Dr Matthew Barr
- Senior Lecturer (Computing Science)
telephone:
01413303016
email:
Matthew.Barr@glasgow.ac.uk
Sir Alwyn Williams Building, F113 Lilybank Gardens, University of Glasgow, Glasgow G12 8RZ
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5147-0673Biography
Dr Matthew Barr is a Senior Lecturer at the University of Glasgow. He is head of the Education and Practice (EAP) section in the School of Computing Science, where he leads the Graduate Apprenticeship in Software Engineering programme and chairs the School's Industry Advisory Board. Matt is also co-director of the University’s Games and Gaming Lab, a Senior Fellow in Recognising Excellence in Teaching (RET), and a member of the University’s Teaching Excellence Network. He previously convened the University’s first game studies course and founded the international student game studies journal, Press Start. He was appointed Director of Education for SICSA (the Scottish Informatics & Computer Science Alliance) in 2021, and is a founding editor of the journal, Open Scholarship of Teaching and Learning.
Matt is the founder of the Ada Scotland Festival, which aims to improve gender balance in Computing Science education across Scotland. He also champions inclusion and diversity through his membership of several Scotland-wide groups, including the Scottish Apprenticeship Advisory Board Equalities Group, and the Scottish Government’s Digital Economy Skills Group and National Digital Ethics Expert Group. He is also involved in related work through Skills Development Scotland, including the Tackling the Technology Gender Gap Together (TTGGT) workstream, the Neurodiversity Steering Group, and the Women into Tech Steering Group. Matt previously served as Vice Chair of British DiGRA (the Digital Games Research Association) and as a Trustee and Director of the Scottish Game Developers Association. Until 2022, Matt was a member of the BAFTA Scotland Committee, where he acted as the Games Jury Chair.
Matt’s games research, which has attracted significant media attention, examines how video games may be used to develop skills and competencies such as critical thinking, adaptability, and communication skills. This work received the Association for Learning Technology’s inaugural Research Project of the Year award in 2018 and forms the basis of his book, Graduate Skills and Game-Based Learning, published with Palgrave in 2019.
Research interests
- Equality, diversity, and inclusion in higher education
- Learning and Teaching
- Work-based Learning
- Student Employability
- Graduate Attributes and Meta-skills
- Game-based Learning
Grants
- Council of Professors and Heads of Computing (CPHC): PI, Understanding the role models that inspire women to study Computing Science
- Learning and Teaching Development Fund (LTDF) & Erasmus Mundus: Co-I, Project AWARE (Access to Wargaming in Education)
- Reinvigorating Research Funding: Co-I, Project GAMESTORM
- Creative Scotland/ESRC Impact Acceleration: Data provision on the Games Industry in Scotland
- ESRC Impact Acceleration: Business Model Change for Games Development Businesses
- ESRC Impact Acceleration: Game Think 2.0
- RCUK Digital Economy/Communities and Culture Network+: Games for Communication
- AHRC Social Media Knowledge Exchange Scholarship, University of Cambridge Digital Humanities Network (CDHN) and the Centre for Research in the Arts, Social Sciences and Humanities (CRASSH): WikiGeeks - Gaming and Collaborative Learning
- New Initiatives Fund, University of Glasgow: Video Games & Learning Symposium
- The William Lind Foundation: Scotland's Video Game Industry
- New Initiatives Fund, University of Glasgow: Press Start journal launch
I have also secured a number of smaller grants to support my research, including a College of Arts Graduate School Research Support Award, School of Humanities Research Incentivisation Funding and Learning & Teaching Development Fund (LTDF) support.
Supervision
- Childs, Katharine
Promoting Interest and Broadening Participation in Computing among Middle School Pupils through Physical Computing Projects using Grounded Cognition Theory - Elvery, Gabriel
Pieces of Heart: Video Games, Affect and The Digital Fantastic - Pasternack, Rhys
Dark Souls and the Borders of Belief - Sule, Sadiq Atumeyi
'Empowering Parents through Parental Intervention to Broaden Participation of Women in Computing: A Multifaceted Examination in Nigeria
- Sule, Sadiq
- Parental Interventions for Broadening Participation in Computing Science Education
- Almuadi, Mona Mohammed A
Online Student Peer-Review in Computing Science Education - Copeland-Stewart, Alicia
Representations of Identity in Dragon Age: Origins - Dunlop, Kirsty
We read the text and the text reads us: writing affective, interactive electronic literature in the post-internet age - Vazquez, Monica
There Be Dragons: Poetics of Immersion from Fantasy Literature to Virtual Reality
Completed PhDs
- Butterworth-Parr, Francis
Machphrasis: Video Games as Metaphor in Contemporary Literary Culture - Phichai, Pornphan
New Interactive Interface Design for Science and Technology Museums - Rautalahti, Heidi
"I would rather contemplate big questions" - Imagining contemporary religion in digital games and among gamers from actor-centred and game-immanent perspectives (University of Helsinki)
Teaching
- Programme Director for the Graduate Apprenticeship in Software Engineering
- Course Convenor for How to Learn a New Language, Workplace Assessment Year 1, Workplace Assessment 2, Professional Skills in the Workplace, and Web Application Systems. Co-convenor for User Interaction.
- Best Advisor of Studies - Student Teaching Awards 2021
- University Teaching Excellence Award 2015/16
- College of Arts Teaching Excellence Award 2015/16
- Previously convened Introduction to Video Game Studies, Multimedia Analysis and Design, and the MSc IT course, Multimedia Systems
- Also contributed teaching to Level 1 and 2 Digital Media & Information Studies
Research datasets
Additional information
External roles
- Director of Education at SICSA (the Scottish Informatics and Computer Science Alliance)
- Digital Economy Skills Group (Digital Directorate, Scottish Government)
- Scottish Apprenticeship Advisory Board (SAAB) Apprenticeship Approvals Group
- SAAB Employer Equalities Group
- National Digital Ethics Expert Group (Digital Directorate, Scottish Government)
- Tackling the Technology Gender Gap Together (TTGGT) workstream (Skills Development Scotland)
- Neurodiversity Steering Group (Skills Development Scotland)
- Women into Tech Steering Group (Skills Development Scotland)
- Founding Editor of oSoTL (Open Scholarship of Teaching and Learning)
- Fellow of the Higher Education Academy
- Expert Evaluator and Monitor for the European Commission
- STEM Ambassador for UKIE/STEMNET
- Adviser to Game Academy
- External Examiner, University of Abertay
- External Examiner, Falmouth University
- UKRI Talent Peer Review College
- Panelist, Digital Xtra Fund
Previous roles
- Vice Chair of British DiGRA
- Director at Scottish Game Developers Association
- Committee Member & Games Jury Chair at BAFTA Scotland
- BAFTA Scotland Games Mentoring Steering Group
University roles
- Senior Fellow, Recognising Excellence in Teaching (RET)
- Co-director, University of Glasgow Games and Gaming Lab
- Adviser of Studies (College of Science & Engineering)
- College of Science & Engineering Ethics Committee
- School of Computing Science Athena SWAN Self-Assessment Team (now EDI Committee)
- School of Computing Science Parental Champion
- University of Glasgow Teaching Excellence Network
- Recognising Excellence in Teaching (RET) Mentor
- Elected Member of Senate
- Senate Assessor for Student Conduct
Previous roles
- College of Arts Library Committee
- College of Arts Ethics Committee
- Adviser of Studies (College of Arts)
- School of Humanities Athena SWAN Self-Assessment Team
- Founding Editor of Press Start
Invited Talks
Invited talks include WESEE 2021 (keynote), British DiGRA (keynote), Scotland Policy Conferences (keynote), Robert Gordon University, Volda University College/Norwegian Ministry of Education and Research, FutureScot's EduTech – The Future of Further and Higher Education, the National Library of Scotland, the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, the London Games Festival, the QAA, the European Trade Union Institute, University of Toronto, Staffordshire University, University of Bath, Abertay University, Bournemouth University, and University of Plymouth.
Reviewing
I have previously acted as reviewer for: funding bodies including the European Commission (as Expert Evaluator and Monitor), the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC), the Arts and Humanties Research Council (AHRC), UKRI (UK Research and Innovation), and the Higher Education Academy (HEA); journals including the IEEE Access, British Journal of Educational Technology, Higher Education, Studies in Higher Education, the International Journal of Human-Computer Studies, the Journal of Virtual Worlds Research, Computers and the History of Art (CHArt), Research in Learning Technology, Convergence, Computers in Human Behavior, Computers & Education, the Journal of Gaming & Virtual Worlds, Convergence, and Games & Culture; conferences including ACM CHI, Foundations of Digital Games (FDG), DiGRA, the International Conference on Higher Education Advances, and the ACM Technical Symposium on Computer Science Education (SIGCSE); and publishers including Palgrave and SAGE.
Media
- BBC Radio 5Live, 28 March, 2023. Is gaming hurting our kids?
- Inside Higher Ed, 13 December, 2022. Game On: Online gaming enhances college students' career prospects.
- BBC Radio Scotland, 28 November, 2022. On the 25th anniversary of Grand Theft Auto.
- Metro, 30 September 2022. War Games – examining the conflict between video games and war.
- The Herald, 1 August 2022. Virtual sensation as Burns' real life inspiration is Minecraft hit.
- Also: STV News, The National, The Scotsman, Yahoo News, The Metro, Daily Telegraph, BBC Radio 2, ITV Borders.
- Times Higher Education, 5 May, 2021. Designing online courses for better learning and well-being outcomes.
- BBC 5 Live, 20 March 2021 (on video games and wellbeing in lockdown).
- BBC World News, 10 March 2021 (on the Roblox stock exchange flotation and gaming during the pandemic).
- Wireframe, 4 March 2021. Learning Through Play - Gaming’s rising place in the classroom.
- The Herald, 3 March, 2021. Helping graduates fill the digital skills gap.
- Hello World, February 2021. The Ada Scotland Festival: Focused on gender balance.
- BBC World Service, 22 February 2021 (on video games and wellbeing during the pandemic).
- BBC One Scotland, 28 January 2021 (on the social benefits of playing video games in lockdown).
- BBC News, 28 January 2021. How gaming helps people connect during lockdown.
- BBC Three, 19 February 2021. Gaming and Me: Connections, Identity and Support.
- Currys Tech Talk, November 2020 (on the social, emotional & developmental benefits of gaming).
- The Scotsman, 12 October 2020 (on the Ada Scotland Festival and gender imbalance in Computing Science education).
- The Herald, 9 October 2020 (on the Ada Scotland Festival and gender imbalance in Computing Science education).
- Glasgow Times, 9 October 2020 (on the Ada Scotland Festival and gender imbalance in Computing Science education).
- Wired, 14 September 2020 (on video game preservation).
- Polygon, 7 May 2020 (on Animal Crossing and player journals).
- BBC Radio Scotland, 1 April 2020 (on video games, the WHO and the coronavirus).
- Teach Better podcast, December 2019 (on games in higher education and apprenticeship degrees).
- BBC Tees, 2 September 2019 (on game-based learning research).
- BBC Radio Wales, 31 August 2019 (on game-based learning research).
- BBC News, 30 August 2019. How playing video games could get you a better job.
- Go Radio, 8 August 2019 (on video games and violence).
- Channel 5 News, 8 July 2019 (on the Internet Matters report and online gaming).
- DIGIT, 6 March, 2019. Gaming Addiction Discussed at DCMS Technology Inquiry.
- Patient, 5 February, 2019. Can playing video games help your mental health?
- The Guardian, 16 January, 2019. Video games can turn university graduates into better employees.
- BBC Timeline, BBC Two Scotland, 28th June 2018 (on games industry and gender diversity).
- Scholastic SuperScience, May/June 2018 issue (on 'brain games').
- BBC News, 5th June, 2017. Video games could boost university skills, study finds.
- Times Higher Education, 5th June, 2017. Playing video games ‘improves students’ employability skills’.
- The Telegraph, 5th June, 2017. Playing two hours of video games a week makes you more employable, Glasgow academics find.
- BBC Radio Scotland, 5th June, 2017 (on game-based learning research).
- Clyde 1, 5th June, 2017 (on game-based learning research).
- 938LIVE (Singapore), 5th June, 2017 (on game-based learning research).
- Share Radio, 31st January, 2017. Share Radio Afternoon (on the history of Namco and Pac-man).
- Share Radio, 15th June, 2016. Morning Money (on the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3)).
- Radio EduTALK, 15th March, 2016 (on my research in game-based learning, the Game Studies course and the Press Start journal).
- La Liberté, 7th March, 2016. L’Ecosse, eldorado du jeu vidéo (on the success of the Scottish games industry).
- Share Radio, 25th February, 2016. Morning Money (on the future of the video games industry and VR).
- Huffington Post, 9th February, 2016. The Division And Destiny Aren't Just Video Games - They're The Future Of Social Networks (on the positive outcomes associated with playing online video games).
- Share Radio, 20th January, 2016. Morning Money (on the growth of the mobile games market).
- Daily Record, 5th November, 2015. 20 years of PlayStation: Industry experts and gamers pick their favourite games to mark occasion (on thatgamecompany's Journey).
- Epoch Times, 4th April, 2014. Why New Yorkers Crave ‘Candy Crush’.
