About
Dr David Robertshaw is a Registered Nurse, Nurse Educator, and senior higher education leader at the University of Derby. David leads an outstanding team of more than 130 nurses, midwives, and allied health professionals to deliver education to students across a range of undergraduate and postgraduate health and care programmes.
David’s practice background is in intensive care, and he has worked at the University of Derby since 2013 in various roles. He has a bachelor’s degree in adult nursing, a postgraduate certificate in interprofessional practice education, a masters in critical care, and a Doctor of Philosophy degree. David is a registered nurse and nurse teacher (Nursing and Midwifery Council), a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy and a Fellow of the Royal Society for Public Health. He is also a member of the British Association of Critical Care Nurses and the Royal College of Nursing.
David is an active researcher and educator. His research interests are in massive open online courses, online learning, social change, and dementia. David has multiple articles in peer-reviewed publications on these topics. He has been recognised internationally as an authority on the use of participant metadata to bring new insights and understanding and his research has been used to guide international public health policy and research in other disciplines. He is very interested in technology enhanced learning and the use of creative approaches to learning. David is actively driving forwards workforce transformation and change in partnership with a range of collaborators. He has developed more than 60 degree and postgraduate programmes and apprenticeships with employers and regulatory bodies including pre-registration nursing, postgraduate continuing professional development programmes, international programmes, short courses, MOOCs, apprenticeships, foundation degrees, online programmes, and collaborative partnerships.
Research interests
I have diverse research interests, arranged around the Public Services and Biomedical/clinical academic themes.
My published research has focused on:
- Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs)
- Neurocognitive disorders
- Technology-enhanced learning
- Linguistics as applied to health and care
- Workforce transformation and development
- Understanding and explaining experiences and phenomena within health and care
I am currently supervising a range of PhD students on a variety of topics including:
- The contribution of nurses in the Ukraine War: an interpretative phenomenological analysis
- Bridging the gap: factors influencing career aspiration and progression for Trainee Nursing Associates and Registered Nursing Associates as direct entrants to BSc (Hons) Nursing programmes.
- Understanding the effect of subtle racial discrimination (Microagressions) on Health and Social Care students
Recent publications
Woodland, J., Foster, K., & Robertshaw, D. (2022). Nursing in the 21st century: results of a pilot survey on attitudes towards nurses and nursing. British Journal of Nursing, 31(4), 230-238. https://doi.org/10.12968/bjon.2022.31.4.230
Baker, D., & Robertshaw, D. (2021). What next for end-point assessments?. Higher Education, Skills and Work-Based Learning, 12(1), 78-91. https://doi.org/10.1108/HESWBL-03-2021-0063
Robertshaw, D., & Babicova, I. (2021). Tweeting on dementia: A snapshot of the content and sentiment of tweets associated with dementia. First Monday, 26(7). https://doi.org/10.5210/fm.v26i7.10452
Robertshaw, D. & Babicova, I. (2020) New Perspectives on Great Questions: What can MOOCs Tell Us? European Journal of Open, Distance and E-Learning 2020/I. Retrieved from https://www.eurodl.org/?p=current&sp=brief&article=828
Robertshaw, D., Babicova, I. (2020) Discovering the memory thief: MOOC participants’ personal experiences of dementia. Nurse Education in Practice 42(2020)102693 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nepr.2019.102693
Robertshaw, D., & Cross, A. (2019). Roles and responsibilities in Integrated Care for dementia. Journal of Integrated Care, 27(2), 131-140. https://doi.org/10.1108/JICA-05-2018-0037
Robertshaw, D., & Cross, A. (2019). Experiences of integrated care for dementia from family and carer perspectives: a framework analysis of massive open online course discussion board posts. Dementia, 18(4), 1492-1506. https://doi.org/10.1177/1471301217719991
Robertshaw, D. & Kotera, Y. (2019) Changing Attitudes with a MOOC on Dementia. European Journal of Open, Distance and E-learning 22 (2), 27-39. Retrieved from http://www.eurodl.org/?p=current&sp=full&article=802
Robertshaw D (2016) Online Learning as a vehicle for social change. TEDxDerby https://youtu.be/63lobffry6s
ROBERTSHAW D, CROSS A (2016) ‘MOOC as a platform for social learning, research and social change in Dementia’; Presentation at eMOOCs conference, Graz
ROBERTSHAW D, CROSS A (2016) ‘MOOC as a platform for social learning, research and social change in Dementia’; Published in conference proceedings eMOOCs conference
ROBERTSHAW D (2016) ‘Designing MOOCs for impact’; HEA Making Magical MOOCs workshop, University of Derby
ROBERTSHAW D (2016) ‘Making Learning Open: achieving social impact with open learning at massive scale’; TEDxDerby
ROBERTSHAW D (2016) ‘Making Magical MOOCs’; Oral Presentation and workshop at HEA Health and Social Care conference, Glasgow
ROBERTSHAW D (2016) ‘The Strategic Context of MOOCs’; HEA Making Magical MOOCs workshop
ROBERTSHAW D, OWEN E, BOARDMAN M, HADI SM (2015) ‘An approach to quality assurance of massive open online courses: bringing MOOCs into mainstream quality processes’; Presentation at Learning with MOOCs II
ROBERTSHAW D, SHAW P (2015) Using OERs to enhance your practice. LTA Conference: Buxton
ROBERTSHAW D (2015) ‘Innovative Approaches to Workforce Development’; Oral Presentation at Palace of Westminster, London
ROBERTSHAW D, BELL T, BERESFORD, C (2014) ‘An international approach to medication error reduction in the intensive care unit’ All Together Better Health 7: Pittsburgh
ROBERTSHAW D, DENBY Y (2014) ‘The interprofessional master: what should interprofessional education look like at Masters level?’ All Together Better Health 7: Pittsburgh
ROBERTSHAW D (2010) ‘You Said, We did: Using students positive experiences in module development’ All Together Better Health 5: Sydney
Professional interests
I have a range of professional interests, stemming from my work in MOOCs, online learning, social change and dementia. I am very interested in technology-enhanced learning and the use of creative approaches to learning (and developing creativity). I'm keen to develop and use innovative pedagogic approaches in the classroom such as music, Lego and games.
Recent conferences
I regularly attend conferences both in the UK and overseas and in the last couple of years have been to conferences in Australia and the USA.
Experience in industry
Prior to working at the University of Derby, I was a practising intensive care nurse. I have worked extensively with practice learning partners across the East Midlands to develop new roles and new ways of working, as well as implement apprenticeships, work-based learning, and online programmes.
I have also served as a governor for UTC Derby Pride Park.
I have previously served as an NMC Visitor, working with Mott Macdonald to deliver quality assurance of new or existing NMC-approved programmes.
Teaching responsibilities
Most of my teaching responsibilities are oriented around independent studies projects and I supervise degree, masters, and PhD students.