I am Assistant Professor in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction at the University of Victoria. My research focuses on learning design practices, the development of digital literacies, and supporting personal knowledge management in an environment of rapid technological change. I have worked in higher education institutions across Southern Africa and Western Canada since 2005, supporting collaborative, creative, and personalized approaches to learning. As an advocate for openness in education, my research explores the integration of open source tools, open educational resources, and the development of open educational practices among educators. My work supporting and advancing open education has been recognized with an Award for Excellence in Open Education from BCcampus.

I have published work in the International Review of Research in Open and Distributed Learning, Canadian Journal of Learning and Technology, Journal of Interactive Media in Education, Journal of Learning for Development, Open Praxis, Innovations in Education and Teaching International, E-Learning and Digital Media, and Distance Education.

I am a member of the Global Open Education Graduate Network (GO-GN), held a Digital Learning and Social Media Research Fellowship (2016), and helped facilitate the African Health Open Educational Resources (OER) Network (2009-2012).

Extended biography

I started my work in higher education in the year 2005 with an internship from the Commonwealth of Learning which took me to Windhoek, Namibia in Southern Africa.  I worked for three years in information technology development in Namibia before relocating to Cape Town, South Africa to complete my masters in education technology.

My Masters studies explored how students participating in a volunteer social outreach project at the University of Cape Town were using emerging technologies and digital educational resources to construct curriculum and curate learning materials. The students were volunteers in the Students’ Health and Welfare Centres Organisation (SHAWCO) that has a vision to improve the quality of life of individuals in developing communities by increasing access to education. The collected data is analysed qualitatively within the framework of an activity system (Engëstrom, 1987) and the primary systemic tensions are discussed using the concept of contradictions.  

At the University of Cape Town I also worked in the Centre for Educational Technology (now called the Centre for Innovation in Learning and Teaching) as a research assistant supporting the creation of open educational resources (OER) by faculty and the adaptation and use of OER by students. In this capacity I was responsible for helping academics and subject matter experts develop, license and share teaching and learning resources electronically and openly through the OpenContent OER directory.  I served many roles throughout the projects’ lifecycle: initially as the lead project analyst researching and documenting best practice in the curation of elearning materials; then as a technical analyst as the directory was built using the open-source Drupal content management system.  When the directory was launched in February 2010, I was involved in a number of workshops and presentations aimed at helping academics understand OER development, open licensing systems such as Creative Commons, and the technical considerations around sharing materials and curriculum online.

More recently, I worked as an educational technologist at the Centre for Innovation and Excellence in Learning at Vancouver Island University. My role involved researching and deploying educational technologies, administering, developing and integrating elearning software and developing faculty competencies in the use of emerging technologies. This post required me to work across the disciplines and support faculty at all stages of their career to enhance their practice, develop curriculum and training resources, progress innovative ways to conduct teaching and research, and measure the impact of these changes.