Christothea Herodotou

I am a Senior Lecturer (Associate Professor) at the Open University UK, with expertise in the evidence-based design and evaluation of technologies for learning (online platforms, mobile applications, digital games) using mixed-methods research approaches (learning analytics, RCTs, interviews, surveys). I hold funding from the National Science Foundation, Wellcome, and ESRC to improve the design of online citizen science platforms and make science learning more accessible and productive to young people (LEARN Cit Sci). I am also the academic lead of nQuire (nquire.org.uk) - a citizen science platform developed in partnership with the BBC, which supports the engagement of the public with scientific practices, and the PI of the UKRI funded project EduCS: EDUcating Citizens and organisations in Citizen Science methodologies, that aims to develop citizen science capacity in organisations not normally involved in citizen science. I hold funding from eSTEeM, OU (co-I) to improve the accuracy of predictive analytics of at risk students, as measured by OU Analyse.

I am a fellow of the British Academy as I received a mid-career fellowship that produced evidence-based guidelines for the design of mobile applications for young children (m_Evaluate). Outcomes from mEvaluate resulted in my authoring and designing of an Open Learn course that aims to raise awareness about how parents and teachers should use digital technologies with children.

Teaching-related activities: I coordinate the evaluation of the Early Alert Indicators project, a university-wide initiative for assessing predictive learning analytics interventions and their impact on students' performance and attainment. I am also leading the evaluation of a new assessment tool that will enable more effective marking practices by teachers across the university. In the past, I led an eSTEeM funded project about how to improve the design of OU courses around virtual microscopy, examining both the teachers' and the students' perspectives.I was chairing the master course: Technology-enhanced learning: Practices and debates (H800) for three years.

PhD/EdD supervision: I am currently supervising 2 PhD students and 3 EdD students.

Qualifications: I am a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (SFHEA) and an Honorary Associate of UCL. I received my Ph.D. degree in Digital Games and Psychology from University College London (UCL) Institute of Education with very minor amendments (4 weeks), a MSc in Education, Technology, and Society, University of Bristol, UK (with Distinction) and a BA (Hons) in Primary Education, University of Cyprus.

Dr Christothea Herodotou is a Senior Lecturer (Associate Professor) at the Open University, UK. She has extensive expertise in the evidence-based design and evaluation of technologies for learning (online platforms, mobile applications, digital games) through innovative research methodologies including learning analytics. She holds funding from the National Science Foundation,Wellcome Trust, and ESRC to improve the design of online citizen science platforms and make science learning more accessible and productive to young people. She is the academic lead of nQuire - a citizen science platform developed in partnership with the BBC that aims to engage the public in all the stages of scientific research. She is the PI of the UKRI funded project EduCs that aims to develop citizen science capacity in large organisations. Also, she holds funding from eSTEeM (co-I) to improve the accuracy of predictive learning analytics of at risk students, as measured by OU Analyse. She coordinated the evaluation of the Early Alert Indicators project, a university-wide initiative that assessed predictive learning analytics interventions and their impact on students' performance and attainment; the project has received multiple awards for research impact and excellence in teaching. She is a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (SFHEA) and an Honorary Associate of UCL. She received her Ph.D. degree in Digital Games and Psychology from the University College London (UCL) and her MSc in Education, Technology, and Society from the University of Bristol (with Distinction).

2020

Herodotou, Christothea; Aristeidou, Maria; Miller, Grant; Ballard, Heidi and Robinson, Lucy. (2020). What Do We Know about Young Volunteers? An Exploratory Study of Participation in Zooniverse. Citizen Science: Theory and Practice.

Hall, Johanna; Stickler, Ursula; Herodotou, Christothea and Iacovides, Ioanna. (2020). Expressivity of Creativity and Creative Design Considerations in Digital Games. Computers in Human Behavior.

Herodotou, Christothea; Rienties, Bart; Hlosta, Martin; Boroowa, Avinash; Mangafa, Chrysoula and Zdrahal, Zdenek. (2020). The scalable implementation of predictive learning analytics at a distance learning university: Insights from a longitudinal case study. Internet and Higher Education (In Press).

Hlosta, Martin; Zdrahal, Zdenek; Bayer, Vaclav and Herodotou, Christothea. (2020). Why Predictions of At-Risk Students Are Not 100% Accurate? Showing Patterns in False Positive and False Negative Predictions. In: Proceedings of the 10th International Conference on Learning Analytics and Knowledge (LAK20), 23-27 Mar 2020, Frankfurt am Main, Germany.

Kukulska-Hulme, Agnes; Beirne, Elaine; Conole, Gráinne; Costello, Eamon; Coughlan, Tim; Ferguson, Rebecca; FitzGerald, Elizabeth; Gaved, Mark; Herodotou, Christothea; Holmes, Wayne; Mac Lochlainn, Conchur; Nic Giolla Mhichíl, Mairéad; Rienties, Bart; Sargent, Julia; Scanlon, Eileen; Sharples, Mike and Whitelock, Denise (2020). Innovating Pedagogy 2020: Open University Innovation Report 8. The Open University, Milton Keynes.

Aristeidou, Maria and Herodotou, Christothea. (2020). Online Citizen Science: A Systematic Review of Effects on Learning and Scientific Literacy. Citizen Science: Theory and Practice, 5 (1) pp. 1-12.

2019

Herodotou, Christothea; Sharples, Mike; Gaved, Mark; Kukulska-Hulme, Agnes; Rienties, Bart; Scanlon, Eileen and Whitelock, Denise. (2019). Innovative Pedagogies of the Future: An Evidence-Based Selection. Frontiers in Education.

Lorke, Julia; Ballard, Heidi L.; Aristeidou, Maria; Herodotou, Christothea; Ghadiri, Maryam; Swanson, Rebecca D. and Robinson, Lucy D.. (2019). “Don’t step on the volcanoes!” – Developing Environmental Science Agency through participation in Museum-Led Citizen Science Projects. In: The beauty and pleasure of understanding: engaging with contemporary challenges through science education (Proceeding of ESERA 2019), 26-30 Aug 2019, Bologna, Italy.

Hall, Johanna; Stickler, Ursula; Herodotou, Christothea and Iacovides, Ioanna. (2019). Player conceptualizations of creativity in digital entertainment games. Convergence: The International Journal of Research into New Media Technologies (Early Access).

Scanlon, Eileen; Herodotou, Christothea; Whitelock, Denise and Edwards, Chris (2019). STEM Learning: Foundations. In: Ferguson, Rebecca; Jones, Ann and Scanlon, Eileen eds. Educational Visions: Lessons from 40 years of innovation London: Ubiquity Press, pp. 127-138.

Herodotou, Christothea; Scanlon, Eileen and Whitelock, Denise (2019). STEM Learning: Futures. In: Ferguson, Rebecca; Jones, Ann and Scanlon, Eileen eds. Educational Visions: Lessons from 40 years of innovation London: Ubiquity Press, pp. 139-150.

Herodotou, Christothea; Rienties, Bart; Verdin, Barry and Boroowa, Avinash. (2019). Predictive learning analytics ‘at scale’: Guidelines to successful implementation in Higher Education based on the case of the Open University UK. Journal of Learning Analytics, 6 (1) pp. 85-95.

Ferguson, Rebecca; Coughlan, Tim; Egelandsdal, Kjetil; Gaved, Mark; Herodotou, Christothea; Hillaire, Garron; Jones, Derek; Jowers, Iestyn; Kukulska-Hulme, Agnes; McAndrew, Patrick; Misiejuk, Kamila; Ness, Ingun Johanna; Rienties, Bart; Scanlon, Eileen; Sharples, Mike; Wasson, Barbara; Weller, Martin and Whitelock, Denise (2019). Innovating Pedagogy 2019: Open University Innovation Report 7. The Open University, Milton Keynes.

Clow, Doug; Coughlan, Tim; Cross, Simon; Edwards, Chris; Gaved, Mark; Herodotou, Christothea; Nguyen, Quan; Rienties, Bart; Thorne, Sam and Ullmann, Thomas (2019). Scholarly insight Winter 2019: a Data wrangler perspective. Open University, Milton Keynes.

Herodotou, Christothea; Muirhead, Dave K.; Aristeidou, Maria; Hole, Malcolm J.; Kelley, Simon; Scanlon, Eileen and Duffy, Marcus. (2019). Blended and online learning: A comparative study of virtual microscopy in Higher Education. Interactive Learning Environments (Early Access).

Herodotou, Christothea; Rienties, Bart; Boroowa, Avinash; Zdrahal, Zdenek and Hlosta, Martin. (2019). A large-scale implementation of Predictive Learning Analytics in Higher Education: the teachers' role and perspective. Educational Technology Research and Development, 67 (5) pp. 1273-1306.

Herodotou, Christothea; Hlosta, Martin; Boroowa, Avinash; Rienties, Bart; Zdrahal, Zdenek and Mangafa, Chrysoula. (2019). Empowering online teachers through predictive learning analytics. British Journal of Educational Technology, 50 (6) pp. 3064-3079.

Sharples, Mike; Aristeidou, Maria; Herodotou, Christothea; McLeod, Kevin and Scanlon, Eileen. (2019). Inquiry learning at scale: pedagogy-informed design of a platform for citizen inquiry. In: L@S 2019: Sixth ACM Conference on Learning @ Scale, 24-25 Jun 2019, Chicago, Illinois, USA.

Rienties, Bart; Olney, Tom; Nichols, Mark and Herodotou, Christothea. (2019). Effective usage of Learning Analytics: What do practitioners want and where should distance learning institutions be going?. Open Learning: The Journal of Open, Distance and e-learning (Early Access).

Ballard, Heidi; Herodotou, Christothea; Lorke, Julia; Aristeidou, Maria; Robinson, Lucy; Johnson, Rebecca; Young, Alison; Higgins, Lila; Jennewein, Jessie; Miller, Annie; Pratt-Taweh, Sasha; Sanghera, Harpreet; Miller, Grant and Pauly, Greg. (2019). Characterizing Youth Participation in Natural History Museum-led Citizen Science: Online and in the Field. In: Citizen Science Association, 13-17 Mar 2019, Raleigh, North Carolina.

2018

Aristeidou, Maria and Herodotou, Christothea. (2018). Tomorrow’s World nQuire: young people’s requirements for engaging with inquiry-led, civic engagement technologies. In: Proceedings of 17th World Conference on Mobile and Contextual Learning (mLearn 2018), LearnTechLib, 51-53.

Scanlon, Eileen and Herodotou, Christothea. (2018). CALRG Vision: Learners engage enthusiastically with science learning. In: CALRG: 40 Years Celebration, 10 Oct 2018, The Open University, Milton Keynes, UK.

Herodotou, Christothea; Aristeidou, M.; Scanlon, E. and Kelley, S.. (2018). Best Practice in Teaching with the Virtual Microscope: A Comparative Study of Blended and Online Learning. In: 7th eSTEeM Annual Conference, 25-26 Apr 2018, The Open University, Milton Keynes, UK.

Herodotou, Christothea; Aristeidou, Maria; Sharples, Mike and Scanlon, Eileen. (2018). Designing citizen science tools for learning: lessons learnt from the iterative development of nQuire. Research and Practice in Technology Enhanced Learning.

Herodotou, Christothea. (2018). Young children learning with mobile devices: Research on design and implementation. In: AERA Annual Conference 2018, 13-17 Apr 2018, New York.

Herodotou, Christothea. (2018). Empowering citizens to participate in scientific endeavours: Tools and approaches from the Citizen Inquiry group. In: European Citizen Science Association (ECSA) Conference, 3-5 Jun 2018, Geneva, Switzerland.

FitzGerald, Elizabeth; Kucirkova, Natalia; Jones, Ann; Cross, Simon; Ferguson, Rebecca; Herodotou, Christothea; Hillaire, Garron and Scanlon, Eileen. (2018). Dimensions of personalisation in technology-enhanced learning: a framework and implications for design. British Journal of Educational Technology, 49 (1) pp. 165-181.

Rienties, Bart; Herodotou, Christothea; Olney, Tom; Schencks, Mat and Boroowa, Avi. (2018). Making sense of learning analytics dashboards: a technology acceptance perspective of 95 teachers. International Review of Research in Open and Distance Learning, 19 (5) pp. 186-202.

Herodotou, Christothea. (2018). Young children and tablets: A systematic review of effects on learning and development. Journal of Computer Assisted Learning, 34 (1) pp. 1-9.

Ullmann, Thomas; Lay, Stephanie; Cross, Simon; Edwards, Chris; Gaved, Mark; Jones, Edwina; Hidalgo, Rafael; Evans, Gerald; Lowe, Sue; Calder, Kathleen; Clow, Doug; Coughlan, Tim; Herodotou, Christothea; Mangafa, Chrysoula and Rienties, Bart (2018). Scholarly insight Spring 2018: a Data wrangler perspective. Open University UK, Milton Keynes.

Ferguson, Rebecca; Herodotou, Christothea; Coughlan, Tim; Scanlon, Eileen and Sharples, Mike (2018). MOOC development: priority areas. In: Luckin, Rosemary eds. Enhancing Learning and Teaching with Technology: What the Research Says London: UCL IOE Press.

Herodotou, Christothea (2018). Citizen science and informal learning: A brief commentary. In: Luckin, Rosemary eds. Enhancing Learning and Teaching with Technology: What the Research Says. London: UCL Institute of Education Press.

Herodotou, Christothea. (2018). Mobile games and science learning: A comparative study of 4 and 5 years old playing the game Angry Birds. British Journal of Educational Technology, 49 (1) pp. 6-16.

2017

Herodotou, Christothea; Gilmour, Alison; Boroowa, Avinash; Rienties, Bart; Zdrahal, Zdenek and Hlosta, Martin. (2017). Predictive modelling for addressing students’ attrition in Higher Education: The case of OU Analyse. In: CALRG Annual Conference 2017, 14-16 Jun 2017, The Open University, Milton Keynes, UK.

Herodotou, Christothea; Heiser, Sarah and Rienties, Bart. (2017). Implementing Randomised Control Trials in Open and Distance Learning: A Feasibility Study. Open Learning: The Journal of Open, Distance and e-learning, 32 (2) pp. 147-162.

Herodotou, Christothea; Rienties, Bart; Boroowa, Avinash; Zdrahal, Zdenek; Hlosta, Martin and Naydenova, Galina. (2017). Implementing predictive learning analytics on a large scale: the teacher's perspective. In: Proceedings of the Seventh International Learning Analytics & Knowledge Conference, ACM, NY, 267-271.

Herodotou, Christothea; Sharples, Mike and Scanlon, Eileen (2017). Introducing citizen inquiry. In: Herodotou, Christothea; Sharples, Mike and Scanlon, Eileen eds. Citizen Inquiry: Synthesising Science and Inquiry Learning Routledge.

Sharples, Mike; Aristeidou, Maria; Villasclaras-Fernández, Eloy; Herodotou, Christothea and Scanlon, Eileen. (2017). The Sense-it App: A Smartphone Toolkit for Citizen Inquiry Learning. International Journal of Mobile and Blended Learning, 9 (2) pp. 16-38.

Herodotou, Christothea; Sharples, Mike and Scanlon, Eileen (2017). Citizen Inquiry: Synthesising Science and Inquiry Learning. Abingdon: Routledge.

Ferguson, Rebecca; Coughlan, Tim; Herodotou, Christothea and Scanlon, Eileen (2017). MOOCs: What the research of FutureLearn’s UK partners tells us. Institute of Educational Technology, The Open University, Milton Keynes.

Muirhead, David K.; Herodotou, Christothea; Aristeidou, Maria; Hole, M. J.; Kelley, Simon; Scanlon, Eileen and Duffy, M.. (2017). A Comparative Study of Blended and Online Learning using the Virtual Microscope for Earth Sciences. In: Horizons in STEM Higher Education Conference: Making Connections and Sharing Pedagogy, 39 Jun - 30 June 2017, Heriot-Watt University, UK.

Rienties, Bart; Rogaten, Jekaterina; Nguyen, Quan; Edwards, Chris; Gaved, Mark; Holt, Deborah; Herodotou, Christothea; Clow, Doug; Cross, Simon; Coughlan, Tim; Jones, Jan and Ullmann, Thomas (2017). Scholarly insight Spring 2017: A Data Wrangler Perspective. Open University UK.

Rienties, Bart; Clow, Doug; Coughlan, Tim; Cross, Simon; Edwards, Chris; Gaved, Mark; Herodotou, Christothea; Hlosta, Martin; Jones, Jan; Rogaten, Jekaterina and Ullmann, Thomas (2017). Scholarly insight Autumn 2017:a Data wrangler perspective. Open University UK.

Gilmour, Alison; MacLeod, Lucy; Naydenova, Galina; Boroowa, Avinash; Ward, Rebecca and Herodotou, Christothea. (2017). Predictive modelling and student retention: A collaborative enhancement project. In: 3rd International Enhancement in Higher Education Conference, 6-8 Jun 2017, Glasgow, UK.

Ferguson, Rebecca; Barzilai, Sarit; Ben-Zvi, Dani; Chinn, Clark A; Herodotou, Christothea; Hod, Yotam; Kali, Yael; Kukulska-Hulme, Agnes; Kupermintz, Haggai; McAndrew, Patrick; Rienties, Bart; Sagy, Ornit; Scanlon, Eileen; Sharples, Mike; Weller, Martin and Whitelock, Denise (2017). Innovating Pedagogy 2017: Exploring new forms of teaching, learning and assessment, to guide educators and policy makers. Open University Innovation Report 6. The Open University, Milton Keynes, UK.

Herodotou, Christothea and Edwards, Chris (2017). Factors explaining students’ satisfaction and performance in Business and Law modules. The Open University.

Herodotou, Christothea. (2017). Do children learn from playing Angry Birds? A comparative study of 4 and 5 years old. In: CALRG Annual Conference 2017, 14-16 Jun 2017, The Open University, Milton Keynes, UK.

Herodotou, Christothea; Aristeidou, Maria; Kelley, Simon and Scanlon, Eileen. (2017). Students' engagement with practical science online: Pedagogical implications of the use of virtual microscope in distance learning. In: EARLI 2017, 29 Aug - 2 Sep 2017.

2016

Herodotou, Christothea; Heiser, Sarah and Rienties, Bart. (2016). A randomised control study about the effects of different assessment registration encouragements. In: 8th Biennial conference of EARLI Sig 1: Assessment & Evaluation, 24-26 Aug 2016, Munich, Germany.

Rienties, Bart; Boroowa, Avinash; Cross, Simon; Farrington-Flint, Lee; Herodotou, Christothea; Prescott, Lynda; Mayles, Kevin; Olney, Tom; Toetenel, Lisette and Woodthorpe, John. (2016). Reviewing three case-studies of learning analytics interventions at the open university UK. In: Proceedings of the Sixth International Conference on Learning Analytics & Knowledge, ACM, New York, 534-535.

Sharples, Mike; de Roock, Roberto; Ferguson, Rebecca; Gaved, Mark; Herodotou, Christothea; Koh, Elizabeth; Kukulska-Hulme, Agnes; Looi, Chee-Kit; McAndrew, Patrick; Rienties, Bart; Weller, Martin and Wong, Lung Hsiang (2016). Innovating Pedagogy 2016: Open University Innovation Report 5. The Open University.

Ferguson, Rebecca; Coughlan, Tim and Herodotou, Christothea (2016). MOOCS: What The Open University research tells us. Institute of Educational Technology, The Open University, Milton Keynes.

Rienties, Bart; Edwards, Chris; Gaved, Mark; Marsh, Vicky; Herodotou, Christothea; Clow, Doug; Cross, Simon; Coughlan, Tim; Jones, Jan and Ullmann, Thomas (2016). Scholarly insight 2016: a Data wrangler perspective. Open University UK.

Mystakidis, Stylianos and Herodotou, Christothea. (2016). OpenQuest: Designing a Motivational Framework for MOOCs Instruction. In: MOOCs in Europe, European Commission, Maastricht, 141-145.

Herodotou, Christothea. (2016). Touchscreen mobile games and science learning: Do preschoolers benefit from their use?. In: BERA conference 2016, 13-15 Sep 2016, Leeds, UK.

Herodotou, Christothea. (2016). Are mobile games good for preschoolers? Angry Birds and science learning in a group of 5-years old. In: Proceedings of E-Learn: World Conference on E-Learning in Corporate, Government, Healthcare, and Higher Education, Association for the Advancement of Computing in Education (AACE), Chesapeake, VA, 679-687.

2015

Herodotou, Christothea; Kambouri, Maria and Winters, Niall. (2015). What characteristics of the gamers' profile should be taken into account in player-centred game design?. In: Workshop Proceedings of the 11th International Conference on Intelligent Environments, IOS Press, 289-297.

Herodotou, Christothea and Mystakidis, Stylianos. (2015). Addressing the Retention Gap in MOOCs: Towards a Motivational Framework for MOOCs Instructional Design. In: 16th Biennial EARLI Conference for Research on Learning and Instruction, 25-29 Aug 2015, Limassol, Cyprus.

Herodotou, Christothea; Winters, Niall and Kambouri, Maria. (2015). An Iterative, Multidisciplinary Approach to Studying Digital Play Motivation: The Model of Game Motivation. Games and Culture, 10 (3) pp. 249-268.

Sharples, Mike; Aristeidou, Maria; Villasclaras-Fernández, Eloy; Herodotou, Christothea and Scanlon, Eileen. (2015). Sense-it: A Smartphone Toolkit for Citizen Inquiry Learning. In: The Mobile Learning Voyage – From Small Ripples to Massive Open Waters, 366-377.

2014

Herodotou, Christothea; Villasclaras Fernandez, Eloy and Sharples, Mike (2014). The design and evaluation of a sensor-based mobile application for citizen inquiry science investigations. In: Rensing, Christoph; de Freitas, Sara; Ley, Tobias and Muñoz-Merino, Pedro J. eds. Open Learning and Teaching in Educational Communities: 9th European Conference on Technology Enhanced Learning, EC-TEL 2014, Graz, Austria, September 16-19, 2014, Proceedings SpringerInternational Publishing, pp. 434-439.

Herodotou, Christothea; Villasclaras-Fernandez, Eloy and Sharples, Mike. (2014). Scaffolding citizen inquiry science learning through the nQuire toolkit.. In: EARLI SIG 20: Computer Supported Inquiry Learning, 18-20 Aug 2014, Malmö University, Sweden.

Kyza, Eleni A.; Herodotou, Christothea; Nicolaidou, Iolie; Redfors, Andreas; Hansson, Lena; Schanze, Sascha; Saballus, Ulf; Papadouris, Nicos and Michael, Georgia (2014). Adapting web-based inquiry learning environments from one country to another: the CoReflect experience. In: Bruguière, Catherine; Tiberghien, Andrée and Clément, Pierre eds. Topics and Trends in Current Science Education Dordrecht: Springer Netherlands, pp. 567-582.

Herodotou, C.; Kambouri, M. and Winters, N.. (2014). Dispelling the myth of the socio-emotionally dissatisfied gamer. Computers in Human Behavior, 32 pp. 23-31.

2012

Herodotou, Christothea; Kyza, Eleni A.; Nicolaidou, Iolie; Hadjichambis, Andreas; Kafouris, Dimitris and Terzian, Freda. (2012). The development and validation of the GMOAS: an instrument measuring secondary students’ attitudes towards Genetically Modified Organisms.. International Journal of Science Education, Part B: Communication and Public Engagement, 2 (2) pp. 131-147.

Herodotou, Christothea; Winters, Niall and Kambouri, Maria. (2012). A Motivationally Oriented Approach to Understanding Game Appropriation. International Journal of Human-Computer Interaction, 28 (1) pp. 34-47.

2011

Herodotou, Christothea; Kambouri, Maria and Winters, Niall. (2011). The role of trait emotional intelligence in gamers' preferences for play and frequency of gaming. Computers in Human Behavior, 27 (5) pp. 1815-1819.

2009

Herodotou, Christothea (2009). Game Appropriation: Where does the gamer fit?. PhD thesis UCL Institute of Education.

Current

	EduCS (Educating citizens and organisations in Citizen Science methodologies)	2020
	LEARN CitSci (LEARN CitSci: Learning and Environmental science Agency Research Network for Citizen Science )	2017 - 2021
	nQuire	2017 - 2020

Completed

	m-Evaluate (mEvaluate: Devising an evaluation framework for the design and use of mobile learning applications in early years' education)	2017 - 2018
	Mobile game applications and participation in science learning of preschoolers from disadvantaged backgrounds	2015 - 2016
	nQuire (nQuire: Young Citizen Inquiry)	2013 - 2014
	PKF (Police Knowledge Fund)	2015 - 2017