David has been a lecturer at Edinburgh Napier University since 2007, leading the BA (Hons) International Festival & Event Management and supporting students at undergraduate and Masters level. His teaching draws from time spent working in the festival and event sectors, with organisations such as the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. David's modules tend to focus on the contexts and environments in which festivals and events take place, from the motivations of public sector support of events, to the social and cultural meanings of public celebrations. David's PhD (2022, Tilburg University) focused on the social network analysis of festival communities.

In spring 2024, David combined an online digital canvas with an active learning approach to his classes, to facilitate a collaborative environment for his students in their final year undergraduate module. The canvas was provided by Miro.com. The active learning classroom layout had students seating around tables, with each table accompanied by its own large screen. The canvas layout was designed such that each week's collaborative classes could be run through the same canvas, building up an archive of the students' work from week to week. Students were encouraged to collaborate on one or two large tasks each week, adding materials to Miro as they went: images, notes, links to resources, photos of their Lego creations, etc. The Miro canvas allowed each group to have dedicated space in which to work, while allowing very easy sharing of this work between groups. The final minutes of each class were spent discussing the students' work, with the image on the large screen at each table moving between each table's work.