About
I am Professor of Technology Enhanced Assessment and Learning in the Open University’s Institute of Educational Technology, with over twenty years experience in designing, researching and evaluating online and computer-based learning in Higher Education.
I am currently leading the UK’s contribution to the Adaptive Trust e-Assessment System for Learning (TeSLA) project, which started in January 2016 https://www.timeshighereducation.com/news/six-million-pound-european-union-eu-project-aims-to-stamp-out-cheating-in-online-assessment. The overall objective of the TeSLA project is to define and develop an e-assessment system, which ensures learners authentication and authorship in online and blended learning environments while avoiding the time and physical space limitations imposed by face-to-face examination.
I am leading the UK's contribution to the European CODUR project http://in3.uoc.edu/opencms_in3/opencms/webs/projectes/codur/en/index.html This work builds on the digital tools already developed to measure the quality of online education and integrate thse into the EU's existing international ranking system, U-Multirank.
I am also co PI for the HEFCE funded Learning Gains Project with Surrey and Oxford Brookes Universities. It is a three year longitudinal study assessing the suitability and scalability of the Affective-Behaviour-Cognition (ABC) Learning Gains model across the HE sector in England.
Biography
Denise has over twenty years experience in designing, researching and evaluating online and computer-based learning in Higher Education. She is Professor of Technology Enhanced Assessment and Learning in the Open University’s Institute of Educational Technology.
Denise has recently finished directing the SAFeSEA project. http://www.open.ac.uk/researchprojects/safesea/The aim of this research was to provide an effective automated interactive feedback system that yields an acceptable level of support for university students writing essays in a distance or e-learning context.
She is currently working on the European funded TeSLA project http://tesla-project.eu/ This TeSLA software will support any e-assessment model (formative, summative and continuous) covering teaching and learning processes as well as ethical, legal and technological aspects. TeSLA will offer to educational institutions, accrediting agencies and to society, an unambiguous proof of learners’ academic progression, authorship and authentication during the whole learning process.
Other ongoing projects include CODUR (Creating an online dimension for University rankings) http://in3.uoc.edu/opencms_in3/opencms/webs/projectes/codur/en/index.html and the HEFCE funded Learning Gains project which is a three year longitudinal study assessing the suitability and scalability of the Affective-Behaviour-Cogition (ABC) Learning Gains model across the Higher Education sector.
She has also led a series of projects from 2009 which were funded by the Spanish Government which addressed ways in which online materials with feedback could be used to support students with chronic illness who could only attend school infrequently.
She was a regular Programme Committee member of the Computer Assisted Assessment Conference which she chaired from 2010 to 2013. This has now been renamed as the Technology-Enhanced Assessment Conference where she still remains a Programme Committee member.
She has edited four special journal issues on e-Assessment for BJET, LMTECI, IJCELL and IJEA. She was appointed the Editor of the Journal of Open Learning in 2018. Her work has received international recognition as she holds visiting chairs at the Autonoma University, Barcelona and the British University in Dubai. Denise has also served as a member of the governing council for the Society for Research into Higher Education, for the last nine years.
Publications
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Media appearances
£6m EU project aims to stamp out cheating in online assessments
An adaptive trust-based e-assessment system for learning (TeSLA). The project aim is to define and develop an e-assessment system that ensures learner authentication and authorship in online and blended learning environments while avoiding the time and space limitations of place-based examination.
Times Higher Educational Supplement | 14th April 2016
e-Assessment Research
THE No. 1,777, article by Harriet Swain, 2007
Times Higher Educational Supplement | 20th November 2007
Expert view on video conferencing system
Appeared on Channel 5 News in the role of an I.T. expert commenting on a new video conferencing system produced by Manchester University for teaching at a distance
Channel 5 television, 2000 | 5th April 2000
Awards
Best conference Paper
Computer Assisted Assessment Conference (CAA13), Southampton
Best conference paper
Computer Supported Collaborative Learning Conference (CSCL95), Indiana
Best Research paper
EDEN Research Workshop, Oxford
Projects
Research programmes
Professional memberships
- Association of Learning Technologists