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Danica Sims

Senior Departmental Lecturer in Medical Education; Course Director (MSc Medical Education)

danica.sims@education.ox.ac.uk

About me

Danica studied at the University of Cape Town (2011-2019) in South Africa (BSc – distinction, BMedScHons – distinction, MScMed – distinction, PhD) before joining the University of the Western Cape as an educationalist (2020-2023). She joined Oxford in 2023 and is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Education and the Course Director for the MSc in Medical Education programme.

The #RhodesMustFall student-led protests in South Africa (2015), calling for free, decolonised Higher Education, sparked her jump from biomedical sciences (cancer research) to educational research. Her PhD in Health Sciences Education explored clinician-educators’ conceptions of assessment, and factors influencing their assessment practices, in medical programmes in diverse Southern settings.

Since then, Danica has been shortlisted for and won Team Teaching Excellence awards from the University of the Western Cape (2021; 2022; 2023) and received a University of Oxford, Social Science Division, Teaching excellence award: Early career strand (2024) for her leadership in the MSc in Medical Education. In addition, she has been awarded consecutive Teaching Enhancement and Development Grants (2024-2025; 2025-2026), and other internal and external funds. Since 2023, Danica has been an Honorary Research Associate at the University of Johannesburg in South Africa, in the Biomedical Engineering and Healthcare Technology Research Centre, and in 2025 she received a prestigious South African National Research Foundation (NRF) Y-rating for recognition of her research.

Her research interests include assessment and feedback, curriculum transformation, technology-enhanced education, professional identity, international medical graduates, faculty development, critical and alternative qualitative research methodologies, and issues of social and epistemic justice in medical and health professions education. Danica welcomes DPhil applications in these topics.

External DPhil student

Sally Shiels, Nuffield Department of Clinical Neurosciences

Research

Conference papers

Sims, D., Pienaar, L., & Cilliers, F. (2023). Assessment research: convergences and divergences in theoreticalframeworks, findings and implications . Southern African Association for Health Educationalists (SAAHE) Annual Conference - Abstract Book, 124.

https://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:29fe633a-0570-45e0-9243-d79c21ed1978
Sims, D., Maranyane, H., Peres, J., & Prince, S. (2020). The c-Myc/AKT1/TBX3 axis is important to target in the treatment of embryonal rhabdomyosarcoma. Proceedings of the AACR Special Conference on the Advances in Pediatric Cancer Research, 80(14_Supplement), 101-102.

https://doi.org/10.1158/1538-7445.PEDCA19-B43 https://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:3081ff6d-6bcc-4fa9-bdfc-f4a3bcbbff39

Journal articles

Sims, D., Aitken, D., & Swales, C. (2025). Student poster conferences as a formative, authentic, inclusive and sustainable assessment practice. Clinical Teacher, 22(2).

https://doi.org/10.1111/tct.70050 https://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:12da5071-f4a5-4494-8ba5-fa2a18b19afc
Sims, D., & Saunders, P. (2025). Disrupting Health Professions Education Research: A guide to critical reflexive praxis during research planning. Teaching and Learning in Medicine.
Sims, D., Zingela, Z., Mokhachane, M., Botha, G., Mawela, D., Singaram, V., Baatjies, K., Green-Thompson, L., & Begg, K. (2025). Medical Education, Reflections and Perspectives from South Africa: a review. BMC Medical Education.
Sims, D., & Cilliers, F. (2025). Assessing data adequacy in qualitative research studies. Academic Medicine.

https://doi.org/10.1097/acm.0000000000005972 https://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:6bf94a3e-2a2e-40b3-ab1f-a2694574d835
Sims, D., & Naidu, T. (2024). How to… do decolonial research. Clinical Teacher.

https://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:b5d1d961-2c76-4f1b-a337-7c08649242bc
Sims, D. (2024). Introducing the research design of phenomenography. Medical Science Educator, 34(5), 1167-1174.

https://doi.org/10.1007/s40670-024-02082-0 https://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:cb04f102-180b-49c0-90f5-3a21b10be6b5
Sims, D., Cilliers, F., & Lucio-Ramirez, C. (2024). Factors influencing clinician-educators’ assessment practice in varied Southern contexts: a health behaviour theory perspective. Advances in Health Sciences Education.

https://doi.org/10.1007/s10459-024-10341-3 https://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:8403c3ec-7f7e-4844-b491-b02d9e18671f
Noorbhai, H., Sims, D., & Hartman, N. (2024). Multi-disciplinary staff perspectives and consensus on e-Learning and mHealth for Health Sciences curricula. Higher Education Research and Development, 43(3), 620-639.

https://doi.org/10.1080/07294360.2024.2325149 https://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:3fbdacbe-b88b-4a56-b8b3-0ee9c313cb65
Sims, D. (2024). Online education and learning management system usage in a South African Economic and Management faculty during COVID-19. E-Learning and Digital Media.

https://doi.org/10.1177/20427530241239429 https://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:89498480-e9f8-4431-b2c2-6233bf95c0e1
Sims, D., Titus-Dawson, S., Lundie, S., & Govender, R. (2023). Shifting assessment paradigms in South African higher education: evolving towards transformative approaches to policy development. Scholarship of Teaching and Learning in the South, 7(3), 138-170.

https://doi.org/10.36615/sotls.v7i3.334 https://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:aaa2a794-5504-47bf-9be4-ab91b6ce02a1
Lundie, S., Titus, S., Govender, R., & Sims, D. (2023). Shifting assessment paradigms in South African higher education: Evolving towards transformative approaches to policy development. SOTL in the South.

https://doi.org/10.36615/sotls.v7i3.334
Sims, D. (2023). When I say... global south and global north. Medical Education, 58(3), 286-287.

https://doi.org/10.1111/medu.15263 https://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:cec70fb0-4559-4305-8196-a2e4b8075e1a
Sims, D. (2023). How to … write an abstract. Clinical Teacher, 21(1).

https://doi.org/10.1111/tct.13631 https://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:be59ebfd-cc0c-49af-9955-cc800da4c756
Yu, D., Sims, D., Swanepoel, C., & Anciano, F. (2023). Do assessment loads affect student academic success? an investigation at an economics department at the undergraduate level. South African Journal of Higher Education, 37(5), 237-259.

https://doi.org/10.20853/37-5-5397 https://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:2133963e-85a3-4930-8677-e8de196e0247
Sims, D., & Hartman, N. (2023). South African health sciences students’ perspectives on utilisation, constraints and future possibilities of mHealth and e-Learning. Discover Education, 2(1).

https://doi.org/10.1007/s44217-023-00045-y https://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:f68976eb-e869-428e-a672-ed8faa360dca
Sims, D., Noorbhai, H., & Sims, D. (2023). South African health sciences students’ perspectives on utilisation, constraints and future possibilities of mHealth and e-Learning. Discover Education.
Sims, D. (2023). Reimaging reflexivity through a critical theoretical framework: autoethnographic narratives on becoming a (de)colonised researcher. Critical Studies in Teaching and Learning, 11(1), 120-138.

https://doi.org/10.14426/cristal.v11i1.642 https://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:61b02087-afdf-4cf6-b7df-dc183b420aa9
Sims, D., & Cilliers, F. (2023). Qualitatively speaking: deciding how much data and analysis is enough. African Journal of Health Professions Education, 15(1), 2-3.

https://doi.org/10.7196/ajhpe.2023.v15i1.1657 https://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:52b44de0-e901-4a72-aa4b-1d8cd889cc76
Sims, D., & Cilliers, F. (2023). Clinician educators’ conceptions of assessment in medical education. Advances in Health Sciences Education, 28(4), 1053-1077.

https://doi.org/10.1007/s10459-022-10197-5
Sims, D. (2023). Reimaging reflexivity through a critical theoretical framework: Autoethnographic narratives on becoming a (de)colonised researcher. Critical Studies in Teaching and Learning, 11(1).

https://doi.org/10.14426/cristal.v11i1.1770
Willmer, T., Damerell, V., Smyly, S., Sims, D., Du Toit, M., Ncube, S., Sinkala, M., Govender, D., Sturrock, E., Blackburn, J., & Prince, S. (2021). Targeting the oncogenic TBX3:nucleolin complex to treat multiple sarcoma subtypes. American Journal of Cancer Research, 11(11), 5680-5700.

https://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:cae76d8a-e5ab-4d8a-bc02-04a8a7020f69
Alameri, H., Hamdy, H., & Sims, D. (2021). Medical education in the United Arab Emirates: Challenges and opportunities. Medical Teacher, 43(6), 625-632.

https://doi.org/10.1080/0142159x.2021.1908978 https://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:f2dcb2f1-bb08-4e1c-8644-114a4e78f9d4
Sims, D., Maranyane, H., Damerell, V., Govender, D., Isaacs, A., Peres, J., & Prince, S. (2020). The c-Myc/AKT1/TBX3 axis is important to target in the treatment of embryonal rhabdomyosarcoma. Cancers, 12(2).

https://doi.org/10.3390/cancers12020501 https://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:6e812734-9db6-4f3f-a2ea-26829f4c1440
Willmer, T., Cooper, A., Sims, D., Govender, D., & Prince, S. (2016). The T-box transcription factor 3 is a promising biomarker and a key regulator of the oncogenic phenotype of a diverse range of sarcoma subtypes. Oncogenesis, 5.

https://doi.org/10.1038/oncsis.2016.11 https://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:fd6afa3a-1afd-45d2-b944-c944e99a959f

Publications

Sims, D., Saunders, P. (2025) “Disrupting Health Professions Education Research: A guide to critical reflexive praxis during research planning” Teaching and Learning in Medicine, doi.org/10.1080/10401334.2025.2478291

Sims, D., Zingela Z., Mokhachane M., Botha G., Mawala D., Baatjies K., Mawela D., Singaram V., Thompson-Green L., Begg K. (2025) “Medical education, reflections and perspectives from South Africa: a review” BMC Medical Education. doi.org/10.1186/s12909-025-06910-8

Sims, D., Aitken, D., & Swales, C. (2025). Student poster conferences as a formative, authentic, inclusive and sustainable assessment practice. Clinical Teacher. doi.org/10.1111/tct.70050

Sims, D., & Cilliers F. (2025). Assessing Data Adequacy in Qualitative Research Studies. Academic medicine: journal of the Association of American Medical Colleges. doi:10.1097/acm.0000000000005972

Sims D & Naudi T (2024) How to… do decolonial research. The Clinical Teacher, http://doi.org/10.1111/tct.13806

Sims D (2024) Introducing the research design of phenomenography. Medical Science Educator, https://doi.org/10.1007/s40670-024-02082-0.

Sims, D.A., Lucio-Ramirez, C.A. & Cilliers, F.J. (2024) Factors influencing clinician-educators’ assessment practice in varied Southern contexts: a health behaviour theory perspective. Advances in Health Science Education, https://doi.org/10.1007/s10459-024-10341-3

Noorbhai H, Sims D, Hartman N (2024) “Multi-disciplinary staff perspectives and consensus on e-Learning and m-Health for Health Sciences curricula,” Higher Education Research and Development; https://doi.org/10.1080/07294360.2024.2325149

Sims D (2024) “Online education and learning management system usage in a South African Economic and Management Sciences faculty during COVID-19,” E-Learning and Digital Media; https://doi.org/10.1177/20427530241239429

Sims D, Lundie S, Titus-Dawson S, Govender R (2023) “Shifting Assessment Paradigms in South African Higher Education: Evolving towards transformative approaches to policy development” Scholarship of Teaching and Learning in the South; https://doi.org/10.36615/sotls.v7i3.334.

Sims D (2023) When I say… global South and global North. Medical Education, doi.org/10.1111/medu.15263, Link.

Sims D (2023) How to… write an abstract. The Clinical Teacher, 10.1111/tct.13631, Link.

Yu D, Swanepoel C, Sims D, Anciano F (2023) Do assessment loads affect student academic success? An investigation at an Economics Department at the undergraduate level. South African Journal of Higher Education, DOI: 10.20853/37-5-5397. Link.

Noorbhai H, Sims D, Hartman N (2023) South African health sciences students’ perspectives on utilisation, constraints and future possibilities of mHealth and e-Learning. Discover Education, DOI: 10.1007/s44217-023-00045-y. Link.

Sims D (2023) Reimaging reflexivity through a critical theoretical framework: Autoethnographic narratives on becoming a (de)colonised researcher. Critical Studies in Teaching and Learning. DOI: 10.14426/cristal.v11i1.642. Link.

Sims D, Cilliers F (2023) Qualitatively speaking: Deciding how much data and analysis is enough. African Journal of Health Professions Education, doi.org/10.7196/AJHPE.2023.v15i1.1657. Link.

Sims D, Cilliers F (2023) Clinician educators’ conceptions of assessment in medical education. Advances in Health Sciences Education, org/10.1007/s10459-022-10197-5. Link.

Willmer T, Damerell V, Smyly S, Sims D, du Toit M, Peres J, Ncube S, Lennard K, Mulder N, Govender D, Sturrock E, Blackburn J, Prince S (2021) Targeting the oncogenic TBX3:nucleolin complex with the AS1411 aptamer reduces proliferation and migration of multiple sarcoma subtypes. American Journal of Cancer Research; 11(11), 5680-5700. Link.

Hatem A, Hossan H, Sims D (2021) Medical education in the United Arab Emirates: challenges and opportunities. Medical Teacher. org/10.1080/0142159X.2021.1908978. Link.

Sims D, Maranyane, H, Damerell V, Govender D, Isaacs A, Peres J, Prince S (2020) The c-Myc/ AKT/TBX3 Axis is important to target in the treatment of Embryonal Rhabdomyosarcoma. Cancers. doi: 10.3390/cancers12020501. Link.

Willmer T, Cooper A, Sims D, Govender D, Prince S (2016) The T-box transcription factor 3 is a promising biomarker and a key regulator of the oncogenic phenotype of a diverse range of sarcoma subtypes. Oncogenesis (Nature Publishing Group) 5, e199; doi:10.1038/oncsis.2016.11. Link.

Peer-Reviewed Conference Outputs

Oral: Sims D, Cilliers F (*accepted) What influences clinician-educators’ assessment practices in diverse Southern settings? A Health Behaviour Theory perspective of interplaying personal and contextual factors. International Association for Health Professions Education (AMEE) conference: How are educators relevant to health? Barcelona, Spain (23-27 August 2025).

Symposium: Guilfoyle, L., Luong, G., Aitken, D., Wynn, J., Sims, D. (*accepted). Medical Education Disciplines in Comparison (MEDiC): How health professionals navigate the epistemic ‘boundaries’ of educational research. American Educational Research Association (AERA): Research, Remedy and Repair: Toward Just Education Renewal; Denver, USA (23-27 April 2025).

Oral: Sims D, Pienaar L, Cilliers F (2024) Developing theoretical models of assessment practice in undergraduate medical programmes in Southern contexts: convergences and divergences between two doctoral studies. International Association for Health Professions Education (AMEE) conference: Develop your educational career: Connect, Grow, Inspire; Basel, Switzerland (24-28 August 2024). https://doi.org/10.21955/mep.1115485.1

Poster: Sims D, Lundie S, Titus-Dawson S, Govender R (2024) The recognition of diversity in South African Higher Education assessment policies: a recipe for transformation? European Association for Research on Learning and Instruction (EARLI) SIG 11 & 13 conference: Diversity within classrooms and societies: Perspectives on Teacher, Moral, and Democracy Education; Oxford, United Kingdom (11-13 August 2024).

Oral: Sims D, Hartman N, Noorbhai H (2024) Health Sciences Students perspectives on e-Learning and m-Health across South African universities. Southern African Association for Health Educationalists (SAAHE) conference: Decoding & Recoding to Transform for Contextually Relevant Health Professions Education; Durban, South Africa (25-28 June 2024).

Oral: Sims D, Cilliers F, Lucio-Ramirez C (2024) Understanding assessor behaviour: factors influencing clinician-educators’ assessment practice in varied Southern contexts: A Health Behaviour Theory perspective. European Board of Medical Assessors (EBMA) conference” The future of assessment in medical education: opportunities and threats; Plymouth, United Kingdom (11-13 April 2024).

Symposium: Pienaar L, Sims D, Cilliers F (2023): Models of assessment practice: theoretical & practical convergences & divergences. South African Association of Health Educationalists (SAAHE) conference: Health is the key to life; Gqeberha, South Africa (19-21 June 2023).

Poster: Sims D, Cilliers F (2022) Clinician educators’ conceptions of assessment: different assessment paradigms. European Board of Medical Assessors (EBMA) conference: Assessment paradigms; Helsinki, Finland (10-12 November 2022).

Oral: Sims D (2022) Online education and learning management system usage in a South African university during COVID-19. International Conference on Innovation in Basic – Higher Education conference; Istanbul, Turkey (8-11 September 2022).

Oral: Sims D, Cilliers F (2022) Clinician educators’ conceptions of assessment: a continuum of understandings. Ottawa conference: Assessment of Competence in Medicine and Healthcare Professionals; Lyon, France (27-31 August 2022).

Oral: Sims D (2022) Embracing the mess: reflections on a Health Professions Education doctoral journey. Southern African Association for Health Educationalists (SAAHE) conference: Healing in Higher Education; South Africa (27-30 June 2022).

Oral: Sims, D., Maranyane, H. M., Peres, J., & Prince, S. (2020). The c-Myc/AKT1/TBX3 axis is important to target in the treatment of embryonal rhabdomyosarcoma. In Proceedings of the AACR Special Conference on the Advances in Pediatric Cancer Research Vol. 80 (pp. 101-102). Montreal, QC, Canada: American Association for Cancer Research. doi:10.1158/1538-7445.PEDCA19-B43

Poster: Sims D, Cilliers F (2019) Lecturers’ conceptions of assessment and factors influencing lecturer assessment practice in diverse Southern settings. Association for Medical Education in Europe (AMEE): Annual conference; Vienna, Austria (24-28 August 2019).

Oral: Sims D, Cilliers F (2018) Lecturers’ conceptions of assessment and factors influencing lecturer assessment practice. South African Association of Health Educationalists (SAAHE): 11^th Annual Conference Deconstructed, Decentralised, Decolonise, Discourses & Debates: Widening Our Horizon, Durban, South Africa (27- 30 June 2018).

Poster: Sims D, Cilliers F (2018) What lecturers think and do in assessment. South African Association of Health Educationalists (SAAHE): 11^th Annual Conference Deconstructed, Decentralised, Decolonise, Discourses & Debates: Widening Our Horizon, Durban, South Africa (27- 30 June 2018).

Poster: Sims D, Peres J, Prince S (2016) The role of T-box transcription factor TBX3 in rhabdomyosaroma. Southern African Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology (SASBMB) 25^th congress conference, East London, South Africa (7-11 July 2016).

Other Scholarship and Media

Alfakhry G, Sims D (2025) “MedEd Debates with Danica Sims (Ep03): Assessment destroying learning?” Association for Medical Education in Syria (AMES), 3 April 2025, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yzKUDEGTMgM&ab_channel=AMES-AssociationforMedicalEducationinSyria.

Molway L, Sims D (2024) “A model to understand assessment practice in medicine” Oxford Education Deanery podcast episode, 7 October 2024, https://podcasts.ox.ac.uk/model-understand-assessment-practice-medicine.

Sherbino J, Frank J, Snell L, Varpio L (2024) “#66 – Assess or Stress? Factors Influencing Assessors in LMICs” podcast episode and blog post, 24 September 2024, https://paperspodcast.ki.se/2024/09/24/66-assess-or-stress-factors-influencing-assessors-in-lmics/.

Sims D (2024) “A model to understand assessment practice in medicine” Oxford Education Deanery digest, https://www.education.ox.ac.uk/oxford-education-deanery/digest/a-model-to-understand-assessment-practice-in-medicine/.

Sims D (2024) “What do clinician-educators really think about assessment?” short piece; Oxford Education Deanery digest, https://www.education.ox.ac.uk/oxford-education-deanery/digest/what-do-clinician-educators-really-think-about-assessment/.

Sims D (2024-) “Conversations in Med Ed” podcast, https://podcasts.ox.ac.uk/series/conversations-med-ed.

Titus-Dawson S, Sims D, “Discussion: New approach to assessing students” South African Broadcasting Commission (SABC) News (interview), 30 January 2024, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1GMKYwRwmvI&ab_channel=SABCNews.

Sims D, Lundie S, Titus-Dawson S, Govender R (2024) “Three South African universities have new approaches to assessing students: why this is a good thing” The Conversation Africa, 23 January 2024, https://theconversation.com/three-south-african-universities-have-new-approaches-to-assessing-students-why-this-is-a-good-thing-220485.