Professor Charlotte Gunawardena is Distinguished Professor of Distance Education and Instructional Technology with the University of New Mexico. Lani has published and presented on distance education for over 25 years and has over 100 publications to her credit. She is currently researching the sociocultural context of digital learning environments and social presence theory, examining the social construction of knowledge in online learning communities.
Gunawardena, C., Chen, Y., Flor, N., & Sánchez, D. (2023). Deep learning models for analyzing social construction of knowledge online. Online Learning, 27(4), 69-92. DOI: https://doi.org/10.24059/olj.v27i4.4055
Gunawardena, C., Jayatilleke, G., Kulasekara, G. & Kumarasinha, M. (2020). Distributed Co-Mentoring as a Means to Develop Culturally Inclusive Online Learning Communities. In M. Brown, M. Nic Giolla Mhichil, E. Beirne, & E. Costello (eds.), Proceedings of the 2019 ICDE World Conference on Online Learning, Volume 1, (pp. 389-400). Dublin, Ireland: Dublin City University, http://dx.doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.3804014 (Won the Best Full Paper Award at the conference)
Gunawardena, C. N. (2020). Culturally Inclusive Online Learning for Capacity Development Projects in International Contexts. Journal of Learning for Development , 7(1), 5-30. (Invited Article) Retrieved from https://jl4d.org/index.php/ejl4d/article/view/403
Gunawardena, C. N., Frechette, C., & Layne, L. (2019). Culturally Inclusive Instructional Design: A Framework and Guide for Building Online Wisdom Communities. New York: Routledge. https://www.wiscom.online/
Gunawardena, C. N., Flor, N. V., Gomez, D., & Sanchez, D. (2016). Analyzing social construction of knowledge Online by Employing Interaction Analysis, Learning Analytics, and Social Network Analysis. The Quarterly Review of Distance Education, 17(3), 35-60. Available from: https://digitalrepository.unm.edu/ulls_fsp/172/
Gunawardena, C. N., Lowe, C. A., & Anderson, T. (1997). Analysis of a global online debate and the development of an interaction analysis model for examining social construction of knowledge in computer conferencing. Journal of Educational Computing Research, 17(4), 395-429. Available at: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.2190/7MQV-X9UJ-C7Q3-NRAG
Dr Taskeen Adam is Co-Director at Open Development & Education – a multicultural team dedicated to open education developments around the world. Taskeen’s research highlights that historical injustices, cultural imposition, and economic dependence continue to play a pivotal role in education and she seeks to address cultural-epistemic injustices exacerbated through educational technologies.
Adam, T. (2020). Between Social Justice and Decolonisation: Exploring South African MOOC Designers’ Conceptualisations and Approaches to Addressing Injustices [journal article]. Journal of Interactive Media in Education, 2020(1), 7.https://doi.org/10.5334/jime.557
Adam, T. (2022). Digital Literacy Needs for Online Learning Among Peri-Urban, Marginalised Youth in South Africa. International Journal of Mobile and Blended Learning (IJMBL), 14(3), 1–19. https://doi.org/10.4018/IJMBL.310940
Castillo, N., Adam, T., & Haßler, B. (2022). Improving the Impact of Educational Technologies on Learning Within Low-Income Contexts. In Learning, Marginalization, and Improving the Quality of Education in Low-income Countries. Open Book Publishers.https://doi.org/10.11647/OBP.0256.
Adam, T., El-Serafy, Y., Podea, M., Haßler, B., & Open Development & Education. (2021). The use of “building blocks” to develop digital platforms for education in sub-Saharan Africa. EdTech Hub. https://doi.org/10.53832/edtechhub.0049
Dr Ratna Selvaratnam is Manager of Learning Technologies & Innovation at Edith Cowan University (ECU), Australia. Ratna is a Design Champion with ECU’s University of the Future project, she has recent forward-facing publications in the areas of micro-credentials and governance of artificial intelligence, and is on the ACODE (Australasian Council for Open and Digital Education) Executive as Treasurer.
Selvaratnam, S., Venaruzzo, L. (2023) Governance of artificial intelligence and data in Australasian higher education: A snapshot of policy and practice. ACODE Whitepapers. Available at: https://doi.org/10.14742/apubs.2023.717
Selvaratnam, R. M., Warburton, S., Parrish, D., & Crew, S. (2024). A maturity model for micro-credentialing and shorter forms of learning practice in Australasian universities. Journal of Higher Education Policy and Management, 1–16. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1080/1360080X.2023.2299150
Selvaratnam, R., Rodgers, K. (2021). Can You See Me? An Australian University Moves to Emergency Synchronous Delivery. In: Fayed, I., Cummings, J. (eds) Teaching in the PostCOVID-19 Era. Springer, Cham. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-74088-7_26
Selvaratnam, R. and Sankey, M. (2021) ‘The State of Micro-Credentials Implementation and Practice in Australasian Higher Education’, Open Praxis, 13(2), p. 228–238. Available at: https://doi.org/10.5944/openpraxis.13.2.130
Dr Gabi Witthaus is a Research Fellow at University College London specialising in education in contexts of mass displacement, and Senior Digital Education Developer with the University of Birmingham. Gabi is a keen advocate of open education resources and widening participation to higher education.
Witthaus, G. (2023). Refugees and Online Engagement in Higher Education: A Capabilitarian Model. Online Learning, 27(2). Available at: https://doi.org/10.24059/olj.v27i2.3762
Witthaus, G., Inamorato dos Santos. A., Childs, M., Tannhäuser, A., Conole, G., Nkuyubwatsi, B., Punie, Y. (2016) Validation of Non-formal MOOC-based Learning: An Analysis of Assessment and Recognition Practices in Europe (OpenCred). EUR 27660 EN; doi:10.2791/809371. Available at: http://publications.jrc.ec.europa.eu/repository/bitstream/JRC96968/lfna27660enn.pdf
Farrow, R., Iniesto, F., Weller, M., Pitt., R., Algers, A., Baas, M., Bozkurt, A., Cox, G., Czerwonogora, A., Elias, T., Essmiller, K., Funk, J., Lambert, S., Mittelmeier, J., Nagashima, T., Rabin, E., Rets, I., Spica, E., Vladimirschi, V. & Witthaus, G. (2021). GO-GN Guide to Conceptual Frameworks. Open Education Research Hub. The Open University, UK. CC-BY 4.0. https://go-gn.net/gogn_outputs/conceptual-frameworks
Junhong Xiao is Emeritus Professor at the Open University of Shantou in China. His current research interests cover various aspects of open, distance and digital education. His international publications include a major contribution to the Springer Handbook of Open, Digital, and Distance Education, and many contemporary themes of online learning.
Junhong’s online profile: Junhong Xiao is Emeritus Professor at the Open University of Shantou (formerly known as Shantou Radio & Television University), a local branch of the Open University of China and a founding member of the Center for Open Education Research, the University of Oldenburg. He is Editor of the SpringerBriefs in Open and Distance Education series, and columnist for inspired, the newsletter of Open University Malaysia. He is on the editorial boards of various international journals, serves as peer reviewer for numerous high-impact journals (both English and Chinese), and provides consultancy in the areas of his expertise. His main research interest has been in various aspects of open, distance, and digital learning. For a complete list of his journal publications, please click https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5316-2957.
Xiao, J. (2024). Will Artificial Intelligence Enable Open Universities to Regain their Past Glory in the 21st Century?. Open Praxis, 16(1), 11–23. https://doi.org/10.55982/openpraxis.16.1.618
Xiao, J. (2023). Critiquing Sustainable Openness in Technology-Based Education from the Perspective of Cost-Effectiveness and Accessibility. Open Praxis, 15(3), 244–254. https://doi.org/10.55982/openpraxis.15.3.569
Xiao, J. (2023). Critical Issues in Open and Distance Education Research. The International Review of Research in Open and Distributed Learning, 24(2), 213–228. https://doi.org/10.19173/irrodl.v24i2.6881
Peng, Y., & Xiao, J. (2022). Is the empirical research we have the research we can trust? A review of distance education journal publications in 2021. Asian Journal of Distance Education, 17(2). Retrieved from http://asianjde.com/ojs/index.php/AsianJDE/article/view/659
Xiao, J. (2022). Introduction to History, Theory, and Research in ODDE. In O. Olaf Zawacki-Richter & I. Jung. (Eds.), Handbook of Open, Distance and Digital Education (pp. 15-25). Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-19-0351-9_1-1
Nominated works (may require purchase):
Xiao, J. (2024). Revisiting the Theory of Transactional Distance: Implications for Open, Distance, and Digital Education in the 21st Century. American Journal of Distance Education, https://doi.org/ 10.1080/08923647.2024.2303328
Xiao, J. (2019). Digital transformation in higher education: critiquing the five-year development plans (2016-2020) of 75 Chinese universities. Distance Education, 40(4), 515-533. https://doi.org/ 10.1080/01587919.2019.1680272
Xiao, J. (2017). Learner-content interaction in distance education: The weakest link in interaction research. Distance Education, 38(1), 123-135. https://doi.org/10.1080/01587919.2017.1298982
Paul Levinson, PhD, is a pioneer of online education, still teaching classes in person and via Zoom as a Professor at Fordham University in New York City, after nearly 50 years in university classrooms, and online classes in the 1980s at Connected Education which he co-founded with his wife Tina Vozick. Paul is a dedicated pedagogue, novelist, and singer/songwriter, whose advocacy for online education remains as energetic as it was in his early days with Connect Ed.
Levinson, P. (2022). The Explosive Growth of Social Media: Trump, COVID-19, the Russian Invasion of Ukraine, and Elon Musk. Studia Humanistyczne AGH, vol. 21/2. https://doi.org/10.7494/human.2022.21.2.9
Levinson, P. (2023). The Beatles and podcasts: Permanent passports to better understanding. The Journal of Beatles Studies, Volume 2023, No. Spring/Autumn. https://doi.org/10.3828/jbs.2023.12
Mike Sharples is Emeritus Professor of Educational Technology in the Institute of Educational Technology at The Open University. Mike’s extensive career and multiple publications are concerned with innovation in educational technology, which include the Innovating Pedagogy report series and early involvement with Artificial intelligence.
Sharples, M. (2023). Towards social generative AI for education: theory, practices and ethics. Learning: Research and Practice, 9(2), 159-167. DOI: 10.1080/23735082.2023.2261131
Sharples, M. (2022). Automated Essay Writing: An AIED Opinion. International Journal of Artificial Intelligence in Education, 32, 1119-1126. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40593-022-00300-7
Sharples, M. (2023). John Clark’s Latin verse machine: 19th century computational creativity. IEEE Annals of the History of Computing, 45, 1, 31-42.
Sharples, M., Scanlon, E., Ainsworth, S., Anastopoulou, S., Collins, T., Crook, C., Jones, A., Kerawalla, L., Littleton, K., Mulholland, P. & O’Malley, C. (2015). Personal Inquiry: Orchestrating Science Investigations Within and Beyond the Classroom. Journal of the Learning Sciences,2 (2), 308-341.
In this episode, you’ll learn about Emeritus Professor Otto Peters through his last PhD student Professor Olaf Zawacki-Richter. Otto is one of the founding theorists in distance education – in fact, Otto Peters created that term. Otto is now 98, but his work continues to inspire.
Emeritus Professor Otto Peters (left) and Professor Olaf Zawacki-Richter (right)
Please do take opportunity to enjoy Olaf’s interview and investigate Professor Peters’ work. You can learn more about Professor Peters here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Otto_Peters.
Professor Florence Martin is Professor of Learning, Design and Technology with North Carolina State University. Florence’s teaching spans asynchronous, synchronous and bisyncronous modalities – and her applied research (and associated systematic reviews of literature) informs her teaching, while also enriching the practice of others.
Martin, F., Bolliger, D., & Flowers, C. (2021). Design Matters: Development and Validation of the Online Course Design Elements (OCDE). International Review of Research in Open and Distributed Learning, 22(2), 46-71. https://www.irrodl.org/index.php/irrodl/article/view/5187
Martin, F., Kumar, S., Ritzhaupt, A., & Polly, D. (2023). Bichronous Online Learning: Award-Winning Online Instructor Practices of Blending Asynchronous and Synchronous Online Modalities. The Internet and Higher Education, 56, 100879. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1096751622000355
Martin, F., Ritzhaupt, A. Kumar, S., & Budhrani, K. (2019). Award-winning Faculty Online Teaching Practices: Course design, Assessment and Evaluation, and Facilitation. The Internet and Higher Education, 42, 34-43. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1096751618305669
Dr Christian Stracke is the Coordinator for Virtual Coordination and Cloud Strategy at the University of Bonn in Germany. His main research areas are open education, Artificial Intelligence and their societal impacts building on many years of international scholarship related to learning innovations and quality in digital education.
Stracke, C. M., Chounta, I.-A., Holmes, W., Tlili, A., & Bozkurt, A. (2023). A standardised PRISMA-based protocol for systematic reviews of the scientific literature on Artificial Intelligence and education (AI&ED). Journal of Applied Learning and Teaching, 6 (2). https://doi.org/10.37074/jalt.2023.6.2.38
Stracke, C. M., Burgos, D., Santos-Hermosa, G., Bozkurt, A., Sharma, R. C., Swiatek, C., Inamorato dos Santos, A., Mason, J., Ossiannilsson, E., Shon, J. G., Wan, M., Agbu, J.-F., Farrow, R., Karakaya, Ö., Nerantzi, C., Ramírez Montoya, M. S., Conole, G., Cox, G., & Truong, V. (2022). Responding to the initial challenge of COVID-19 pandemic: Analysis of international responses and impact in school and higher education. Sustainability, 14(3), 1876. https://doi.org/10.3390/su14031876 (awarded by the National Institute for Digital Learning (Ireland) as Global Top 10 COVID-19 research in 2022, see: https://nidl.blog/2023/01/18/top-10-covid-19-articles-published-in-2022-several-major-literature-reviews)
Stracke, C. M. (2020). Open Science and Radical Solutions for Diversity, Equity and Quality in Research: A Literature Review of Different Research Schools, Philosophies and Frameworks and Their Potential Impact on Science and Education. In: Radical Solutions and Open Science (pp. 17-37). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-4276-3_2
Stracke, C. M. (2019). Quality Frameworks and Learning Design for Open Education. The International Review of Research in Open and Distributed Learning, 20(2), 180-203. https://doi.org/10.19173/irrodl.v20i2.4213
Stracke, C. M. (2019). Invited Keynote on “The Quality and the Future of Open Education and MOOCs” at 10th International E-Learning Conference (IEC) 2019 in Bangkok, Thailand: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t1UcvGLQl5M
Nominated works (may require purchase):
Stracke, C. M., Chounta, I.-A., & Holmes, W. (2023). Artificial Intelligence and Education: Ethical questions and guidelines for their relations based on human rights, democracy and the rule of law. In: D. Burgos (Ed.), Radical Solutions for Artificial Intelligence and Digital Transformation in Education. Lecture Notes in Educational Technology. Springer. (accepted, in press).
Stracke, C. M. (2018). Como a Educação Aberta pode melhorar a qualidade de aprendizagem e produzir impacto em alunos, organizações e na sociedade? [= How can Open Education improve learning quality and achieve impact for learners, organizations and in society?] In M. Duran, T. Amiel, & C. Costa (Eds.), Utopias and Distopias da Tecnologia na Educação a Distância e Aberta (pp. 499-545). Campinas: & Niterói: UNICAMP & UFF.
