Biography
Beck is a researcher and member of the Open Education Research (OER) Hub. Beck is also the EdD programme Academic Coordinator for Technology Enhanced Learning (TEL) for cohorts prior to October 2019 and a Fellow of the Higher Education Authority (FHEA).
Since 2013 the OER Hub has worked collaboratively to investigate the impact of open education on learning and teaching. As at May 2019, Beck is currently working across a number of projects:
• Work package lead and responsible for the successful development and delivery of the ERASMUS+ funded European MOOC Consortium (EMC) Labour Market project’s quality assurance processes, guidance, templates and quality monitoring throughout the project’s duration.
• Leading IET’s contribution to the support and ICT staff strand of the SPHEIR programme Transformation by Innovation in Distance Education (TIDE), which is focused on improving the quality and perception of distance education in Myanmar and facilitating the co-development of 400+ hours of environmental science OER across 30+ participating Myanmar HEIs.
Beck is responsible for co-developing and delivering an online and in-country 2-year cycle of training on open education, distance learning and other key skills to three cohorts of staff across the project’s duration. Beck also contributes to a range of other TIDE project activity including Digital Strategy and ICT pilot work, representation of the project during on-site visits to potential collaborators/participating universities, delivery of other training workshops including course production and contributing to the project’s action research strand.
• Beck also works with colleagues in the OER Hub team to manage the Global OER Graduate Network (GO-GN), which supports postgraduate students around the world who are working on open education topics. GO-GN runs an annual conference, awards and provides ongoing support through monthly webinars and other activity.
Beck has acted as reviewer for numerous conferences and journals and was the lead author for the Open University's H819 module, week 13 on Open Research. Beck was the lead author of the OEPS project Becoming and Open Educator badged open course and was responsible for the delivery of both iterations of the OER Hub's award winning open course Open Research (Autumn 2014 and Autumn 2015) and the later delivery of an open textbook based around the course and participant contributions (released November 2016).
Previous projects Beck has collaborated on include:
• The ERASMUS+ funded bizMOOC project, which analysed the needs and awareness of MOOC in businesses across Europe and supported the use and collaborative development of MOOC by HEIs and Businesses;
• The Hewlett Foundation funded UK Open Textbooks project which evaluated the feasibility/transferability of US models of open textbook advocacy within the UK HE context;
• The Scottish Funding Council funded Opening Educational Practices in Scotland (OEPS) project, which promoted and co-developed OER and open practices across Scotland.
• During the first phase of the OER Hub, funded by the Hewlett Foundation, Beck focused particularly on informal learning and open textbooks. She was responsible for collaborative research with BCcampus, Siyavula, OpenStax, Bridge to Success, Co-PILOT and P2PU/School of Open.
Prior to her joining the OER Hub, Beck worked on the NGLC funded Open Learning: Bridge to Success project, providing research and project support. She also supported the JISC funded Track OER and OLDS-MOOC projects and the EC FP7 JuxtaLearn project.
Prior to joining the OU, Beck worked at the University of Essex supporting the EC FP7 Council of European Social Science Data Archives (CESSDA) Preparatory Phase Project (PPP) for its duration.
Publications
2022
2021
2020
2019
2018
2017
2016
2015
2014
2013
Awards
Digital Educational Achievement Award in the Community College Digital Application Category: US Centre for Digital Education
Bridge to Success
Distance Learning Program of the Year by Maryland Distance Learning Association (MDLA)
Honorable Mention for Course/OCW/MOOC Category in Open Education Awards for Excellence 2017 (Open Education Consortium)
Becoming an Open Educator open course
Open Education Award for Excellence (Projects Category) for Open Research
OER Research Hub
RCUK/Open University Engaging Research Award 2015 for the project’s P2PU Open Research course
OER Research Hub
Research programmes
Expertise
Professional memberships
- Fellow of the Higher Education Academy