Grants

Engaging with Learning from Incidents initiatives in organisations (LFI-Engage)
Funding: £62,650
Funder: UK Energy Institute and Shell International BV
My role: Co-Principal Investigator (with Prof. Allison Littlejohn)
Aim: To improve the effectiveness of individual, team and organisational learning from incidents, through designing, developing and implementing mechanisms to enable frontline managers to effectively engage with frontline employees on learning from incidents and to embed sense-making and reflection in the organisational LFI processes.

Technology-Enhanced Professional Learning Special Interest Group (TEPL SIG)
Funding: £10,000
Funder: UK Higher Education Academy (HEA)
My role: Co-Chair (with Prof. Allison Littlejohn)
Duration: 2010-06/2012
Aim: To conduct a series of inter-related seminars to stimulate debate and generation of ideas in the area of technology-enhanced professional learning, with a particular focus on application of contemporary research in the practices of professional learning in universities.

Learning from incidents in the workplace
Funding: £82,000
Funder: UK Energy Institute and Shell International B.V., in collaboration with ConocoPhillips
My role: Co-Principal Investigator (with Prof. Allison Littlejohn) and 2nd PhD supervisor
Collaborator: Dane Lukic (PhD Fellow)
Duration: 02/2009-01/2012
Aim: This funding is for a 3-year PhD fellowship to investigate how social approaches to learning can help reduce health and safety incidents in the workplace and lead to improved organisational learning. Using a mixed-method and participatory practice redesign approach (Change Laboratory) this project aims to develop and test new approaches to enhancing individual, team and organisational learning from health and safety incidents in the industrial workplace.

Networked innovation: The role of collaborations in creation and diffusion of innovative teaching and learning practices in universities
Funding: £53,175.
Funder: Glasgow Caledonian University
My role: Director of Studies
Collaborators: Prof. Allison Littlejohn (2nd supervisor), Dr. Isobel Falconer (3rd supervisor)
Duration: 10/2010-10/2013
Aim: This funding is for a 3-year University PhD fellowship to investigate whether and how collaborations impact the development and diffusion of innovative teaching and learning practices in universities. The study has dual goals of contributing to the theory and practice of teaching and learning in higher education. It contributes to 3 literatures: sociology of knowledge, workplace learning, and diffusion of innovation. It contributes to practice by identifying conditions under which teaching and learning innovations can be enabled and enhanced in universities.

Shell Learning Research Partnership
Funding: $ 150,000.
Funder: Shell Learning, Shell International B.V., The Netherlands
My role: Co-Principal investigator (with Prof. Allison Littlejohn and Dr. Colin Milligan).
Duration: 01/2008-03/2010
Aim: to develop new approaches and tools to support learning and knowledge sharing in the workplace. The project explored self-regulated learning practices during transition from education to workplace, focusing on processes and systems that can significantly improve knowledge flow between novices and experts in the organisation. Key outcomes of the project included a range of publications as well as recommendations to Shell Learning for improving the ways in which the organisation supports its staff in learning.

Learning from digital natives: Integrating formal and informal learning
Funding: £29,508
Funder: UK Higher Education Academy (HEA)
My role: Co-Principal Investigator (with Prof. Allison Littlejohn)
Duration: 08/2006-09/2007
Aim: to explore university students' use of technological tools (mobile devices and social software) to support their learning and socialisation. Key outcomes included a range of publications and conference presentations, as well as case studies and recommendations to universities on how technologies can be integrated into formal curricula to improve the quality of learning.

Supporting Sustainable  e-Learning Forum Special Interest Group (SSeLF SIG)
Funding: £12,500
Funder: UK Higher Education Academy (HEA)
My role: Co-Chair (with Prof. Allison Littlejohn)
Duration: 2009-2010
Aim:The Supporting Sustainable eLearning Forum (SSeLF) Special Interest Group is a platform for the UK Technology-Enhanced Learning (TEL) community to debate the challenges facing universities in a changing society. A unique aspect of the forum is its focus on issues of sustainable forms of technology-enhanced learning grounded in current research, contextualised within real-life practice.

Supporting Sustainable e-Learning Forum (SSeLF)
Funding: £ 5,000
Funder: UK Higher Education Academy (HEA)
My role: Co-Chair (with Prof. Allison Littlejohn)
Duration: 2006-2007
Aim:The Supporting Sustainable eLearning Forum (SSeLF) is a platform for the UK Technology-Enhanced Learning (TEL) community to debate sustainable forms of technology-enhanced learning grounded in current research, contextualised within real-life practice.

Approaches to sustainable e-learning in a changing higher education landscape
Funding: £ 2,500
Funder: UK Higher Education Academy
My role: Co-Principal investigator (with Prof. Dr. Allison Littlejohn).
Duration: 05/2010-06/2010
Aim: This desk study synthesises current approaches to sustainable e-learning. Data from both published and unpublished literature is collated about the practices covered and robustness and flexibility of these. Evidence of impact of each approach in UK universities is examined.

Projects
In this section I outline research projects, in which I had a leading role but which had either been internally funded or the external funding for has been secured by other colleagues::

Narrating Your Work (NYW) Experiment: Development of a methodology to enhance knowledge sharing and sense of connectedness in distributed teams
Funding: Internally funded
Funder: Caledonian Academy, Glasgow Caledonian University
My role:Principal Investigator (with Eleni Boursinou and Dane Lukic)
Duration: 2011-2012
Aim: Commissioned by Shell International BV in the Netherlands, this mixed-method study aims to develop a robust and replicable method for improving knowledge sharing and sense of connectedness in distributed teams, using social media and microblogging tools. In addition, this project will develop a practical toolkit to support the uptake and implementation of this methodology at Shell and in other organisations wishing to enhance knowledge sharing within their distributed teams.

Self-regulated learning in massive online open courses (SRL-MOOC)
Funding: Internally funded
Funder: Caledonian Academy, Glasgow Caledonian University
My role: Principal Investigator (with Prof. Allison Littlejohn and Dr. Colin Milligan)
Duration: 2011-2012
Aim: The project will examine how learners in a MOOC plan, implement and reflect upon their learning goals, analysing similarities and differences in the use of SRL strategies between learners who are positioned on different points on the spectrum of SRL skills. In identifying the SRL activities and strategies used by the participants, we are specifically interested in finding out how individuals draw upon available resources, such as other people and artefacts, to plan and attain their learning goals, what tools they use to do so, and what environmental factors, in particular those related to the coherence of information space and structure of MOOC, constrain or enable SRL.

Development of a charting tool to support collective learning in the workplace
Funding: Internally funded
Funder: Caledonian Academy, Glasgow Caledonian University
My role: Principal Investigator (with Prof. Allison Littlejohn and Dr. Colin Milligan)
Duration: 2008-pr.time
Aim: This project will design, develop, instantiate and evaluate a digital web-based tool to support articulation and sharing of learning goals, and sourcing and mapping collective knowledge relevant to the achievement of the learning goals.

Community dimensions of learning object repositories (CDLOR)
Funding: £200,000
Funder: UK Joint Information Systems Committee (UK JISC)
My role: Research Fellow
Duration: 06/2005-05/2007
Aim: The goal of this study is to identify and analyse the factors that influence practical uptake and implementation of learning object repositories within a range of different learning communities. Key outputs include a range of publications, international conference talks and seminars, and guidelines and recommendations to JISC for implemeting learning object repositories.

Shell EP-University of Twente Collaborative Project
Funding: Funding for a Chair of Networked Learning at University of Twente, three PhD fellowships and 11 MSc projects.
Funder: Shell Exploration and Production, Learning and Leadership Development, The Netherlands
My role: Core Team member and PhD Fellow (2002-2005)
Duration: 2000-2005
Aim: This partnership was funded to identify a new learning model for Shell and to study the technology requirements for the model.  The outcomes involved development, testing and implementation of a work-based blended learning model and a variety of tools, technologies and associated processes to evaluate and enable the uptake of the model across the organisation. In February 2005 this project was recognised internationally as a Best Practice Award Winner for Excellence in Research to Practice by the American Society for Training and Development (ASTD).

Within this larger partnership, I was involved in supervising several MSc projects outlined below:

1. Comparative analysis of the design of Shell EP LLD blended learning courses
   Role: Researcher and second supervisor
   Duration: 2004
   Aim: In this study, blended learning courses (combination of online and classroom learning) were compared with online-only courses in terms of the quality of pedagogic design. The results were fed back to the instructors, learning designers and managers at Shell EP LLD to support them in making informed longer-term decisions related to the learning strategy and design processes in the organisation. An MSc thesis is associated with this project (Mannon Penning and Meredith Weiberg).
2. Knowledge sharing and collaboration in blended learning at the Shell Open University: Implications of the Chinese experience
   Role: Researcher and first supervisor
   Duration: 2002-2003
   Aim: This project was commissioned by Shell to investigate the Chinese course participants' cultural expectations and preferences in terms of collaboration and sharing knowledge. The outcomes of the study involved a set of culturally-sensitive learning activities, as well as guidelines for instructors and learning designers on how to best address the Chinese participants' cultural preferences within the courses. An MSc thesis is associated with this project (Tina Tian).
3. Cultural diversity in blended learning: The key expectations of Nigerians in the use of e-modules as study resources blended with activities involving reflection and discussion in corporate learning situations
   Role: Researcher and second supervisor
   Duration: 2002-2003
   Aim: Within this project, Nigerian course participants' cultural preferences in terms of blended learning were investigated.  The outcomes of the study involved a set of culturally-sensitive learning activities, as well as guidelines for instructors and learning designers on how to best address the Nigerian participants' cultural preferences within the courses. An MSc thesis is associated with this project (Femi Ogunbase).
4. Cultural diversity in blended learning: The development of 14 culturally-sensitive problem solving supporting activities
   Role: Researcher and first supervisor
   Duration: 2002-2003
   Aim: This project investigated cultural dimensions of problem-solving, particularly from the perspective of Indonesian-Malaysian learners. Within this study culturally-sensitive problem-solving activities where designed and evaluated.  The outcomes were guidelines for instructors and learning designers on how to best address the Indonesian-Malaysian participants? cultural preferences within the courses.  An MSc thesis is associated with this project (Kezia Arya).
5. Quick Start Sites: The development of support tools for TeleTOP blended-learning courses
   Role: Researcher and first supervisor
   Duration: 2002-2003
   Aim: This project aimed at developing tools to support course instructors at Shell EP LLD in designing consistent, usable and pedagogically-sound electronic learning environments. The outcomes included pedagogical templates with exemplars and recommendations for practitioners. An MSc thesis is associated with this project (Anoek Hendriks).
   

Networking for Innovations in the Use of Technology for Teacher Training (InfoDev)
Role: Principal Consultant
Duration: 2000
Aim: This project was funded by the World Bank to investigate use of network technology in enhancing teaching and learning in secondary schools in Armenia and Diaspora. Outcomes involved an extensive case study of a global online learning programme that connected Armenian students and teachers throughout the world by engaging them in collaborative, project-based learning activities and a set of recommendations to the World Bank for further implementation of this and similar programmes worldwide.