Faculty of Education and Language Studies > People Profiles > Anna Comas-Quinn

Anna Comas-Quinn

Lecturer (Spanish)

The Open University Faculty of Education and Language Studies Department of Languages

anna.comas-quinn@open.ac.uk +44 (0) 1908 858 307
x 58307

Profile

I am a Lecturer in Spanish at the Department of Languages at The Open University and I lead LORO, a project to provide free open educational resources for language teaching and learning (http://loro.open.ac.uk). I am currently a fellow of SCORE (Support Centre for Open Educational Resources).

Teaching Interests

I joined the Open University as a full-time Lecturer in Spanish in 2007. I chaired L(ZX)204, one of the Diploma courses, for three years and then L194, the beginners' course, for a year. I contributed to the production of L140 and L204, authoring materials and designing the online component of L204. I am currently co-chairing the production of the new version of the beginners' course.

I worked in Higher Education (University of Wolverhampton and Bournemouth University), before joining The Open University as an Associate Lecturer in 1999. I worked as an AL tutoring all the OU Spanish courses, both online and face to face, and also worked as a consultant authoring assessment materials and examinations, and online teaching and training materials for languages. Other roles I developed as part of my teaching previous to becoming a full-time lecturer were those of mentor, monitor, oral examiner and scriptmarker.

Research Interests

Elearning, technology-mediated learning, open educational resources, teaching and learning repositories, cultural blogs.

Before I joined the Open University my research was centered on the fields of sociolinguistics, language planning and gender studies.

Current Research

I am currently leading these two projects:

LORO (Languages Open Resources Online), a JISC funded project to establish a teaching and learning repository for languages materials for the Department of Languages. More information at http://www.open.ac.uk/education-and-languages/loro or visit LORO at http://loro.open.ac.uk.
Mobile blogging to support intercultural learning and awareness: a pilot project that took place during Residential School in Santiago de Compostela, Spain, in August 2007. After publication of the results of the pilot, the blog has been updated and will be used as a course activity for L204. http://residentialschoolsblog.open.ac.uk/santiago/map.php

Publications

Book Chapter

Comas-Quinn, Anna and Mardomingo, Raquel (2012). Language learning on the move: a review of mobile blogging tasks and their potential. In: D�az-Vera, Javier E. ed. Left to My Own Devices: Learner Autonomy and Mobile-Assisted Language Learning. Innovation and Leadership in English Language Teaching, 6 (6). Emerald Group Publishing Ltd, pp. 47�65.

Amoraga-Piqueras, Maria-Rosa; Comas-Quinn, Anna and Southgate, Margaret (2011). Teaching through assessment. In: Nicolson, Margaret; Murphy, Linda and Southgate, Margaret eds. Language Teaching in Blended Contexts. Edinburgh: Dunedin Academic Press, pp. 75�92.

Conference Item

Comas-Quinn, Anna; Wild, Joanna and Carter, Jackie (2013). Leveraging passion for open practice. In: OER13: Creating a Virtuous Circle, 26-27 March 2013, Nottingham, UK.

Beaven, Tita; Comas-Quinn, Anna; de los Arcos, Bea; Hauck, Mirjam and Lewis, Timothy (2013). The Open Translation MOOC: creating online communities to transcend linguistic barriers. In: OER 13 Creating a virtuous circle, 26-27 March 2013, Nottingham.

Comas-Quinn, Anna (2011). Recursos educativos abiertos para la ense�anza de lenguas. In: I Encuentro para Profesores de Centros Universitarios y de Centros Formadores de ELE , 21 June 2011, London.

Journal Article

Alvarez, Inma; Beaven, Tita and Comas-Quinn, Anna (2013). Performing languages: an example of integrating open practices in staff development for language teachers. Journal of e-Learning and Knowledge Society, 9(1), pp. 85�92.

Beaven, Ana and Comas-Quinn, Anna (2013). Editorial: Focus on Open Educational Resources (OER) and Open Educational Practices (OEP). Journal of e-Learning and Knowledge Society, 9(1), pp. 7�9.

Pant�, Eleonora and Comas-Quinn, Anna (2013). The challenge of Open Education. Journal of e-Learning and Knowledge Society, 9(1), pp. 11�22.

Comas-Quinn, Anna ; Fitzgerald, Alannah and Fairweather, Ian (2012). Editorial - Cambridge OER 2012. JIME Journal of Interactive Media in Education, 2012

Comas-Quinn, Anna; de los Arcos, Beatriz and Mardomingo, Raquel (2012). Virtual Learning Environments (VLEs) for distance language learning: shifting tutor roles in a contested space for interaction. Computer Assisted Language Learning, 25(2), pp. 129�143.

Comas-Quinn, Anna (2011). Learning to teach online or learning to become an online teacher: an exploration of teachers' experiences in a blended learning course. ReCALL, 23(03), pp. 218�232.

Comas-Quinn, Anna; Beaven, Mary; Pleines, Christine; Pulker, Helene and de los Arcos, Beatriz (2011). Languages Open Resources Online (LORO): fostering a culture of collaboration and sharing. The EuroCALL Review (18),

Comas-Quinn, Anna; Mardomingo, Raquel and Valentine, Chris (2009). Mobile blogs in language learning: making the most of informal and situated learning opportunities. ReCALL, 21(1), pp. 96�112.

Other

Comas-Quinn, Anna and Fitzgerald, Alannah (2013). Open Educational Resources in Language Teaching and Learning. Higher Education Academy (HEA), York.