About

This is both my professional website and my academic blog. I am a learning designer at the University of Birmingham, a Research Fellow – Education in Contexts of Mass Displacement at University College London (UCL), and a consultant via my organisation, Art of E-learning.

My main research interest is in inclusive online engagement, with a particular focus on engaging refugees and asylum seekers in higher education.

Editing and peer review roles:

• I was a guest co-editor with Dianne Conrad of the 2021 special edition of Distance Education on Re-imagining and Re-examining Assessment in Online Learning
• I am a regular reviewer for OpenPraxis, IRRODL and Online Learning

Consultancy work, currently and in recent years, has included:

• expert participating in the evaluation of European Commission-funded Erasmus+ projects
• Steering Group member for the European Commission-funded projects, AR25 (Automatic Recognition 2025) and STACQ (Stacking Credits and the Future of the Qualification), led by Nuffic in the Netherlands
• facilitating the learning design of a mobile app and educational website on novel therapies for the European Haemophilia Consortium
• contributing to an evaluation by the Open University of a professional development course by Refugee Action, the Frontline Immigration Advice Project (see publication)
• leading the Refugees’ Educational Resources study, which investigated the suitability of online resources for refugees and asylum seekers in the UK, as part of the Open University’s Year of Mygration programme;
• leading a team in a study for the eLearn Center of the Open University of Catalonia into next-generation pedagogy in distance education;
• authoring a report for the EU’s Joint Research Centre on validation of MOOC-based learning;
• designing and running workshops for universities in the UK and South Africa on online learning design;
• leading an OOC (Open Online Course) on Storyboarding for Learning Design.

My career has included the following roles:

• Adult literacy volunteer in South Africa (1984-2001)
• Adult education curriculum developer and trainer in South Africa (1987-2001)
• EFL teacher in Spain & the UK (1990-1991)
• EFL textbook developer in Oman (2001-2002)
• Curriculum development lead for multimedia English Foreign Language course materials for the energy industry in Qatar (2002-2007)
• Research associate and Carpe Diem learning design workshop facilitator for the Beyond Distance Research Alliance and Institute of Learning Innovation, University of Leicester (2009 to 2014)
• Teaching fellow, online tutor and e-moderator on the University of Leicester’s Online MA in Applied Linguistics and TESOL (2009 to 2014)
• Distance learning manager for Bradford University’s MBA (2012 to 2013)
• Learning and teaching facilitator at Loughborough University (2015 to 2017)
• Learning designer in the Higher Education Futures institute, University of Birmingham (2018-)
• Research Fellow – Education in Contexts of Mass Displacement, University College London (UCL) (2023-)

Education:

BA in Zulu language and Social Anthropology (Wits University, South Africa, 1986)

Honours in Applied Linguistics (Wits University, South Africa, 1990)

MA in English Teaching (Wits University, South Africa, 1999)

Masters in Training & Development (USQ, Australia, 2009)

PG Certificate in Mediation (Robert Gordon University, Scotland, 2014)

SFHEA (Higher Education Academy, England, 2020)

PhD in Higher Education: Research, Evaluation and Enhancement (University of Lancaster, 2023)