Dr Fereshte Goshtasbpour

Lecturer in Online Teaching

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About

I am a lecturer in Online Teaching at the Institute of Educational Technology.

My research focuses on learning and teaching in open and scaled online educational and professional contexts. I am particularly interested in online educators and their practices to facilitate and scaffold learning in such settings. My recent research activity has focused on educators and digital education in low-resourced settings and in Global South while developing the educators’ expertise in offering inclusive digital education. This contributes to understanding decisions and actions educators take to offer digital education in a more accessible, inclusive and contextualised manner. My other research interests are:

- Digital technology in higher education

- Open online education and OER

- Online communications

- Professional learning

Since I joined IET in 2020, I have worked on the following research and international development projects:

2020-23 Capacity development lead, Skills for Prosperity Kenya (Funder: FCDO)
2021 Co-investigator, Digital Decisions: Understanding and supporting key choices in online and blended teaching in Sub-Saharan Africa (Funder: British Council)
2020-21 Co-investigator, Impact of COVID-19 on Equitable Access to Quality Education in the Context of Higher Education in Low- and Middle-Income Countries (Funder: OU RES)
2020-21 Academic lead [maternity cover], Tackling Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR) in Low-and-Middle Income Countries (Flunder: Fleming Fund)
2020-21 Co-investigator [maternity cover], Mobile Arts for Peace (MAP) in Kyrgyzstan, Rwanda, Indonesia and Nepal (Funder: AHRC and GCFR)

Before joining The Open University as a Co-I, I collaborated on (i) Co-creating a Digital Research Living Lab by and for educational psychology students (Funded by Manchester Metropolitan University); (ii) Approaching summative assessments through student-staff partnership (a case study of the use of assessment podcasts, discussion forums and simulated recall in a PGT module) funded by Manchester Metropolitan; and Enhancing communication: Understanding the needs of non-native speakers in higher education (Funded by: UKCISA).

My teaching responsibilities include contribution to the IET curriculum portfolio. I am the presentation chair for IET microcredential (Online Teaching: Creating Courses for Adult Learners) and MA in Online Teaching module (Research and Scholarship in Digital Education). I have also been contributing to the revision, production and evaluation of a number of IET modules and microcredentials.

Additionally, I sever as the co-lead of Computers and Learning Research Group (CALRG) within IET and contribute to the organisation and delivery of CALRG weekly seminars, events and annual conference. I am also a steering committee member for FutureLearn Academic Network (FLAN) that organises research informed events and talks about FutureLearn courses and act an Associate Editor of the Journal of Interactive Media in Education (JIME).

Biography

I have over ten years of teaching experience in UK higher education as a lecturer and programme co-ordinator in digital education and TESOL (Teaching English to the Speakers of Other Languages). My main area of research and teaching has been technology-supported learning and teaching particularly in language education, higher education and professional contexts.

Academic Biography

PhD in Education (2019).University of Leeds (UK)

Trinity CertTESOL (2010). University of Manchester (UK)

MA in TEFL(2009). Manchester Metropolitan University (UK)

BA Translation Studies (2003). Azad University (Iran)

Publications

2023

Charitonos, Koula; Littlejohn, Allison; Dawadi, Saraswati; Vaidya, Abhinav; Giri, Santosi; Owusu-Ofori, Alex and Goshtasbpour, Fereshte. (2023). Developing Relational Work as a Design Tool in activities with health professionals. In: EARLI2023 Conference, 22-26 Aug 2023, Thessaloniki, Greece.

Goshtasbpour, Fereshte; Pitt, Beck; Cross, Simon; Ferguson, Rebecca and Whitelock, Denise. (2023). Challenges for Innovation and Educational Change in Digital Education in Low Resourced Settings: A Kenyan Example. In: European Distance and E-Learning Network (EDEN) 2023 Annual Conference, 18-20 Jun 2023, Dublin, Ireland.

Coughlan, Tim; Goshtasbpour, Fereshte; Mwoma, Teresa; Makoe, Mpine; Aubrey-Smith, Fiona and Tanglang, Nebath. (2023). Decision Making in Shifts to Online Teaching: Analysing Reflective Narratives from Staff Working in African Higher Educational Institutions. Trends in Higher Education, 2 (1) pp. 123-139.

Littlejohn, Allison; Charitonos, Koula; Goshtasbpour, Fereshte; Dawadi, Saraswati and McMullan, Rachel. (2023). Addressing the persistent disconnect between learning and work: Using a Logic Model to support negotiations of diverse actors during the design of digital learning systems. Learning Letters (In Press).

2022

Goshtasbpour, Fereshte; Ferguson, Rebecca; Pitt, Rebecca; Cross, Simon and Whitelock, Denise. (2022). Adapting OER: Addressing the Challenges of Reuse When Designing for HE Capacity Development. In: 21st European Conference on e-Learning (ECEL), 27-28 Oct 2022, Brighton.

Goshtasbpour, Fereshte; Swinnerton, Bronwen J. and Pickering, James D.. (2022). Twelve tips for engaging learners in online discussions. Medical Teacher, 44 (3) pp. 244-248.

Ngatia, David; Kamonjo, Florence and Goshtasbpour, Fereshte. (2022). Impact of online teaching capacity building programmes on online teaching: a case of University of Kabianga Kenya. In: Tenth Pan-Commonwealth Forum on Open Learning, 14-16 Sep 2022, Calgary.

Jordan, Katy and Goshtasbpour, Fereshte. (2022). JIME Virtual Special Collection – 2012 to 2022: The Decade of the MOOC. Journal of Interactive Media in Education pp. 1-14.

2021

Charitonos, Koula; Littlejohn, Allison; Dawadi, Saraswati; Mcmullan, Rachel; MacQueen, Hilary; Goshtasbpour, Fereshte; Ullmann, Thomas and De Munari, Paola (2021). Tackling Antimicrobial Resistance through Professional Learning: The Development and Evaluation of the Global AMR Curriculum. The Open University.

Coughlan, Tim; Goshtasbpour, Fereshte; Mwoma, Teresa; Makoe, Mpine; Tanglang, Nebath; Bonney, Solomon; Aubrey-Smith, Fiona and Biard, Olivier (2021). Digital Decision: Understanding and supporting key choices in online and blended teaching in Sub-Saharan Africa. The Open University, Milton Keynes, UK.

Coughlan, Tim; Goshtasbpour, Fereshte; Mwoma, Teresa; Makoe, Mpine; Tanglang, Nebath; Bonney, Solomon and Biard, Olivier (2021). Making digital decisions: A Guide for harnessing the potential of online learning and digital technologies. The Open University, Milton Keynes, UK.

Charitonos, Koula; Goshtasbpour, Fereshte; Dawadi, Saraswati; Littlejohn, Allison; Badger, S.; Vaidya, Abhinav; Giri, Santosi and Owusu-Ofori, Alex (2021). Tackling Antimicrobial Resistance: The AMR Surveillance Toolkit. The Open University.

2020

Goshtasbpour, Fereshte; Swinerton, Bronwen and Morris, Neil Peter. (2020). Look who’s talking: Exploring instructors’ contributions to Massive Open Online Courses. British Journal of Educational Technology, 51 (1) pp. 228-244.

de Jong, Peter; Pickering, James; Swinerton, Bronwen; Hendriks, Renée; Goshtasbpour, Fereshte and Reinders, Marlies. (2020). Twelve tips for integrating massive open online course content into classroom teaching. Medical Teacher, 42 (4) pp. 393-397.

2019

Goshtasbpour, Fereshte (2019). Exploring instructors’ contributions to Massive Open Online Courses. BERA, London, UK.

Goshtasbpour, Fereshte (2019). Exploring Instructor Contributions to Discussions in Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs). PhD thesis University of Leeds.

Awards

Best Presentation Award

The 8th International Conference on Distance Learning and Education, Barcelona, Spain.

Best Presentation Prize for Education, Childhood and Youth Pathway

The 7th White Rose DTP Annual Conference, York, UK.

Finalist- The 8th e-Learning Excellence Awards

21st European Conference on e-Learning, Brighton, UK.