Motion Controllers in Virtual Reality 
• The Importance of Use Cases when Adopting the use of AR into HE Pedagogy
• The Role of Organisational Resilience in the UK’s HE Sector

In addition, I setup the internal CCCU XR Researchers’ Network which has grown to have over 40 members; all university colleagues who have expressed an interest in the use of immersive technologies in their teaching and research activities. This group is feeding into the wider XR and Immersive Technologies Strategy at the institutional level.

 

All our computing courses utilise the CDIO (Conceive, Design, Implement and Operate) framework and I actively engage with external businesses and partners to provide real-world problems for students to complete as part of their studies.

Some examples of the client projects I have obtained for students include:

• Creation of a user-centric information architecture for currently registered students at CCCU,
• Development of an online learning chemistry lab activity for a client at Discovery Park, Sandwich,
• Design and implementation of an activity tracking system specifically to support forest school outdoor learning.

Alongside these CDIO projects, I am an active participant in several JISC special interest groups, including Virtual Reality, Immersive Technologies and Student Communications.