Welcome back Nassir Ibrahim -Qlik Educator Ambassador for 2024!

[HollyJohnson]

This year we welcome back Nassir Ibrahim for his third year as an Educator Ambassador!

[HollyJohnson]

Nassir first became an educator ambassador in 2022 when he was a Lecturer in Technology Innovation at Birmingham City university. This year Nassir has been promoted and is now a Senior Lecturer in Business Analytics.

When Nassir started teaching in The Faculty of Computing, Engineering and Built Environment (CEBE), they typically used R Studio, Rapid Miner, Excel, SQL and Python for teaching and assessment.” I worked as part of a team that relied heavily on R Studio and saw the challenges faced by students first-hand when completing basic statistical analysis. The challenge translated into a poor student learning experience and was also reflected in lower-quality work being produced by students.”

Nassir was then promoted to become Module Lead and decided to switch from R Studio to Qlik Sense for the Final Year Data Intelligence module (now Business Intelligence). “Qlik Sense has been an excellent tool for teaching and assessment and students have taken to it very well. Recently students have had the opportunity to complete lab exercises and refreshed assessments using both Power BI and Qlik to equip them with practical experience using industry-standard tools. Having an industry mentor who utilizes both Qlik and Power BI in a senior business analytics role has informed my assessment design, lab exercises and pedagogy. Academia and Industry are not mutually exclusive and a fundamental challenge is addressing a perceived dichotomy that incorporates the differing interests of students, employers and academics. What unites these different actors is solving real-life problems effectively, together. I am empowered to continue integrating these actors as a Qlik ambassador, to successfully address the challenges of the modern day using analytics.”

Since we last introduced Nassir he has created and led new modules​ in Business Intelligence, Database Systems Development and managed a large course-wide Programming module utilising empirical industry-based case studies. He strongly encourages his students to study the courses on the Qlik Academic Program and earn certifications, “I have supported students with gaining Qlik certifications and encouraged students to promote their certification and badges on their CV's and LinkedIn profiles. Students have secured graduate roles at national firms and SME's that utilise Qlik”.

All of his support for his students is clearly paying off, not only have his students been securing graduate roles but his passion for his subject has also been recognised across the University.  He has been shortlisted for the award of most inspiring lecturer in the Faculty for three consecutive years: 2021, 2022 and 2023.

Looking ahead to 2024 Nassir has a number of goals,” This year I’m supporting Knowledge Transfer Partnership (KTP) associates, Masters students and final year bachelor project students on research projects. I aim to support students and colleagues to produce publishable outputs and to disseminate knowledge created at both academic and industry conferences.“

Nassir is acutely aware of how important his own knowledge and development is too, “Continuous professional development is crucial and belonging to a community such as the Qlik ambassador team keeps me sharp. I am an active researcher and strive to practically demonstrate the effectiveness of how business analytics techniques can address industry challenges.” This is part of why he chose to reapply as an educator ambassador for 2024, the exchange of knowledge and experiences with fellow educator ambassadors,” Sharing knowledge is very rewarding and building competence to solve different business problems is stimulating. Obtaining and implementing the good practice learnt and exchanged with peer Qlik ambassadors is very valuable for assessment design and refining the pedagogy of my teaching teams to nurture industry ready graduates and postgraduates.”

His motivation to become an educator ambassador for a third time came from his commitment to lifelong learning, “Lifelong learning is extremely important and no matter how qualified one becomes you realize how little you know. There is no better feeling than helping others become better skilled and this requires self-investment. By becoming a Qlik Educator Ambassador, I am in a stronger position to help others develop their technical skillset and be part of an exciting community.”

We are thrilled to have Nassir back as an Educator Ambassador, if you want to learn more about how you can get access to Free Qlik software and learning resources to use in your teaching, go to qlik.com/academicprogram to learn more.