A public face for academic work requires thought. What is suitable for one audience may not be for another. What is useful for one cohort of students may not be appropriate for another cohort or for the general public. But for Dr Andrew King, a public-facing WordPress site through the Coventry University domains initiative has several advantages.

For several years now Andrew King has used a lending library of published ‘illness narratives’ – stories by people who have experienced neurological conditions or illnesses – for teaching Masters student physiotherapists. It’s about giving students an insight into the ‘patient’ perspective.

But now the ‘Neurology Book Club’ has an accompanying professional website that has reviews, book lists, links to films, other websites, and a blog. It allows students to comment on particular books, or blog posts, a feature that is used for certain teaching sessions. Students can browse the reviews independently to find items that are of interest without need for direction.

Unlike internal university Moodle resources, the WordPress site is not limited to a particular cohort, or a particular year group. The postings are cumulative, gradually becoming a larger resource that can be easily linked to from Moodle pages of many other health studies courses.

Tags provide an easy route for visitors to find resources on the subjects that interest them – for example, ‘aphasia’ or ‘head injury’ or ‘carers’.

In this session Dr King will use his website to discuss the process of building and refining it, and to discuss the possible advantages for staff, students, and the public.

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Dr Andrew King is a Senior Lecturer in Physiotherapy at Coventry University, in the Faculty of Health and Life Sciences. He leads a Masters module in neurological rehabilitation and the undergraduate physiotherapy project module. He supervises Masters and PhD students researching aspects of physiotherapy and rehabilitation. He is the current Chair of the Faculty Ethics and Governance Committee. He was previously a practising physiotherapist, specialising in neurological rehabilitation with people who had conditions like stroke, brain injury or Multiple Sclerosis. Before that he was a medieval historian, his D.Phil. being on borough finances in medieval Norwich. Website: Stories of Experience, Illness and Recovery, andrewking.coventry.domains 

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