Rebecca

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R3beccaf@mas.to

In 140 characters…

Professor at The Open University, focus on educational futures, learning analytics, MOOCs, innovating pedagogy & online social learning

In more detail

Rebecca Ferguson is Professor of Learning Futures in the Institute of Educational Technology (IET) at The Open University in the UK, and a senior fellow of the Higher Education Academy. Her primary research interests are educational futures and how people learn together online. She supervises doctoral students in both these areas.

Rebecca was an executive member of the Society for Learning Analytics Research (SoLAR) for four years and is currently one of the Editors in Chief of the Journal of Learning Analytics. Her work has been influential in shaping the field, supporting implementation across Europe, and promoting a focus on social learning analytics and on ethics. She has been invited to lead events in this area on five continents, including several associated with her work as principal investigator on the European Learning Analytics Community Exchange (LACE) and on LAEP, a project that helped European policymakers to set out an agenda for high-quality and stimulating ways of learning and teaching through the use of learning analytics.

In August 2019, Rebecca was appointed Academic Lead on the microcredentials programme at The Open University, due to her extensive experience in related areas. This experience includes a leading role in the creation of FutureLearn and work as Pedagogic Adviser for the company in its first years, Evaluation Lead on the OU’s first 13 MOOCs, OU PI on the European-Commission-funded European MOOC Consortium: Labour Market (EMC-LM) project, and current Academic Lead of the international FutureLearn Academic Network. The Network links academics from over 170 partner institutions around the world, helping to develop a focused research agenda. In particular, Rebecca focuses on developing the next generation of researchers in this field, and organises an annual conference event that brings together postgraduate students from universities around the world.

Rebecca has worked on the Innovating Pedagogy Reports since the series was founded in 2012, including two years as lead author. This highly cited series of high-profile annual reports explores new forms of teaching, learning and assessment in order to guide educators and policy makers around the world.

Rebecca worked for several years as a researcher and educator on the Schome project, focused on educational futures. She was the research lead on the SocialLearn online learning platform, and learning analytics lead on the Open Science Lab (Outstanding ICT Initiative of the Year: THE Awards 2014).

Rebecca’s most recent books are Augmented Education, published by Palgrave in spring 2014, and Educational Visions: The Lessons from 40 Years of Innovation, published by Ubiquity in 2019 and available openly online. For more details, see her blog at https://r3beccaf.wordpress.com/

Orcid ID http://orcid.org/0000-0002-8566-8231