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Biography

Professional biography

I am Professor Emerita of Learning Technologies and Social Computing at The Open University, UK and Visiting Academic at Middlesex University, London. The focus of my research is understanding users' interactions with technology and investigating the factors that affect usability, user experience and user adoption of technology-enabled systems.

My research projects have involved investigating relationships between people and technology in online virtual worlds such as discussion forums, podcasts, blogs, wikis and social networking tools, mobile apps, digital wearable technologies, virtual reality and three-dimensional (3D) avatar-based multi-user virtual environments. 

I analyse and interpret contemporary technological developments and their implications for individuals, organisations, society, and policy.Starting from the empirically-grounded human-centred design principles of Human-Computer Interaction (HCI), I have adapted theory and methods from design, educational sciences, health sciences, service quality, social psychology, and sociology to formulate the underpinning theory, methodology, and ethical considerations of my empirical research.

Publications

Book

User Interface Design and Evaluation (2005)

Book Chapter

A mixed-methods study with MOOC learners to understand their motivations and accessibility needs (2023)

Accessibility in MOOCs: the stakeholders’ perspectives (2022)

Navigation and wayfinding in learning spaces in 3D virtual worlds (2016)

3D virtual worlds in higher education (2011)

Relating pedagogical and learning space designs in Second Life (2011)

Social, usability and pedagogical factors influencing students' learning experiences with wikis and blogs (2011)

Understanding students' self-motivated blogging and development of study skills and research skills (2010)

Interaction design and usability of learning spaces in 3D multi-user virtual worlds (2010)

Supporting student blogging in higher education (2009)

Providing value to customers in e-commerce environments: The customer’s perspective (2005)

Digital Artefact

Research in virtual worlds: Special Interview with Shailey Minocha (2012)

Using social media technologies for research dialogues (2012)

Journal Article

Designing for Learnability: Improvement Through Layered Interfaces (2024)

A qualitative study to understand the perspectives of MOOC providers on accessibility (2022)

A robotic telescope for university-level distance teaching (2018)

Mobile virtual reality for environmental education (2018)

Accessibility of MOOCs: Understanding the Provider Perspective (2016)

Civic crowdfunding research: challenges, opportunities, and future agenda (2015)

An empirically grounded framework to guide blogging for digital scholarship (2012)

An assembled issue for the Journal of Virtual Worlds Research (2012)

Role of the educator in social software initiatives in further and higher education: A conceptualisation and research agenda (2011)

Supporting distributed team working in 3D virtual worlds: A case study in Second Life (2010)

Conducting empirical research in virtual worlds: experiences from two projects in Second Life (2010)

Eduserv Symposium 2010: The Mobile University (2010)

Design of learning spaces in 3D virtual worlds: an empirical investigation of Second Life (2010)

Social software in higher education: The diversity of applications and their contributions to students’ learning experiences (2010)

Designing for usability and accessibility in 3D virtual worlds (2010)

The strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats of using social software in higher and further education teaching and learning (2010)

The effective use of a simple wiki to support collaborative learning activities (2009)

A case study-based investigation of students' experiences with social software tools (2009)

An empirically grounded framework to guide blogging in higher education (2009)

Role of social software tools in education: A literature review (2009)

An empirically-grounded study on the effective use of social software in education (2009)

Laying the groundwork for socialisation and knowledge construction within 3D virtual worlds (2008)

Characterising the different blogging behaviours of students on an online distance learning course (2008)

Using wikis to simulate distributed requirements development in a software engineering course (2008)

Social, usability, and pedagogical factors influencing students’ learning experiences with wikis and blogs (2008)

Collaborative learning in a wiki environment: experiences from a software engineering course (2007)

Consumers, channels and communication: online and offline communication in service consumption (2007)

Usability beyond the website: an empirically-grounded e-commerce evaluation instrument for the total customer experience (2006)

Combining eye tracking and conventional techniques for indications of user-adaptability (2005)

A process model for developing usable cross-cultural websites (2004)

An impact analysis method for safety-critical user interface design (1999)

A co-operative scenario based approach to acquisition and validation of system requirements: How exceptions can help! (1999)

Supporting scenario-based requirements engineering (1998)

On the evaluation of a matrix polynomial (1992)

On fast evaluation of bivariate polynomials at equispaced arguments (1992)

A note on 'Efficient evaluation of polynomials and exponentials of polynomials for equispaced arguments' by A.H. Nuttall (1991)

On the phase interpolation problem — A brief review and some new results (1991)

Recursive construction of polynomial with prescribed phase on unit circle (1991)

Other

Imparting digital skills to people aged 55 years and over in the UK (2015)

Presentation / Conference

Developing an impact mindset for research and scholarship (2024)

Impact of Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (2023)

Planning and evaluating impact of scholarship and educational research initiatives (2023)

Impact of Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (2023)

Knowledge Infrastructure (2022)

Embedding a Theory of Change approach to plan and disseminate STEM scholarship projects (2022)

Design Thinking (2022)

Designing Ethical Assessment (2021)

Designing assessment for academic integrity (2021)

The pedagogical design of a badged open course on the ‘Scholarship of Teaching and Learning in STEM' (2021)

Auditing the accessibility of MOOCs: a four-component approach (2019)

Role of Virtual Reality in Geography and Science Fieldwork Education (2018)

Open Education while discussing accessibility with MOOC providers and learners (2018)

Role Of Digital Health Wearables In The Wellbeing And Quality Of Life Of Older People And Carers (2018)

Role of activity monitors in adopting an active and healthy lifestyle (2018)

Virtual Reality in education and for employability (2017)

Educational Affordances of Mobile Virtual Reality (2017)

An investigation into the perspectives of providers and learners on MOOC accessibility (2017)

Virtual reality in education (2017)

Auditing the accessibility of Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) (2017)

What do MOOC providers think about accessibility? (2017)

Virtual reality for employability skills (2017)

Affordances of Mobile Virtual Reality and their Role in Learning and Teaching (2017)

Fieldscapes – Creating and Evaluating a 3D Virtual Field Trip System (2017)

Investigating the role of wearable activity-tracking technologies in the well-being and quality of life of people aged 55 and over (2017)

Role of smartphone-driven virtual reality field trips in inquiry-based learning (2017)

Investigating the role of virtual reality in geography via Google Expeditions (2017)

What are the expectations of disabled learners when participating in a MOOC? (2017)

How can MOOCs be more accessible? (2017)

Role of wearable activity-tracking technologies in the well-being and quality of life of people aged 55 and over (2017)

Investigating the influence of wearable activity - tracking technologies on behaviour change in people aged 55 and over (2017)

FieldscapesVR: Virtual world field trips to extend and enrich field teaching (2017)

Google expeditions and fieldwork: friends or foes? (2017)

Extending Science lessons with Virtual Reality (2016)

Digital inclusion: opportunities for older people (2016)

Social isolation and loneliness in people aged 55 and over in Milton Keynes: developing an action plan (2016)

Role of wearable activity-tracking technologies in the well-being and quality of life of people aged 55 and over (2016)

Social isolation and loneliness in people aged 55 and over in the UK (2016)

The current state of accessibility of MOOCs: What are the next steps? (2016)

Social isolation and loneliness in people aged 55 and over in Milton Keynes: the way forward (2016)

Virtual field teaching has evolved: benefits of a 3D gaming environment (2015)

A case study-based investigation of experiences of people aged 65 years and over with online social interactions (2015)

Designing online laboratories for optimal effectiveness: undergraduate priorities for authenticity, sociability and metafunctionality (2015)

Pedagogical advantages of 3D virtual field trips and the challenges for their adoption (2015)

Exploring the affordances of virtual fieldwork in a multi-user, 3-D digital environment (2015)

Teaching undergraduate astrophysics with PIRATE (2014)

How effective is remote instruction for astrophysics? (2014)

Digital technologies for doctoral dialogues at a distance (2014)

Ethical leadership in research (2014)

3D virtual geology field trips: opportunities and limitations (2014)

Developing a 3D virtual geology field trip in Unity 3D: reflection of our experiences (2014)

E-learning and over 65s: designing for accessibility and digital inclusion (2014)

Accessibility, usability and safety of online environments: the implications for designing e-learning for older people (2013)

A 3D virtual geology field trip in Unity (2013)

STEM education with Unity 3D (2013)

Conducting empirical research with older people (2013)

Older people and online social interactions (2013)

3D virtual geology field trips (2013)

3D virtual geology field trips: opportunities and limitations (2013)

Older people and online social interactions: an empirical investigation (2013)

Pedagogical designs involving social media and implications for students, educators, institutions and researchers (2012)

How social media is transforming learning, teaching and research dialogues (2012)

Using social media technologies for teaching and research (2012)

Evaluating the effective use of emerging technologies in education (2012)

Role of three-dimensional virtual environments in the globalisation of science education (2012)

Designing navigation and wayfinding in 3D virtual learning spaces (2011)

Conducting empirical research in virtual worlds (2011)

Means-end analysis of consumers’ perceptions of virtual world affordances for e-commerce (2011)

Go digital: an introduction to digital technologies for research dialogues (2011)

The experiences of academic and research bloggers: a phenomenological enquiry (2011)

A phenomenological analysis of consumers' perceptions of the consumption process in a virtual world (2011)

Investigating affordances of virtual worlds for real world B2C e-commerce (2011)

Digital technologies for research dialogues (2011)

Designing for navigation and wayfinding in 3D learning spaces (2011)

Designing for navigation and wayfinding in 3D virtual learning spaces (2011)

Conducting empirical research in virtual worlds (2011)

Introducing Second Life, a 3D virtual world, to students and educators (2010)

Research methods for evaluating technology-enabledlearning environments (2010)

Ethics in usability engineering (2010)

Bringing educators and students into Second Life: Design of socialisation and skills development activities (2009)

Designing learning activities in Second Life for student engagement (2009)

Conducting empirical studies within Second Life (2009)

Realism or non-realism: Design of learning spaces in Second Life (2009)

Socialisation and collaborative learning of distance learners in 3D virtual worlds (2008)

Design of learning spaces in 3D virtual environments (2008)

Podcasting and learning experiences: user-centred requirements gathering (2008)

Wikis supporting authentic, collaborative activities: lessons from distance education (2008)

Using a wiki to facilitate learning on a Requirements Engineering course (2007)

Exploring students' understanding of how blogs and blogging can support distance learning in Higher Education (2007)

Exploring students’ understanding of how blogs and blogging can support distance learning in higher education (2007)

Collaborative requirements development in a wiki on a software engineering course (2007)

Collaborative authoring and learning in a wiki environment (2007)

Collaborative learning in a wiki environment: Case study of a requirements engineering course (2007)

Channels, consumers and communication: online and offline communication in service consumption (2006)

Consumer channel choice: integrating electronic and conventional service channels (2006)

Evaluating e-commerce environments: approaches to cross-disciplinary investigation (2006)

Smart labs and social practice: social tools for pervasive laboratory workspaces: a position paper (2006)

Revisiting web design guidelines by exploring users' expectations, preferences and visual search behaviour (2006)

Multi-channel consumer behavior: Online and offline travel preparations (2006)

Consumer behaviour in multi-channel retail environments: consumer movement between online and offline channels (2005)

Localisation challenges in usability and customer relationship management of e-commerce environments (2004)

Learner-Centred Design and Evaluation of Web-Based E-Learning Environments (2004)

Integrating customer relationship management strategies in (B2C) e-commerce environments (2003)

Exploring the total customer experience: usability evaluations of (B2C) e-commerce environments (2003)

Human errors and system requirements (1999)

Role of scenarios in work analysis during system design (1999)

Requirements development in user-centred system design (1999)

CREWS-SAVRE: systematic scenario generation and use (1998)

A2DL-an adaptive automatic display layout system (1996)

Design guidelines for B2C e-commerce in virtual worlds

Report

Impact of Scholarship of Teaching and Learning: A guide for educators (2023)

Impact of Scholarship of Teaching and Learning: A compendium of case studies (2023)

Impact of Scholarship of Teaching and Learning: An Executive Summary (2023)

Investigating the role of wearable activity-tracking technologies in the well-being and quality of life of people aged 55 and over (2017)

Social isolation and loneliness in people aged 55 and over in Milton Keynes (2015)

3D Virtual Field Trips as a Service (VFTaaS): Learning Design (2015)

eGovernment for You: Impact Evaluation Framework (2012)

eGovernment for You: Work Package 7: Impact Evaluation: Training and Support Materials, Schedules and Methods (2012)

Handbook of Social Media for Researchers and Supervisors (2012)

Patients, Professionals and the Internet: Renegotiating the Healthcare Encounter (2010)

A study of the effective use of social software to support student learning and engagement (2009)

Collaborative Learning in a Wiki Environment: Experiences from a Software Engineering Course (2008)

E-SEQUAL: A Customer-Centred Approach to Providing Value in E-Commerce Environments (2004)

Integrating Service Quality into Customer-Centred Design Approach of E-Commerce Environments (2004)