e4innovation.com

  

Current Position         Visiting professor Dublin City University/E-learning consultant

 

Contact Details           Email: gconole@gmail.com

 

Address: 35 Manor Road, Grimscote, NN12 8LN

 

 

                        Mobile: 07795 417922 

 

                        Website: http://e4innovation.co.uk

                       

Date of Birth              23/08/1964

 

Education

1986-1990       Ph.D. in X-ray structural studies, University of North London

1982-1985       B.Sc. (Hons) Chemistry (2.1), Sheffield University

 

                       

Awards

2012               Higher Education Academy National Teaching Fellow

2012                Fellow of the ASCILITE community

2013                Fellow of the Educational Distance Education Network

 

 

Employment

Apr16-now     Independent e-learning consultant and visiting professor Dublin City University (DCU)

                        I am engaged in a range of e-learning research and consultancy activities, including: giving keynotes and workshops, developing a MOOC on digital literacies for OERu, undertaking a trends analysis of the use of digital technologies for low-skilled and/or low-literate users for UNESCO, and providing strategic advice to DCU on their National Institute for Digital Learning (NIDL)

Feb15 –Apr16Professor of Education, Institute for Education, Bath Spa University

                        I was a newly appointed chair in education, undertaking a range of research projects on the use of technology for education. In addition I was involved in a range of course at undergraduate and postgraduate level. I also had a cross-institutional role in the use of digital technologies. I was involved in a range of teaching at undergraduate and postgraduate level, including: Continuing professional development, Issues in Education, International Education, Pedagogy, technology and society, and Research Methods in Social Sciences. I was successful in securing funding from the EU, examples include: TELL-OP (BSU share 54K euros), MOOCs4ALL (BSU share 28 K euros) and eReflect (BSU share 48 K euros).

Sept11–Dec 14Professor of learning innovation and Director of the Institute of Learning Innovation, University of Leicester

 

            I headed up a research institute (the Institute of Learning Innovation), which explored the use of technologies in education. We had significant funding from the UK and the EU. Research interests included: Learning Design, Open Educational Resources, Massive Open Online Courses, social and participatory media, e-pedagogies, mobile learning, and virtual worlds. We also had an institutional role in terms of transferring the research findings to inform policy and practice at Leicester. We had a PhD programme with 11 students. From September 2014 we offered a Technology-Enhanced Learning strand as part of the School of Education’s Masters in International Education and in particular two modules on Technology-Enhanced Learning and Learning Design for the 21^st Century. We also had a range of consultancy offerings; clients are both national and international. Examples included: the East Midlands Medical Deanery, UNISA in South Africa, Massey University in New Zealand, Charles Sturt University in Australia, Singapore, Uruguay and Kuala Lumpar. I sat on a number of institutional committees, including the Learning Technology Management Group, committees in the School of Education, and the Distance Advisory Group. I lead the evaluation of the University of Leicester’s evaluation of the University of Leicester’s MOOCs as part of the FutureLearn initiative.

Apr 2005         Professor of e-learning, Institute of Educational Technology, The Open University

                        The role involved three aspects: research, teaching and institutional support. I was programme lead for one of the three research programmes in the Institute, ‘Learning in an Open World’. I was a member of the IET management team. Teaching included contributions to two of the Masters in Open and Distance Education (MAODE) modules: H800 and H809. Successful bids included: the JISC OUDLI project (£400 K), the Personal Inquiry project (£1.2 million), EU-funded XDelia (£668, 052) the Hewlett foundation funded OLNET (£1,776,439), the EU-funded Design-Practice £219, 904), the EU-funded OPAL (640, 952 Euros). In addition, I was a critical friend to the HE Academy e-learning pathfinder programme

(£30 K).

Apr 2002         Chair in Educational Innovation in PCET

- Apr 2005      School of Education, University of Southampton

The post provided overall strategic direction and leadership for post-compulsory education and training (PCET) research. It also included an institution-wide remit in terms of supporting and promoting learning and teaching innovation and input into relevant strategic developments. The focus was on taking a lead in research in innovation in HE learning and teaching, working with colleagues within the School, across the University, and with national and international networks, to establish the University as an international centre of excellence for research in this field; as well as working with colleagues and groups across the University to promote innovation and the pursuit of excellence in learning and teaching. Teaching responsibilities included the development of a new masters in ‘Educational Practice and Innovation’, leader for the Masters in Research Methods unit on ‘Communicating and Disseminating Research’ as well as other teaching contributions including the Masters in Research Methods, the Post-compulsory Certificate in Academic Practice (PCAP) for new lecturers, the BA in Post-Compulsory Education (PCE), and the Masters in Computer-based Learning and Teaching (CBLT), as well as supervision of masters and PhD students. Example projects included: 1) Co-Director of the £1.2 million HEFCE-funded e-learning research centre jointly with Manchester, 2) Co-applicant for the £2 million ESRC-funded National Centre for Research Methods (NCRM), 3) Project evaluator and pedagogical researcher for the £1.5 million JISC/NSF (National Science Foundation) DialogPlus project; work included the development of an online toolkit which guides practitioners through the process of creating pedagogically informed learning activities, 4) Part of the evaluation team (£25K for Southampton) for the HEFCE-funded development of online learning materials for in-service teachers in China in collaboration with Beijing Normal University, 5) JISC-funded LADIE project (£150 K) - which developed a series of use cases on learning activities. 6) JISC-funded TOIA project (evaluation) (£6 K) – development of an online assessment tool, 7) EU-funded Neonatalogy project (£20 K), evaluation of the development and delivery of a series of online modules for practitioners across Europe, 8), SEEDA-funded Computer Club for Girls (evaluation) (£220 K) with A. Fuller (lead) – regional initiative to encourage uptake of the use of computers by girls, 9) ESRC-funded seminar series (£ 15 K), (Andrews, R., University of York lead) – 6 regional seminars on e-learning research, in collaboration with WUN partners in the States and mainland Europe.

 

 

Sep 1999-       Director of the Institute for Learning and Research Technology, ILRT

Apr 2002         University of Bristol

            The Institute for Learning and Research Technology (ILRT) was a centre of excellence for the development and use of ICT in education. We were 95% externally funded and during my time it grew from 30 to 80 staff, with an annual income of ca £3 million. The institute’s research was both pedagogical and technical, and included the development and use of educational toolkits, the development of information portals, digital archives, and underlying metadata research and associated technological developments. Research and development activities were across around 40 projects and services (funding sources included HEFCE, JISC, EPSRC, ESRC, EU and commercial sponsors). Successful bids which I led or was involved in included: BB-LT (JISC-funded, £180K), Career Development Scoping Study (JISC-funded, £80K), Evaluation Toolkit (JISC-funded, £30K), FILTER (JISC-funded, £200K), QA FOCUS (JISC-funded, £110K), Biz/ed VLA (JISC-funded, £180K), Biz/ed TimeWeb (JISC-funded, £180K), Virtual Training Suite (JISC-funded, £410K). Consultancy included: QA-training (£12K), a QA-training research study into the effectiveness of training in the workplace, evaluation of COVETS (East Anglia (£6K), Neonatal Education (Southampton, £6K) and the CAA centre (Luton, £8K).

 

 

 

Feb 1999         Head of Technology-based Learning, University of North London

-Sept 1999   I was responsible for recommending strategy and policy development in the academic use of ICT. My remit included the establishment and direction of the Teaching and Learning Technology Centre (TLTC), which provided support and advice on the application and integration of learning technologies in teaching and learning, through workshops, individual support and course development. Research and project-based work underpinned staff development activities and provided toolkits, frameworks and case studies on the use, integration and evaluation of learning technologies.  Externally funded projects focused on the evaluation of the effectiveness of learning technologies, the use and integration of technologies in the curriculum, and the application of learning technologies across a wider spectrum of activities. Under my direction, TLTC (Teaching and Learning Technology Centre) and its predecessor LaTID, (Learning and Teaching Innovation and Development) secured approximately £400K in national and international funding (out of total project values of ca. £2.2 million). Projects included: Evaluation of Learning Technology (ELT): (BP-funded, £45K), Extranet Education (EXE): (EU-funded, £200K), HEFCE-funded TLTP projects: EFFECTS (£50K) and FOCUS (£50K), SME-Connect (HEFCE CVE-funded, £20K), Cascade (ESF Objective 4-funded, £45K) and FICTION (HEFCE CVE-funded, £20K,).

.

 

Pre-1999

 

 

1996-99           Director: Learning & Teaching Innovation & Development,

North London University

1991-96           Lecturer in Inorganic Chemistry, University of North London

1990-91           Lecturer in Foundation Science (HITECC), University of North London

 

 

 

Other academic responsibilities and professional activities

·      Visiting Professor, National Institute for Digital Learning, Dublin City University (from 2014)

·      Editor of a special issue on MOOCs, INNOQUAL (2014)

·      Editor of the journal ALT-J (Taylor and Francis publication) (1999 – 2007)

·      Member of the e-learning papers journal board (2012-2015)

·      Co-editor for the new INOQUAL journal on quality in e-learning (since 2013-2015)

·      Chair of the programme committee for ALT-C 2004, Exeter

·      Programme committees for a number of international conferences (for example LAK – learning analytics, ALT-C, EC-TEL, Edmedia, ICALT, e-society, ICEE)

·      Special guest editor of the online refereed journal Education, Technology and Society and guest editor on a special issue, on learning technologies, of the Journal of Quality Assurance in Education.

·      Special guest editor for e-learning papers on Learning Design (2012).

·      Special quest editor for Distance Education on OER and social inclusion.  (2012)

·      Special guest editor of the online journal IRRODL (with George Siemens) on Connectivism (2011)

·      Co-programme chair for the first international conference on learning analytics, to be held in Banff, Canada, https://tekri.athabascau.ca/analytics/

·      Editorial board member for a number of e-learning journals

·      Referee for a number of peer-reviewed academic journals and for JISC, ESRC and EPSRC proposals

·      Member of

·      JISC Learning and Teaching Committee (2008 – 2010)

·      Member of the Ensemble ESPRC/ESRC TELP project (2008 – 2010)

·      JISC Organisational Structures Committee (2000 – 2008)

·      HEFCE e-learning partnership board (2003 – 2005)

·      ESRC TLRP steering committee (2002)

·      ESRC NCESS steering committee (2002)

·      ESRC/EPSRC working group on e-learning research

·      Member of the WUN e-learning research group and co-organiser of the international WUN e-learning research access-grid based virtual seminar series (2002 - 2005)

·      Steering group for London Metropolitan University Centre of Excellence in Teaching and Learning (CETL) on reusable learning objects (2002 – 2007)

·      HE Academy teaching and learning group

·      Professional membership has included: the Association for Learning Technology, ASCILITE, American Educational Research Association, British Educational Research Association, European Distance Education Network (EDEN), Institute for Learning and Teaching, European Foundation for Quality in E-Learning (EFQUEL), Staff Education Development Association, the Royal Society of Chemistry and Association of University Teachers

·      Committee membership has included: Distance Learning Advisory Group, MOOC steering review group, Learning Technology Management Group, Learning and Teaching Committee, IET management group, CREET research centre, CALRG research group, School’s Research and Initiatives Group, School Board, Policy and Resources Committee, Professorial Group, chair of PCET research centre, Research Degrees Committee, chair of e-Learning Advisory Group; at Institutional level: Academic Resources Committee and the Learning and Teaching Strategy Committee, Chair of the Universities e-learning strategy committee

·      Panel member for THES innovative teaching awards (2005 - 2006)

·      Masters and PhD supervision and external examinations (both national and international): (12 as internal examiner, 50 as external examiner, 16 as supervisor)

·      External examiner for the Technology and Learning Masters course at Trinity College Dublin (current), PGCE course at the University of Southhampton (Current), a Masters course in Educational Technology in Ulster (now complete), the Networked Learning masters at Lancaster University (now complete),, the masters in e-learning at Plymouth University (now complete), and the masters in e-learning at the Dublin Institute of Technology (now complete)

·      I have been involved with or chaired a number of national consultative fora and several advisory boards and steering groups (ALT central executive, the ALT publications committee, the ALT Research and Policy committee and the annual ALT policy board, ALT Learning Technology theory group, range of TLTP, HEFCE and JISC-funded projects, EU-funded IPTS expert group and chair of the LTSN SWAP).