Colin Smith
Colin Smith

Dr Colin Smith

Associate Professor

Biography

My research addresses ICTs, strategic innovation and organisational change particularly in public sector organisations, and often in relation to ‘e-government’ and ‘e-democracy’.
I am a member of the Centre for Social Informatics http://www.iidi.napier.ac.uk/c/main/site/csi

I also undertake pedagogic research looking at emergent professionalism in computing students and the role played by placement and professional practice in underpinning employability. I am a member of the Centre for Computing Education Research (CCER) where I lead on employability research.

Core areas of interest:
- Role of the Internet for political parties in contemporary democratic practices.
- Digital delivery platforms for public services.
- Use of new technology by parliamentarians.

Journal/Conference Roles:

March 2015 - Higher Education, Skills and Work-Based Learning
Member of the Review Panel for this journal, focusing on the interface between higher education and the workplace.

March 2010 – Dec 2013 Information Polity
Reviews Editor and then member of the Editorial Board (December 2013- ) for this leading journal in the field of critical assessment of information age governance and democracy http://www.iospress.nl/journal/information-polity/

1995 - European Group of Public Administration
Member of Permanent Study Group 1: e-Government

News

Events

Esteem

Advisory panels and expert committees or witness

  • UUK / Department for Education roundtable
  • Member of ISO-WACE Advisory Board

 

Conference Organising Activity

  • Programme Committee Member - BHCI

 

Editorial Activity

  • Member of Reviewers Panel: Higher Education, Skills and Work-based Learning
  • Member of the Editorial Board: Information Polity
  • Reviews Editor: Information Polity

 

External Examining/Validations

  • External Examiner for BSc Information Systems, Heriot-Watt University
  • External Examiner (MBA), Liverpool John Moores University

 

Invited Speaker

  • Grasping a Jellyfish? Some problematic aspects of 'Belonging'
  • Digital Skills for Graduates
  • Employability and Social Mobility Workshop - 'Exploring Barriers'

 

Research Degree External Examining

  • External Examiner (PhD) - Victoria University, Wellington, New Zealand
  • External Examiner (PhD) - Victoria University, Wellington, New Zealand
  • External Examiner (PhD), University of Derby
  • External Examiner (PhD), University of Udine, Italy

 

Date


81 results

From Interest to Decision: A Comparative Exploration of Student Attitudes and Pathways to Co-op Programs in the United States and the United Kingdom

Journal Article
Ramirez, N., Smith, S., Smith, C. F., Berg, T., Strubel, B., Ohland, M., & Main, J. (2016)
From Interest to Decision: A Comparative Exploration of Student Attitudes and Pathways to Co-op Programs in the United States and the United Kingdom. International Journal of Engineering Education, 32(5A), 1867-1878
Cooperative education programs (co-op) play a vital role in developing engineering and computing students’ applied technological skills and professional self-confidence. Never...

Matching and mismatch: understanding employer expectations of work placement applicants

Presentation / Conference
Smith, C. & Smith, S. (2016, September)
Matching and mismatch: understanding employer expectations of work placement applicants. Paper presented at ACEN, Sydney, Australia
The success and sustainability of work-integrated learning (WIL) is an abiding concern for universities, as institutions seek to mainstream WIL within academic programmes. A ...

Non-public eParticipation in Social Media Spaces

Conference Proceeding
Taylor-Smith, E., & Smith, C. (2016)
Non-public eParticipation in Social Media Spaces. In SMSociety '16 Proceedings of the 7th 2016 International Conference on Social Media & Societyhttps://doi.org/10.1145/2930971.2930974
This paper focuses on the importance of non-public social media spaces in contemporary democratic participation at the grassroots level, based on case studies of citizen-led, ...

Exploring student identity through a university-wide graduate employability initiative

Presentation / Conference
Smith, S., Smith, C., Taylor-Smith, E., Fotheringham, J. & Dencer-Brown, I. (2016, June)
Exploring student identity through a university-wide graduate employability initiative. Paper presented at WACE International Research Symposium, Victoria, Canada
Universities are adopting institution-wide projects designed to enhance opportunities for student work placements and work-related learning across all subject disciplines, as ...

Enhancing the ‘Employability Journey’ for Year 3 direct entrant computing students.

Conference Proceeding
Smith, C. F., & Durkin, P. (2015)
Enhancing the ‘Employability Journey’ for Year 3 direct entrant computing students
This paper addresses the theme of transitions during study through the experience of college students as they become 3rd year direct entrants on computing degree programmes, a...

Making co-op work: An exploration of student attitudes to co-op programs

Conference Proceeding
Smith, S., Berg, T., & Smith, C. (2015)
Making co-op work: An exploration of student attitudes to co-op programs. In Frontiers in Education Conference (FIE), 2015. 32614 2015. IEEE (1-6). https://doi.org/10.1109/fie.2015.7344173
Engineering and computing at university both have a long tradition of co-operative education which plays a vital role in developing students' applied skills and giving confide...

Women in ICT: exploring professional Identity on an executive masters program

Presentation / Conference
Smith, S., Smith, C. F., & Varey, A. (2015, October)
Women in ICT: exploring professional Identity on an executive masters program. Paper presented at 6th Annual Conference on Computer Science Education: Innovation and Technology (CSEIT 2015
Despite years of purposeful activity there is still a shortfall in the numbers of women enrolling onto computing courses in the UK and elsewhere, while many who join the profe...

Making co-op work for you: a comparative exploration of student attitudes to co-op programs in the United States and the United Kingdom

Presentation / Conference
Ramirez, N., Smith, S., Smith, C., Berg, T., Strubel, B., Ohland, M., & Main, J. (2015, August)
Making co-op work for you: a comparative exploration of student attitudes to co-op programs in the United States and the United Kingdom. Paper presented at World Conference on Co-op and Work Integrated Learning (WACE 19th
University engineering and computing courses have a long tradition of co-operative education that plays a vital role in developing students' applied skills and giving confiden...

Supporting student transitions to placement: developing a new self-identity.

Conference Proceeding
Smith, S., & Smith, C. F. (2015)
Supporting student transitions to placement: developing a new self-identity. In QAA Enhancement Theme
Employer expectations of graduates, as evidenced by the job descriptions of graduate vacancies, often include relevant work experience; however meeting student demand for plac...

Can pay, should pay? Exploring employer and student perceptions of paid and unpaid placements

Journal Article
Smith, S., Smith, C., & Caddell, M. (2015)
Can pay, should pay? Exploring employer and student perceptions of paid and unpaid placements. Active learning in higher education, 16(2), 149-164. https://doi.org/10.1177/1469787415574049
Students can benefit from applying their emerging skillsets through a work placement, both in terms of consolidating their learning and in gaining a better appreciation of the...

Pre-Napier Funded Projects

  • COST A14 - Government and Democracy in the Information Age

Current Post Grad projects

Previous Post Grad projects