Profile
My research explores how learning occurs when people use digital technologies, with a particular focus on novel research methods and strategic models of cognition and collaboration. The practical application of this work is to enhance the effectiveness of educational technologies.
Recent topics include:
- games for learning, studied using physiological measures such as heart rate and galvanic skin response
- open learning communities
- multiple mathematical representations, studied using eye-tracking and handwriting capture
- intermediate steps in educational software
- capacity building in e-learning
I also chair the OU’s course on educational technology research.
See the tabs above for details of current teaching, research and publications. There's a brief cv below.
Brief CV
James has a DPhil in Educational Studies from The University of Oxford. His thesis developed an analytical technique for exploring learning situations based on a Popperian approach to psychology.
His working life began in computers: he developed software for an economics consultancy while still at school, and there followed a gap year at IBM. It was while studying mathematics at Bristol University that an innovative seminar-based education option provoked curiosity about why traditional methods of teaching algebra and logic often generated antipathy. This led to a PGCE at the University of East Anglia and several years teaching mathematics and science in Suffolk secondary schools, experimenting with software and handheld devices to support reasoning.
While at Oxford, James exhibited at the BETT show, helped design and teach an undergraduate education course, and worked with colleagues in Canada and Australia on early experiments in using the Web for educational research into collaborative learning, with a particular focus on statistical and philosophical reasoning. He joined The Open University as a research fellow in 1998, working on the EPSRC-funded Jape Visualisation Project, which looked at software support for the learning of formal reasoning.
Then as Lecturer in New Technology in Teaching, James led the team that designed and built the OU's Knowledge Network, a forerunner of Web 2.0 technologies. This University-wide professional development service enables OU staff to share knowledge of teaching and learning. External recognition for the Knowledge Network includes the 2004 International Information Industry Award for innovation in knowledge management. The underlying application was also a finalist in the 2002 European Academic Software Awards.
He has played a leading role in several international research collaborations. Examples include the KRN, a project with MIT and Cambridge looking at community tools for sharing pedagogical knowledge; InnoUniLearning, an EU-funded project examining innovative e-learning strategies across Europe; and C3D, a project for the United Nations exploring how to help improve developing countries' capabilities in climate change negotiations.
His PhD students have been researching topics including learning from multiple representations, computer-supported collaborative design, a comparison of white-box/black-box approaches to educational software, and the use of seventh-generation games for learning.
James has taught on the OU's pioneering internet-based MA in Online and Distance Education, and is chair of the course "Practice-based research in educational technology" (H809). For several years he chaired the dissertation exam board of the OU's suite of ESRC-recognised social sciences research masters degrees. He has been an educational consultant on a variety of courses and projects, and contributes to professional development inside the OU. He has taught psychology, educational studies, and research methods at undergraduate and postgraduate levels. He received an Open University Teaching Award from the Vice-Chancellor in 2003.
Current work
See the tabs at the top of the page for details of current teaching, research and publications.
Qualifications
BSc PGCE DPhil
Teaching Interests
I chair a postgraduate course called "Practice-based research in educational technology" (H809). This course offers those working in the education sector an opportunity to advance their professional knowledge and skills to the next level, by introducing the world of research. The course lasts 20 weeks, part-time.
H809 can also count towards the OU's MA in Online and Distance Education and its Masters Degree in Education
In other work, I contribute to professional development inside the OU, helping with a variety of courses and projects, and running workshops from time-to-time.
Previous teaching
Postgraduate research degrees 
I've been involved in running the OU's suite of Masters degrees in research methods from their earliest days. I have chaired the University's Dissertation Examination and Award Board for research students in the Business School, the Faculty of Education and Language Studies, the Institute of Educational Technology, the Faculty of Social Sciences, and the Faculty of Technology.
I also helped develop a new MRes for these faculties, and contributed to these faculties' ESRC doctoral training recognition submissions in 2005 and in previous years. We obtained 10 ESRC quota studentships from these successful submissions. I've also been a member of CREET's Research Student Management Team, which has responsibility for running CREET's PhD and EdD programmes.
Online and Distance Education 
I've taught on IET's pioneering global online MA in Online and Distance Education, in particular the course Applications of Information Technology in Open and Distance Education (H802) and Innovations in elearning (H807).
Research Interests
My research explores how learning occurs when people use digital technologies, with a particular focus on strategic models of cognition and collaboration, and the use of digital research methods. The practical application of this work is to enhance the effectiveness of educational technologies.
Particular interests at the moment include:
- HCI methods, such as physiological measures (EKG, GSR, EMG, EEG), eye-tracking, note capture, multiple video analysis
- games for learning
- mobile technologies for learning, particularly mapping and games
- curriculum software
- open learning communities
See also 
Academia.edu
Current Research Projects
This multi-partner EU-funded project is examining the learning opportunities, obstacles and strategies associated with generating informal open online learning communities.
- Working with Doug Clow, Pascale Hardy, Simon Cross, and Patrick McAndrew.
Motivation, engagement and learning in digital games
My research student Jo Iacovides is investigating what motivates people to play games, what factors affect engagement during play, and how motivation and engagement link with informal learning.
- She is making use of a combination of physiological and digital video data, including using the observational analysis program INTERACT.
Recent publications:
Iacovides, I., Aczel, J. C., Scanlon, E., Taylor, J. & Woods, W. (in press) "Motivation, engagement and learning through digital games: Research issues to consider", International Journal of Virtual and Personal Learning Environments (IJVPLE)
Learning from intermediate steps in software
Anesa Hosein has been looking at students' performance and strategies in mathematics problems when assigned to three different software modes: a black-box mode which shows no intermediate steps; a glass-box mode which shows intermediate steps; and an open-box mode which shows intermediate steps and allows user interaction at each step.
Anesa developed a method of collecting audio and video data via web-based remote observation.
She found that the black-box mode encouraged more exploration on constructive tasks. The open-box mode encouraged students to provide mathematical explanations; while the glass-box mode encouraged students to provide real-life explanations. Mathematically confident students were best able to appropriate the black-box mode for their conceptual understanding. The glass-box and open-box modes appeared to be useful for helping students with procedural understanding and familiarity with mathematical terms.
Recent publications:
Hosein, A., Aczel, J. C., Clow, D., & Richardson, John T. E. (2007)"An Illustration of Students' Engagement with Mathematical Software using Remote Observation", 31st Conference of the International Group for the Psychology of Mathematics Education, 8-13 July 2007, Seoul.
- More about Anesa's research...
 | Learning from multiple representations |
Jonathan San Diego has been investigating how representations instantiated in different ways influence learners' cognitive processes.
He made use of an innovative combination of data collection and analysis techniques, including eye-tracking data, digital video, real-time capture of handwriting and sketches, and the observational analysis program INTERACT.
Recent publications:
San Diego, J. P., Aczel, J. C. & Hodgson, B. (2006) "'There's more than meets the eye': analysing verbal protocols, gazes
and sketches on external mathematical representations", Proceedings of the 30th annual conference of the International Group for the Psychology of Mathematics Education (PME 30), Prague, Czech Republic
San Diego, J. P., Aczel, J. C., Hodgson, B. & Scanlon, E. (2006) "Learners' strategies with multiple representations", Proceedings of the European Association for Research on Learning and Instruction (EARLI) SIG 2 Bi-annual meeting "Text and graphics comprehension", pp. 71-3, University of Nottingham
- More about Jonathan's research...
 | Models of technology-enhanced learning |
An exploration of the potential of fallibilist models of learning mechanisms that have at their core the struggle to improve imperfect strategic theories in response to concerns. An important application is to obtaining a psychological understanding of learning situations, and the question of whether such models can provide a principled basis for creating and evaluating enhancements to educational technologies. The role of intersubjective error-elimination in the sharing of knowledge is another important application.
Recent publications:
Aczel, J. C. & Hardy, P. (2008) "Applying Future Studies methods to understanding the impact of university ICT strategies on learning", E-Learning, 4, 4, ISSN 1741-8887
Aczel, J. C. (2006) "Learning from Interactions with Software: A Popperian Analysis", International Journal of Learning Technology, Vol. 2, Nos. 2/3, pp. 159-184, ISSN: 1477-8386
 | Methods for studying technology-enhanced learning |
When technological communications and other interactions multiply exponentially, the opportunities to examine educational processes and outcomes increase and diversify. This presents tremendous but exciting challenges if we are to understand what is happening.
One of my research students, Jonathan San Diego (see above), has been developing techniques for integrating and analysing data from eye-tracking, digital cameras, screen capture, handwriting and sketching. He and Anesa Hosein have also been looking at the latest technologies to enable real-time observation studies of people working online. Meanwhile Phebe Mann has been capturing online collaborative design, and considered how virtual reality environments might help.
A rather different set of techniques - online surveys and interviews - have been used for the KRN (see below) and for InnoUniLearning (again, see below).
Another important method in studying processes and outcomes is prototyping. For example, the Knowledge Network (see below) piloted now commonplace principles of collaboration and sharing. Similarly lots of interesting R&D in technology-enhanced learning doesn't these days necessarily consume the vast amounts of resource that it used to.
As technologies proliferate, other colleagues in IET are honing our techniques for mobile devices, data logging, online surveys and electronic interviews. There is much more to be done, and this agenda is also being pursued through the OU's new course in researching educational technology H809.
I would be particularly interested in proposals from potential students for research into how innovative educational software might enhance the learning of specific topics in school or university curricula.
- More about doing a PhD in educational technology at the OU...
Previous research
With Pascale Hardy, I helped win a €310k EU grant to fund the project FLOSSCom, studying community-based learning. The FLOSSCom project aims to identify the factors that contribute to successful knowledge construction in informal learning communities, to see how such communities might be applicable in formal education. We think there are great synergies with OpenLearn. The project is led by Andreas Meiszner of SPI (Sociedade Portuguesa de Inovação), Portugal, and Martin Weller is now the OU contact for FLOSSCom.
 | CMI Knowledge Resource Network |
This £350k project was a collaboration between Cambridge University, MIT and the OU, researching the effect on educators' practice of community tools for sharing pedagogical knowledge.
Using the OU's Knowledge Network, the KRN made available some high quality electronic learning materials for reuse, drawing on six MPhil courses based in Cambridge and developed under the aegis of the Cambridge-MIT Institute.
I was also academic coordinator of the KRN's 2005 workshop entitled "Innovations in Pedagogy and the Reuse of Electronic Learning Materials: Enabling Communities of Practice"
Innovative e-learning in European Higher Education
With Pascale Hardy and colleagues in Portugal, France, Hungary and Austria, I'm currently writing up the results of this €250k EU project that has been identifying innovative e-learning strategies across Europe.
Recent publications:
Aczel, J. C., Hardy, P., Meiszner, A., Maillet, K., Staniland, K., Iggulden, H., & Medina, S. (2007) "Identifying Innovation in Higher Education eLearning Strategies" in Sangrà, A. & Bernath, U. (Eds.) Research in distance education and online learning, Oldenburg: Bibliotheks- und Informationssystem der Universität Oldenburg
Aczel, J. C., Cotinat, O., Franco, A., Hardy, P., Iggulden, H., Komáromi, L., Maillet, K., Medina, S., Meiszner, A., Obermueller, E., Reichl, F., Spinoglio, M., & Staniland, K. (2006) "The Fostering of Innovative Elearning Strategies in European Higher Education", Proceedings of the EDEN 2006 Annual Conference, pp. 579-584, Vienna, Austria
- More about InnoUniLearning...
 | Climate Change Capacity Development (C3D) |
With Stephen Peake and Pascale Hardy, I helped explore the potential of online courses and knowledge management strategies to build developing countries' capacity in climate change negotiations.
A United Nations project funded by the European Community, Irish Aid, and the Swiss Environment Agency.
Publications:
Aczel, J. C., Peake, S. R. & Hardy, P. (2008) "Designing capacity-building in e-learning expertise: challenges and strategies", Computers & Education, 50(2), pp. 499–510
Peake, S., Aczel, J. C., Hardy, P. (2005) "Building developing countries’ capacity in climate change policy analysis and negotiation", 163 pages, United Nations, Geneva
I led the team that designed and built the OU's Knowledge Network, a forerunner of Web 2.0 technologies. This University-wide professional development service enabled OU staff to share knowledge of teaching and learning by piloting what are now commonplace online community tools and principles. The platform we developed enabled us to study the educational implications of technologies such as personal spaces, wikis, blogs, image sharing, social bookmarking, etc. It also enabled experimentation with RSS feeds, semantic web, content management, synchronous communication tools, web services, VLEs, eportfolios, and the like.
For this work, my team won the 2004 International Information Industry award for Innovation in Knowledge Management.
See:
McAndrew, P., Clow, D., Taylor, J. & Aczel, J. (2004) "The evolutionary design of a Knowledge Network to support knowledge management and sharing for lifelong learning", British Journal of Educational Technology, 35, 6, 739-746, ISSN: 0007-1013
- More about the OU's Knowledge Network...
 | The Jape Visualisation Project |
- computer science undergraduates learning formal reasoning using a proof editor
See:
Aczel, J. C., Fung, P., Bornat, R., Oliver, M., O’Shea, T., & Sufrin, B. (2003) "Software that assists learning within a complex abstract domain: the use of constraint and consequentiality as learning mechanisms", British Journal of Educational Technology, Vol. 34, No. 5, pp. 625-638, ISSN: 0007-1013
- More about the Jape Visualisation Project...
 | The EQUATION Project |
- children aged 10-15 learning symbolic algebra using a computer game
See:
Aczel, J. & Solomon, J. (1999) "Variation and selection in two different problem solving situations", Research in Science & Technological Education, Vol. 17, No. 2, p. 227-238, ISSN: 0263 5143
- More about the EQUATION Project...
 | The OurQuestions Project |
- secondary school students in England, Australia and Canada using web-based forums to explore their own mathematical and philosophical questions
 | The Reusable Educational Software Library (RESL) |
- an online database of resources coming from SoURCE and other TLTP3 projects