Nicole is an Online Course Facilitator in Health at UniSA Online. Nicole teaches in Public Health and Health Sciences courses. She is responsible for contributing to the development and delivery of high-quality and engaging online courses to undergraduate students and managing the day-to-day activities of online tutoring staff.
Nicole's research interests include the connections between humans and the natural environment, with a focus on nature-based play and learning, citizen science and nature play spaces. Nicole's PhD research focused on nature-based play and learning in South Australian Primary schools. Her PhD research involved characterising the outdoor spaces in primary schools, and consulting with educators to understand ... Read more
About me
Nicole is an Online Course Facilitator in Health at UniSA Online. Nicole teaches in Public Health and Health Sciences courses. She is responsible for contributing to the development and delivery of high-quality and engaging online courses to undergraduate students and managing the day-to-day activities of online tutoring staff.
Nicole's research interests include the connections between humans and the natural environment, with a focus on nature-based play and learning, citizen science and nature play spaces. Nicole's PhD research focused on nature-based play and learning in South Australian Primary schools. Her PhD research involved characterising the outdoor spaces in primary schools, and consulting with educators to understand the current practices and perspectives of nature-based play and learning and the barriers to and enablers of these practices. She used this information to create a set of recommendations for effectively implementing nature-based play and learning into primary schools.
About me
Doctor of Philosophy University of South Australia
Bachelor of Biomedical Research (Honours) University of South Australia
Bachelor of Science University of South Australia
Associate Degree in Languages and Culture Studies University of South Australia
Nicole’s most recent publication reports on the findings of semi-structured interviews that aimed to elicit educators’ perspectives and experiences of nature-based play and learning with their students. Analysis identified four overarching themes: the practice, perceived benefits, barriers and enablers of nature-based play and learning. Children’s learning, enjoyment, creativity, and a relaxed and flexible environment were clear benefits. Meanwhile educator knowledge and confidence and the crowded curriculum were barriers. Enablers were nature-based play and learning champions and support from school leadership. The findings suggest that schools can help engage students with nature-based play and learning activities by... Read more
Research
Research outputs for the last seven years are shown below. Some long-standing staff members may have older outputs included. To see earlier years visit ORCID or Scopus
Open access indicates that an output is open access.
| Year | Output |
|---|---|
| 2025 |
Open access
|
| 2023 |
6
|
| 2022 |
8
8
56
|
| 2022 |
Open access
13
10
5
|
| 2021 |
28
25
88
|
| 2019 |
Open access
11
10
|
Research
Nicole’s most recent publication reports on the findings of semi-structured interviews that aimed to elicit educators’ perspectives and experiences of nature-based play and learning with their students. Analysis identified four overarching themes: the practice, perceived benefits, barriers and enablers of nature-based play and learning. Children’s learning, enjoyment, creativity, and a relaxed and flexible environment were clear benefits. Meanwhile educator knowledge and confidence and the crowded curriculum were barriers. Enablers were nature-based play and learning champions and support from school leadership. The findings suggest that schools can help engage students with nature-based play and learning activities by mitigating these barriers and promoting these enablers.
External engagement & recognition
| Organisation | Country |
|---|---|
| Flinders University | AUSTRALIA |
| University of South Australia | AUSTRALIA |
| University of the South Pacific | FIJI |
Teaching & student supervision
