Role
Ellen is a Senior Educational Developer in the directorate for Education, Quality, and Partnerships (EQP). Specialising in active collaborative learning, Ellen is responsible for developing and promoting the adoption of Enquiry-Based Learning pedagogies, including SCALE-UP (Student Centred Active Learning Environments with Upside Pedagogies) and Team Based Learning (TBL) with a view to enhancing student engagement and decreasing progression and attainment gaps. Ellen has lead a number of institution-wide educational projects, including NTU’s Team- Based Learning pilot (2022-24) and more recently the ACL@NTU project (2025-29): a key intervention in NTU’s Access and Participation Plan. Passionate about widening participation and promoting the success of all students, Ellen’s professional interests are in active learning, impact and evaluation, intersectionality, and LGBT+ staff/student inclusion.
Career overview
Ellen joined NTU in 2023 as Senior Educational Developer within EQP (formerly CADQ), following over four years working in academic success coaching across the higher education sector. At NTU, she has led institution-wide educational enhancement initiatives and continues to advocate for active and collaborative learning approaches that support student engagement, belonging, and success.
Prior to joining NTU, Ellen worked in student success and academic coaching roles at both Derby College (HE) and Loughborough University. Working closely with students through one-to-one coaching and in-curriculum study skills provision, she developed expertise in widening participation, awarding-gap interventions, and inclusive educational practice, while contributing to EDI initiatives, such as the LGBT+ staff network.
Ellen's interest in teaching and learning began while completing her PhD at the University of Sheffield, where she taught English Literature undergraduate seminars using approaches that foster enquiry, discussion, and debate. This experience sparked a lasting interest in pedagogies that challenge traditional teacher-student hierarchies and create more equitable learning environments.
Across her career, Ellen has remained committed to developing educational practices that promote participation, belonging, and success for all students.
Research areas
Ellen completed her doctorate at the University of Sheffield in 2019, following the successful submission of her thesis, entitled ‘The “Aching Pleasure” of John Keats’s Poetry 1818-1820’. Drawing upon Keats’s dual professions as a poet and a medic, Ellen’s research explored the dynamic relationships between pleasure and pain in Keats’s works, arguing that poetic language and form become sites of experimentation through which Keats tests how far pain and pleasure are entertwined.
In the context of teaching and learning, Ellen also has research interests in widening participation and active collaborative learning. She has undertaken action research in barriers to accessing higher education in the context of further education and institutional evaluation that looks at the impact of Team-Based Learning on students’ academic behavioural confidence.
Publications
Publications
Nicholls, E., Love, A., Shaw, L., Gough, K., and Charles, K. (2026). Developing Academic Behavioural Confidence Through Team-Based Learning: Findings from an Institution-Wide Pilot Study at Nottingham Trent University [under review].
Nicholls, E. (2025). Boosting Students’ Confidence and Grade Outcomes: Key Findings from NTU’s Team-Based Learning Pilot. Available at: <https://www.ntu.ac.uk/about-us/teaching/academic-development-and-quality/cadq-blogs/boosting-students-confidence-and-grade-outcomes-key-findings-from-ntus-team-based-learning-pilot-project> [accessed 05/10/2026].
Nicholls, E. and Love, A. (2024). SCALE-UP: 10 Years On. CADQ Blogs. Available at: < https://www.ntu.ac.uk/about-us/teaching/academic-development-and-quality/cadq-blogs/scale-up-10-years-on> [accessed 05/10/2026].
Nicholls, E. (2023). Pride and Allyship: The Legacy of LGBT+ History on Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion, Loughborough University LGBT+ Staff Network Blog, <https://blog.lboro.ac.uk/lgbt/pride-and-allyship/> [Accessed 23/10/23].
Nicholls, E. (2022). Queerness and the Literary Canon, Loughborough University LGBT+ Staff Network Blog. Available at: <https://blog.lboro.ac.uk/lgbt/queerness-and-the-literary-canon/> [Accessed 23/10/23].
Nicholls, E. (2019). Keats’s Bees in the ‘Ode to Autumn’— Written on this Day in 1819, BARS Blog. Available at: <https://www.bars.ac.uk/blog/?p=2580> [Accessed 23/10/23].
Nicholls, E. (2019). ‘The “Aching Pleasure” of John Keats’s Poetry 1818-1820’, Ph.D Thesis, University of Sheffield, Sheffield.
Nicholls, E. (2019). ‘Foreword‘ in Inspiration Poetry: John Keats. Flame Tree Publishing: London.
Nicholls, E. (2017). On this Day in 1817: Keats and Negative Capability, 21-27 December, BARS Blog. Available at: < https://www.bars.ac.uk/blog/?p=1876> [Accessed 23/10/23].
Nicholls, E. (2016). Review of Bodily Pain in Romantic Literature by J. Davies, British Society for Literature and Science. Available at: <https://www.bsls.ac.uk/reviews/romantic-and-victorian/jeremy-davies-bodily-pain-in-romantic-literature/> [Accessed 23/10/23].