Honorary Professor

Professor Betty Collis

Prof. Dr. Betty Collis, Emeritus Professor, University of Twente, The Netherlands has been Honorary Professor at the Caledonian Academy, Glasgow Caledonian University since its inception in 2006.

Prof. Dr. Collis is an esteemed academic specialising in technology-supported learning, She is working closely with the Academy team contributing to ideas in research and scholarship that will help Caledonian Academy staff shape learning both within the University and beyond.

The photograph shows Betty visiting the Academy in Spetember 2006.

Prof. dr. Betty Collis (B.A., Mathematics, University of Michigan; M.A., Mathematics Education, Stanford University; and PhD, Measurement and Evaluation of Computer Applications in Education and Training, University of Victoria, Canada) is a specialist in the application of technology for strategy, learning and change in educational organizations and corporate training. She was a member of the Faculty of Education at the University of Victoria from 1976-1988 and a member of the Faculty of Educational Science and Technology (now, Behavioural Sciences) at the University of Twente from 1988 until she took early retirement at the end of 2005. Now she works full time as a consultant with her husband Prof. Jef Moonen in the Moonen and Collis Learning Technology Consultants B.V. At the University of Twente she was head of the research team "Technology for Strategy, Learning and Change", and among her many research activities, was leader of a five-year collaborative research project with the Learning and Leadership Development Organization of Shell International Exploration and Production (Shell EP-LLD). She and her research team along with her Shell colleagues were awarded the Best Practice Award for Research-Practitioner Partnerships by the ASTD in 2005. She continues with Shell Learning as Innovation Consultant. She is a prolific author with more than 660 scientific publications, a frequently-invited conference speaker (with close to 700 presentations including 52 keynotes in more than 35 countries), and currently works with a number of universities as an advisor. (view Professor Collis's full CV)

Some reflections on the Caledonian Academy by Professor Collis

The vision of Glasgow Caledonian University is exciting: career-focused programmes; entrepreneurial in approach; responsive to the needs of individuals, employers and other stakeholders; and to realize this vision, to be innovative in programmes, learning, research and knowledge transfer. The establishment of the Caledonian Academy is a strategic step in helping to realize this vision. The Academy is active in:

- Stimulating research in innovative teaching and learning practices that are focused on the needs of Glasgow Caledonian’s student body. For example, the Learning from Digital Natives: Integrating Formal and Informal Learning (LDN) project, funded by the UK Higher Education Academy, is investigating the educational rationale to and good practices in students' use of electronic tools and mobile devices to integrate their learning in formal and informal settings. This is relevant for the type of students at GCU: professionally oriented, and likely to be soon if not already experiencing the formal/informal nexus for learning. The work of the Academy in studying how students use technology tools, such as laptops, phones or iPods, in their informal practices and how to find linkages for support of their learning in formal settings is another example of the relevance and innovation of the research of the Academy.

- Supporting sustainable e-learning through activities and research focused on instructors, institutions, and e-learning resources. For example, members of the Academy are the co-chairs of the SSeLF (the Supporting Sustainable e-Learning Forum), to bring together staff and educational developers, as well as learning technologists from the UK higher education (HE) and further education (FE) communities, to devise strategies for supporting staff in the design, development and implementation of online courses; to disseminate good practice in supporting sustainable approaches to e-learning; and to contribute to the ongoing debate in the sharing and reuse of e-learning resources. SSeLF, funded by the UK Higher Education Academy, is one of a number of initiatives in which the Academy takes a leadership role and which blend research, professional experience, and strategic decision making. These initiatives include the CD-LOR Project, examining the ways in which global collections of electronic learning resources can best be used to support learning communities, and the Mod4L Project, investigating how tutors document their teaching and exploring ways in which this might help further develop practice and provide a means by which they can share ideas on innovative teaching with others.

Through its activities, the Academy embodies not only a vibrant instantiation of the formal/informal nexus for learning, but also of the interaction between research and practice and between local and international communities. Through its commitment to evidence-based, educational development partnerships, the Academy stimulates collaborations among researchers and educational development advisors, learning technologists, administrative staff and talented teaching staff from a range of disciplines across the University.

The Academy is a new institution, and has made a quick start into its work and into making an impact on the quality of student learning. Where might growth areas be for the Academy in 2007? Within the context of being responsive to the needs and developments at GCU, the Academy can continue to help academic Schools identify what students need and can benefit from (particularly with respect to workplace learning and the feedback and assessment approaches most attuned to this), help the Schools to set up measurable targets based on their analysis of student characteristics, and then help the Schools to build from first success stories to implementation plans that work for them and that are focused on changes as experienced by the students. With these connections with the Schools, instructors, and students, this is one of the ways in which the potential of the Academy will continue to be realized in the upcoming years.

I am honoured to be associated with the Academy and look forward to observing its work and growth.

Prof. Dr. Betty Collis,
Emeritus Professor, Technology for Strategy, Learning and Change, University of Twente, The Netherlands;
Honorary Professor, Glasgow Caledonian University;
Partner, Moonen & Collis Learning Technology Consultants, B. V.

web links: http://users.gw.utwente.nl/Collis/;
http://bettycollisjefmoonen.nl

Updated: 12 August, 2009 | Site editor | Legal