We are proud to announce that the next OER Conference, ALT’s annual conference for Open Education research, practice and policy, will be co-chaired by the Global OER Graduate Network.
The Global OER Graduate Network (GO-GN) is a network of PhD and EdD candidates around the world whose research projects include a focus on open education (i.e. OER, OEP, MOOC). These doctoral researchers are at the core of the network; around them, over two hundred experts, supervisors, mentors and interested parties connect to form a community of practice.
The Global OER Graduate Network (GO-GN) is a network of PhD and EdD candidates around the world whose research projects include a focus on open education (i.e. OER, OEP, MOOC). These doctoral researchers are at the core of the network; around them, over two hundred experts, supervisors, mentors and interested parties connect to form a community of practice.
GO-GN aims to raise the profile of research into open education and offers support for its members and alumni. The network also promotes equity and inclusion in the field of open education research and aims to develop openness as process of research. The GO-GN team, who are based at the Institute of Educational Technology (IET) at The Open University (UK), are: Rob Farrow, Francisco (Paco) Iniesto, Kylie Matthews, Beck Pitt and Martin Weller … not forgetting the GO-GN Penguins of course.
Follow them on Twitter @GOGN_OER
Meet The GO-GN Team
Martin Weller
Martin Weller is Professor of educational technology at the Open University, and Director of the GO-GN project. He chaired the Open University’s first major e-learning course, T171, in 1999 with nearly 15,000 students. He is the director of the Open Education Research Hub, and a former president of ALT and holds a Chair in Open Education with the Commonwealth of Learning. He has authored several books including The Digital Scholar, The Battle for Open and 25 Years of Ed Tech which are available under open licences. He is also co-editor of the open access journal, JIME (Journal of Interactive Media in Education). Weller’s interests are in digital scholarship, open education and the impact of new technologies, and he writes a blog about these topics at blog.edtechie.net
Rob Farrow
Rob Farrow is Senior Research Fellow in the Institute of Educational Technology at The Open University (UK). He has more than a decade of experience working on research projects in open education, including OER Research Hub; UK Open Textbooks; bizMOOC; OER World Map; European MOOC Consortium: Labour Markets; and GO-GN, where he leads the research strand that has produced The GO-GN Guide to Conceptual Frameworks and The GO-GN Research Methods Handbook. Rob’s work critically analyses openness as a practice and philosophy, exploring cultures of openness, promoting open values, and developing tools and free learning materials for the commons. Rob supervises doctoral research in open education at The Open University and mentors for the Open Education Leadership Program (SPARC) and Open Education for a Better World (UNESCO). He can be found on Twitter as philosopher1978.
Beck Pitt
Beck Pitt is a Research Fellow in the Institute of Educational Technology at The Open University (OUUK). Since joining the OUUK in 2011, Beck has worked in a variety of capacities on a wide range of international open education projects and initiatives including Bridge to Success, OER Hub, Opening Educational Practices in Scotland (OEPS), BizMOOC, UK Open Textbooks and Transformation by Innovation in Distance Education (TIDE) in Myanmar. In addition to GO-GN her current projects include European MOOC Consortium Labour Markets (EMC-LM) and Skills for Prosperity Kenya. Beck’s Twitter profile is @BeckPitt .
Francisco (Paco) Iniesto
Francisco (Paco) is a Postdoctoral Research Associate in Technology Enhanced at the Institute of Educational Technology – The Open University. His PhD was part of the Open World Learning (OWL) programme in the same institution. His research project was titled “An Investigation into the accessibility of Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs)”. Francisco’s background is as a Computer Engineer with extensive experience in IT consulting and software development using Agile techniques.
Francisco has been collaborating and participating in several research groups such as Technology and Accessibility UNED-Vodafone Foundation Research Chair, FutureLearn Academic Network (FLAN), the Computers and Learning Research Group (CALRG), OLA! Open Learning and Accessibility, YourMOOC4all. Francisco’s current research interest focuses on accessible open education. Francisco is an alumnus and part of the GO-GN team.
Kylie Matthews
Kylie is a Research Administrator within Institute of Educational Technology at The Open University (UK). Part of her role involves working closely with the GO-GN team and supporting numerous research projects within the IET area. She co-ordinated the 40th Anniversary conference of the Computers and Learning Research Group (CALRG) in 2018 – so is familiar to a bit of organisation. Kylie joined The Open University at the start of 2015 and hasn’t looked back, she has supported the Regius Professor Eileen Scanlon for the duration of this time. She also holds an undergraduate BA hons in Criminology a far world away from the land of research but an area she still retains a passion in.