I am a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Educational Research at Lancaster University in the UK. I am an Editor-in-Chief of a peer-reviewed, open-access journal, Studies in Technology Enhanced Learning. I am a core member of the Center for Open Education Research (COER) and the Centre for Technology Enhanced Learning (CTEL), and previously, Co-Director of the CTEL.

My research programme aims to gain a deeper understanding of the social and academic experiences of diverse non-traditional and mature student groups in distance education settings, concerning issues of accessibility and quality. Using a range of qualitative research methodologies and evocative academic writings, my current projects investigate doctoral students’ experiences in online PhD programmes. My scholarship is primarily influenced by the Foucauldian conceptualisation of discourse, knowledge and power. 

I have been commissioned to a range of consultation projects: the recent one includes the evaluation of online training activities of the International Training Centre for the International Labour Organization (UN) in 2021 and 2022. I am also frequently serving as an external examiner for PhD/EdD projects.

* I am currently on research leave until 31 July 2023, not accepting new PhD students.  

Online distance education; Open distance education; Online doctoral education; Qualitative research; Autoethnography; Critical discourse analysis; Phenomenology;  Text/document analysis

Alex Acuyo Cespedes (2023)

Project title: An Insight into Higher Education Teachers’ Perceptions During Emergency-Remote-Teaching Through a Networked Learning Lens: A phenomenology-informed inquiry

Reya Saliba (2023)

Project title: Faculty attitudes, preparedness, and response to adopting technology-enhanced learning in troubled times: A case study of education city’s higher education institutions in Qatar

Yan Shen (2023)

Project title: Evaluating the effectiveness of learning activities in a flipped classroom: A case study of an English-as-a-Foreign-Language (EFL) class in a Chinese university

Claire Moscrop (2023)

Project title: Conceptualising the problematic nature of feedback in higher education: Mapping the path to enabling student engagement

Mik Fanguy (2022)

Project title: Analyzing collaborative note-taking behaviors and their relationship with student learning through the collaborative encoding-storage paradigm

Sejin Lee (2021)

Project title: Smart teachers as updatable software: A genealogical examination of teacher subjectivity in the era of technology

Robert Miles (2021)

Project title: A Change Laboratory: A collective approach to addressing issues in laptop-mediated English language classrooms

Katharine Stapleford (2021)

Project title: Re-examining interaction and transactional distance through the lived experiences of postgraduate online distance learners

Michael Bowles (2021)

Project title: An exploration of the mediating effects of a digital, mobile vocabulary learning tool and device use on Gulf Arab learners’ receptive vocabulary knowledge and capacity for self-regulated learning

Maria Loizou (2019)

Project title: Exploring the universal design principles of a flipped classroom model for Inquiry-Based Learning in Cyprus primary education context: A multiple case study

Doreen Ang (2018)

Project title: The implementation of blended learning in International Baccalaureate Diploma Programme (IBDP) English curriculum in Singapore: An exploratory Design-Based Research

Denisse López Benavides (2018)

Project title: The nature of peer-feedback in a MOOC: A case study