Dr Richard Lobb
Award for Sustained Excellence in Tertiary Teaching
Lecturer in Computer Science – Computer Science and Software Engineering, University of Canterbury
Through his redesign of computer programming teaching, Richard Lobb’s impact on Computer Science education stretches across his department, throughout the university, and around the globe. His teaching philosophy uses the principles of learning by doing, immediate feedback, and authentic assessment. Through his enthusiasm he transfers passion for programming to his students. A colleague notes: “as an educator, Richard embodies everything a university could hope for. He is patient, intelligent, approachable and passionate”.
His radical redesign of foundational computer science courses provides students with the opportunity to learn through online systems. One student described how “The course and the labs have shown me a passion I didn’t even know I had.” Another described Richard as the “Best communicator of concepts I’ve ever come across to be honest!!”
“Students are very, very positive” about his innovation, CodeRunner; a programming teaching tool that is now used at 1,800 institutions globally. Richard has been a strong advocate for competitive programming, delivering “Programming for Fun” workshops, introducing an Australasian contest, and is currently Vice President of the South Pacific Program Contest Association.