The Masters in Online Teaching and its constituent modules and microcredentials have been developed and are chaired by a team of experts from The Open University’s Institute of Educational Technology.
Dr Leigh-Anne Perryman, @laperryman, (she/her)
Leigh-Anne is Associate Director, Curriculum, at the Institute of Educational Technology (IET), leading the development of IET’s postgraduate curriculum, including the Masters in Online Teaching. Leigh-Anne has many years’ experience as an educator and has written for many Open University courses including HZFM881 Online teaching: creating courses for adult learners, HZFM882 Online teaching: evaluating and improving courses, HZFM883 Teacher development: embedding mental health in the curriculum, HZFM885 Online teaching: embedding social, race and gender-related equity, HZFM889 Teacher development: addressing the climate emergency, H880 Technology-enhanced learning: foundations and futures and H890 Research and scholarship in digital education. Her research expertise includes equitable online learning, the impact of open educational practices and open pedagogy on learning and educational equity, and gender equity in the global South. Leigh-Anne is particularly interested in the ways in which open educational practices can amplify education’s role in addressing the climate emergency. She is currently production chair for HZFM889 Teacher development: addressing the climate emergency.
Dr Maria Aristeidou, @aristeidoum, (she/her)
Maria is a lecturer in Technology Enhanced Learning at the Institute of Educational Technology (IET). She has written materials for HZFM889 Teacher development: addressing the climate emergency and H880 Technology-enhanced learning: foundations and futures. Maria’s research focuses on the design and evaluation of engaging learning technologies, and the improvement of the learning experience and outcomes of diverse student bodies. Her expertise also includes the design and evaluation of citizen science communities and tools that support people’s participation in biodiversity and sustainability research.
Claire Atkins
As Senior Curriculum and Accreditations Manager, Claire has oversight of the management and administration of all IET modules and qualifications from supporting through OU governance processes at conception to annual reporting and monitoring during presentation. Claire is the qualification manager for the MAOT and associated PG Cert OT and also manages the team who provide support to the academics in producing and presenting IET curriculum and associated offerings such as the Online Teaching Community of Practice.
Claire joined the IET Curriculum Team so as to play an active role in the provision of equitable online teaching and creative pedagogies, having previously worked in the OU Academic Quality and Standards Team managing the university’s annual and periodic review processes in line with the requirements of external regulatory bodies.
Dr Simon Ball, @simonjball, (he/him)
Simon is an associate lecturer on H880 Techology-enhanced learning: foundations and futures, and a study advisor on HZFM884 Online teaching: accessibility and inclusive learning. He has written materials for HZFM884 and also for HZFM885 Online teaching: embedding social, race and gender-related equity and HZFM889 Online teaching: addressing the climate emergency. He has a PhD in Freshwater Ecology and many years’ experience researching, writing about and teaching inclusive and accessible online teaching and learning. He has written content for, and taught, several Open University courses on this topic, including the popular free OpenLearn course Take Your Teaching Online.
Dr Kathy Chandler, @KathyMChandler, (she/her)
Kathy is a lecturer in Online Teaching at the Institute of Educational Technology (IET) and chair of microcredential HZFM882 Online teaching: evaluating and improving courses. She has written materials for HZFM889 Teacher development: addressing the climate emergency and HZFM888 Teacher development: using scholarship to improve practice. She has extensive experience of tutoring students studying health and social care and supporting colleagues to develop their skills in online teaching. Her research interests include online communities and digital pedagogy.
Dr Koula Charitonos, @ch_koula, (she/her) Koula is a Senior Lecturer in Learning + Technology at the Institute of Educational Technology (IET). She is chair of HZFM885 Online teaching: embedding social, race and gender-related equity and has written materials for HZFM889 Teacher development: addressing the climate emergency. Koula is concerned with understanding aspects of human learning supported by technology in ways that contribute to projects of educational justice. To this end, Koula’s work focuses on the study of knowledge work in professional settings and on pedagogical practices across formal and informal settings, while maintaining a strong interest in education in crisis contexts. Koula’s work foregrounds that educational spaces and practices can be transformative and have capacity to help create more just futures.
Dr Tim Coughlan (@t1mc) (he/him)
Tim is a senior lecturer in the Institute of Educational Technology (IET) at the OU and chair of HZFM884 Online teaching: accessibility and inclusive learning. He chairs the Securing Greater Accessibility (SeGA) Coordination Group and plays a role in steering accessibility activities at the OU and beyond. His research is focused on the design and evaluation of systems that support inclusion, creativity and openness in learning. He leads projects funded by Microsoft and Jisc which are developing new technologies to support students with accessibility needs in higher education, and to communicate the barriers learners face.
Chris Edwards, @chrishedwards
Chris is a Senior Lecturer at the Institute of Educational Technology where he is also Staff Tutor, responsible for line managing IET’s associate lecturers. He is chair of H880 Technology-enhanced learning: foundations and futures and is Cluster Board chair for IET’s postgraduate curriculum. Chris is an active researcher, involved in projects such as TeSLA and Every1.
Professor Rebecca Ferguson (@R3beccaF)
Rebecca is a global expert in learning at scale and was involved in the original design of the FutureLearn platform. She is currently chair and a module author for H890 Research and scholarship in digital education and was previously chair and a module author for H880 Technology-enhanced learning: foundations and futures. She has also authored materials for HZFM881 Online teaching: creating courses for adult learners and HZFM882 Online teaching: evaluating and improving courses.
Dr Fereshte Goshtasbpour (@GFereshte)
Fereshte is a lecturer in online teaching at the Institute of Educational Technology, The Open University. She has contributed to the authoring and delivery of many online and blended courses at The Open University and other HEIs in the UK. Her teaching and research focuses on open and scaled educational contexts (specifically MOOCs). She is particularly interested in online educators and their practices to facilitate learning. This includes exploring educators’ contributions to online discussions, their facilitation strategies and their communications with learners. Fereshte is chair of HZFM881 Online teaching: creating courses for adult learners and an author on H890 Research and scholarship in digital education.
Dr Carmel Kent, @carmel_kent, (she/her)
Carmel is a lecturer at the Institute of Educational Technology (IET). Carmel’s research focus is on Online Learning Communities, Interactivity in Learning and on using computational methods for Learning Analytics. Carmel is also focused on the use of AI models as Learning Affordances and on Ethical AI for educational applications. Carmel has written materials for several IET courses including HZFM889 Teacher development: addressing the climate emergency, HZFM888 Teacher development: using scholarship to improve practice and H890 Research and scholarship in digital education. Carmel is lead for the Masters in Online Teaching Community of Practice.
Terri Rees
Terri is an associate lecturer at the Institute of Educational Technology, where she teaches on H880 Technology-enhanced learning: foundations and futures and is a study advisor on HZFM882 Online teaching: evaluating and improving courses. Terri is a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy and holds a Postgraduate Certificate in Learning and Teaching in Higher Education (PGCLTHE). Terri is a specialist in educational research and a consultant researcher.
Dr Irina Rets, @IrinaRets
Irina is a lecturer in Online Teaching at the Institute of Educational Technology (IET) and a Senior Research Fellow on the Every1 project. She has written course materials for HZFM889 Teacher development: addressing the climate emergency. Irina has extensive experience of designing, teaching and carrying out the assessment on undergraduate and graduate courses in applied linguistics and technology-enhanced learning in three different countries. With expertise in inclusive Artificial Intelligence (AI) and linguistics, Irina’s current research focuses on social justice and technology. Irina strongly believes that teaching and research on or with the use of educational technology needs to critically reflect on environmental and sustainability issues.
Dr Julia Sargent (@julia_sargent)
Julia is a lecturer at the Institute of Educational Technology (IET), supporting teaching and research in the curriculum. She is acting lead for IET’s Postgraduate Certificate in Academic Practice (PGCAP), the chair of HZFM883 Teacher development: embedding mental health in the curriculum and for HZFM888 Teacher development: using scholarship to improve practice, and has authored on several Open University courses including HZFM888. Her research interests include educational technology, pedagogical practices such as flipped learning and professional development.
Professor Martin Weller (@mweller)
Martin is Professor of Educational Technology at The Open University. His interests are in digital scholarship, open education, OER and MOOCs. Martin is a respected global expert in educational technology and led the OU’s response to supporting the tertiary education sector to cope with Covid-19. He is the International Council for Distance Education (ICDE) Chair in OER, the Commonwealth of Learning (COL) Chair in OER and President of the Association for Learning Technology. Martin authored materials for HZFM881 Online teaching: creating courses for adult learners and HZFM882 Online teaching: evaluating and improving courses. He has also authored and chaired many other Open University modules and currently chairs the OU’s Open Programme.