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Dr Sharon Slade

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Regional Manager/senior lecturer

You can email Dr Sharon Slade directly; but for media enquiries please contact a member of The Open University's Media Relations team.

Staff profile

See below for Dr Sharon Slade's:

Biography

Sharon is a senior lecturer and Regional Manager for the Certificate courses in the South and for the online Certificate in Management globally. She is Chair of B690, part of the Professional Certificate in Management, working with students globally and with partners based in Russia, Romania, the Czech Republic and Slovakia. She is also a member of the module team for B629 Managing 2: Marketing and finance.  In addition, she leads and participates in projects which feed into teaching and learning in the Faculty of Business and Law and across the Open University, for example on using student profiling and tracking data to tailor student support (Student Support Review), social networking, the VLE, synchronous conferencing tools, and online tuition in particular.

Current research interests relate to developments in online teaching and methods of supporting and developing tutors and students in this medium. Collaborative research conducted with  colleague from UNISA on an International Fellowship into reflective learning was presented at conferences and subsequently published. Further research has focused on aspects of internationalising the curriculum.Various papers focussing on online teaching and learning have been presented at a range of international conferences.

Sharon previously worked for a large environmental consultancy in a number of roles, including as a senior becnhamrking consultant, group manager and mathematical modeller, and has published articles relating to both benchmarking and the impact of climate change. She has a PhD in mathematical control theory.

 

 

Research interests

My current research interests relate to developments in online teaching and methods of supporting and developing tutors and students in this medium. Collaborative research has been conducted since 2007 with a colleague from UNISA, s Africa into reflective learning. A second previous area of interest relates to delivery of materials to global students and consideration of issues around the internationalisation of the curriculum. A recent project considered the need to adapt student pastoral and academic support based on their study goals and using student profiling information and tracking data. This will lead to further in depth work around tailored qualification support systems.

Previous benchmarking experience has also focused on best practice and metrics benchmarking, primarily applied to the environmental industry.

External contributions

external reviewer for British Journal of Educational Technology

International collaborations

Ongoing collaboration with Dr Paul Prinsloo, Acting Head: Institute for Open and Distance Learning and Open Distance Learning, Unisa, S Africa.

Areas of expertise

  • online teaching and learning

Publications

Journal papers
Slade, S, Prinsloo, P  (2013)  'Learning analytics: ethical issues and dilemmas', American Behavioral Scientist, pp. (In press). Abstract
Prinsloo, P, Slade, S, Galpin, FAV  (2011)  'A phenomenographic analysis of student reflections in online learning diaries', Open Learning: The Journal of Open and Distance e-Learning, vol. 26, issue 1, pp. 27-38. Abstract
Kingdom, W, Slade, S  (2000)  'The use and management of service contracts: participation in the private sector', Water Supply, vol. 18, issue 1, pp. 01/07/14.
Cole, JA, Oakes, DB, Slade, S, Clark, KJ  (1994)  'Potential impacts of climatic change and of sea-level rise on the yields of aquifer, river and reservoir sources', Water and Environment Journal, vol. 8, issue 6, pp. 591-606.
Cole, JA, Slade, S, Jones, PD, Gregory, JM  (1991)  'Reliable yield of reservoirs and possible effects of climate change', Hydrological Sciences Journal, vol. 36, issue 6, pp. 579-597.
Book chapters
Slade, S, Galpin, F, Prinsloo, P  (2012)  'Exploring stakeholder perspectives regarding a global curriculum: a case study', Cross cultural teaching and learning for home and international students: Internationalisation of pedagogy and curriculum in higher education, UK, Routledge (In Press). Abstract
Conference papers
Prinsloo, P, Slade, S  (2013)  'An evaluation of policy frameworks for addressing ethical considerations in learning analytics', Third Conference on Learning Analytics and Knowledge (LAK 2013), Leuven, Belgium (forthcoming). Abstract
Slade, S, Galpin, F  (2012)  'Learning analytics and higher education: ethical perspectives', 2nd International Conference on Learning Analytics and Knowledge, Vancouver, pp. 16-17. Abstract
Prinsloo, P, Slade, S, Galpin, F  (2012)  'Learning analytics: challenges, paradoxes and opportunities for mega open distance learning institutions', 2nd International Conference on Learning Analytics and Knowledge, Vancouver, pp. 130-133. Abstract
Slade, S, Galpin, F, Prinsloo, P  (2011)  'Social justice and a distance education business education curriculum: unlikely bedfellows?', Internationalisation and Social Justice: the Role of Open, Distance and e-Learning, Cambridge. Abstract
Slade, S, Mullett, E  (2010)  'Retention and progression of online global students: a pilot approach', 9th European Conference on e-Learning (ECEL 2010), Instituto Superior de Engenharia do Porto, Porto, Portugal. Abstract
Slade, S, Galpin, FAV  (2009)  'Effective recruitment and selection of online tutors', ALT-C 2009 "In Dreams Begins Responsibility": Choice, Evidence and Change, Manchester, UK. Abstract
Prinsloo, P, Slade, S, Galpin, FAV  (2009)  'In the eye of the storm: preliminary evidence on the use of online learning diaries', ALT-C 2009 "In Dreams Begins Responsibility": Choice, Evidence and Change, Manchester, UK. Abstract
Slade, S, Galpin, FAV, Prinsloo, P  (2008)  'Online learning: narratives of (dis) location', 3rd International Conference on E-Learning, Cape Town, South Africa. Abstract
Slade, S, Galpin, FAV  (2007)  'Effective recruitment and selection of online tutors', Designing for Learning conference, University of Greenwich, July.
Slade, S, Galpin, FAV  (2007)  'Effective recruitment and selection of online tutors', Second Open CETL Conference, October..
Prinsloo, P, Slade, S, Galpin, FAV  (2007)  'Observations of an online residential school', Second Open CETL Conference, October.
Galpin, FAV, Honnor, K, Hunt, JC, Slade, S  (2006)  'Effective online facilitation - the role of the virtual tutor in online learning', European e-Leaning Conference, Winchester, September.
Slade, S  (2005)  'Working with online only tutors - what needs to be done differently?', HE Academy Business, Management and Accountancy Conference: Networking and Collaboration: Supporting Learning and Teaching, Ealing.
Slade, S, Nichols, NK  (1988)  'Partial pole placement by output feedback', 3rd SIAM Conference on Applied Linear Alegbra, Madison, Wisconsin.
Other
Slade, S  (2008)  'Surviving the downturn', issue 26/11/10, Blog for the BBC's The Money Programme.