About
I am a Lecturer in Online Teaching at the Institute of Educational Technology, the Open University (UK), and a Visiting Researcher at the Department of Management Science, Lancaster University. My research seeks to understand how technology can be leveraged to improve social justice in the learning contexts, and more generally - in society.
I am a Fellow of Higher Education Academy (FHEA). As a seminar leader and then an Assistant Professor, I taught a variety of academic university courses on education on the undergraduate (e.g. 'Second Language Acquisition', 'Literature and Language Teaching') and graduate (e.g. 'Research Methods and Thesis Writing', 'International Development and Education') levels in international English-medium settings, as well as in the UK.
My research has been published in such leading education journals, as Journal of Computer Assisted Learning, Interactive Learning Environments, International Journal of Ed Tech in HE, Computer Assisted Language Learning, English for Specific Purposes, and in such CORE A conference proceedings, as Learning at Scale.
Publications
2024
Rets, Irina; Whitelock, Denise; Edwards, Chris; Perryman, Leigh-Anne and Goshtasbpour, Fereshte. (). Energising the energy literacy debate for environmental education: Exploring citizens’ interest levels, knowledge gaps and individual differences. Australian Journal of Environmental Education, 40 (4) pp. 740-757.
Bailey, Sara; FitzGerald, Elizabeth; Kukulska-Hulme, Agnes and Rets, Irina. (). Digital Exclusion or Digital Rejection? Exploring the Rejection of Digitalised Social Rights by Racialised Individuals with Migration Backgrounds in the UK. In: British Sociological Association Annual Conference 2024, 3-5 Apr 2024, Online.
Chandler, Kathy; Aristeidou, Maria; Ball, Simon; Charitonos, Koula; Kent, Carmel; Perryman, Leigh‐Anne and Rets, Irina. (). Collaboration and care in climate education: Brave responses to an uncertain future. The Curriculum Journal (Early access).
2023
Kukulska-Hulme, Agnes; Bossu, Carina; Charitonos, Koula; Coughlan, Tim; Deacon, Andrew; Deane, Nawaal; Ferguson, Rebecca; Herodotou, Christothea; Huang, Cheng-Wen; Mayisela, Tabisa; Rets, Irina; Sargent, Julia; Scanlon, Eileen; Small, Janet; Walji, Sukaina; Weller, Martin and Whitelock, Denise (). Innovating Pedagogy 2023: Open University Innovation Report 11. The Open University, Milton Keynes.
Tarafdar, Monideepa; Rets, Irina and Hu, Yang. (). Can ICT enhance workplace inclusion? ICT-enabled workplace inclusion practices and a new agenda for inclusion research in Information Systems. The Journal of Strategic Information Systems.
Farrow, Robert; Weller, Martin; Pitt, Rebecca; Iniesto, Francisco; Algers, Anne; Almousa, Samia; Baas, Marjon; Bentley, Penny; Bozkurt, Aras; Butler, Walter; Cardoso, Paula; Chtena, Natascha; Cox, Glenda; Czerwonogora, Ada; Dabrowski, Michael T.; Darby, Robert; DeWaard, Helen; Kathy, Essmiller; Johanna, Funk; Jenni, Hayman; Emily, Helton; Huth, Kate; Hutton, Sarah C.; Iyinolakan, Olawale; Johnson, Kathryn R.; Jordan, Katy; Kuhn, Caroline; Lambert, Sarah; Mittelmeier, Jenna; Nagashima, Tomo; Nerantzi, Chrissi; O'Reilly, Jessica; Paskevicius, Michael; Peramunugamage, Anuradha; Pete, Judith; Power, Virginia; Pulker, Hélène; Rabin, Eyal; Rets, Irina; Roberts, Verena; Rodés, Virginia; Sousa, Lorena; Spica, Elizabeth; Vizgirda, Vidminas; Vladimirschi, Viviane and Witthaus, Gabi (). The Go-GN Open Research Handbook. Milton Keynes: Global OER Graduate Network.
Rets, Irina; Kukulska-Hulme, Agnes; Bailey, Sara and FitzGerald, Elizabeth. (). On the journey to impact: developing an impact strategy plan for the PRIME project. In: Social Sciences Impact Conference 2023, 20-21 Mar 2023, University of Oxford.
Rets, Irina; Herodotou, Christothea and Gillespie, Anna. (). Six Practical Recommendations Enabling Ethical Use of Predictive Learning Analytics in Distance Education. Journal of Learning Analytics, 10 (1) pp. 149-167.
Rets, Irina; Coughlan, Tim; Stickler, Ursula and Astruc, Lluïsa. (). Accessibility of Open Educational Resources: how well are they suited for English learners?. Open Learning: The Journal of Open and Distance Learning, 38 (1) pp. 38-57.
Lewis, Tim; Rienties, Bart and Rets, Irina (). Communication, metacommunication and intercultural effectiveness in virtual exchange: The Evaluate project. In: Potolia, Anthippi and Derivry-Plard, Marine eds. Virtual Exchange for Intercultural Language Learning and Teaching: Fostering Communication for the Digital Age London & New York: Routledge, pp. 133-155.
Rets, Irina; Rienties, Bart and Lewis, Tim. (). Untangling the relationship between pre-service teachers’ development of intercultural effectiveness and their experiences in virtual exchange. ReCALL, 35 (3) pp. 241-257.
2022
Rets, Irina; Astruc, Lluïsa; Coughlan, Tim and Stickler, Ursula. (). Approaches to simplifying academic texts in English: English teachers’ views and practices. English for Specific Purposes, 68 pp. 31-46.
Konnikov, Alla; Rets, Irina; Hughes, Karen D.; Alshehabi Al-Ani, Jabir; Denier, Nicole; Ding, Lei; Hu, Shenggang; Hu, Yang; Jiang, Bei; Kong, Linglong; Tarafdar, Monideepa and Yu, Dengdeng (). Responsible AI for labour market equality (BIAS). In: Hantrais, Linda eds. How to Manage International Multidisciplinary Research Projects Cheltenham: Edward Elgar, pp. 75-87.
Tarafdar, Monideepa; Rets, Irina and Hu, Yang. (). Can ICT enhance workplace inclusion? The role of ICT-enabled inclusion practices. In: ECIS 2022 Research-in-Progress Papers.
Hu, Yang; Tarafdar, Monideepa; Alshehabi Al-Ani, Jabir; Rets, Irina; Hu, Shenggang; Denier, Nicole; Hughes, Karen D.; Konnikov, Alla and Ding, Lei (). Gendered STEM Workforce in the United Kingdom: The Role of Gender Bias in Job Advertising. HMSO.
Rienties, Bart; Lewis, Tim; O'Dowd, Robert; Rets, Irina and Rogaten, Jekaterina. (). The impact of virtual exchange on TPACK and foreign language competence: reviewing a large-scale implementation across 23 virtual exchanges. Computer Assisted Language Learning, 35 (3) pp. 577-603.
Rienties, Bart and Rets, Irina. (). The impact of virtual exchange on East-West social relations: lessons from a China-Portugal foreign language exchange. Journal of China Computer-Assisted Language Learning, 2 (1) pp. 1-19.
Rets, Irina; Stickler, Ursula; Coughlan, Tim and Astruc, Lluïsa (). Simplification of open educational resources in English: Its effect on text processing of English learners. In: Rienties, Bart; Hampel, Regine; Scanlon, Eileen and Whitelock, Denise eds. Open World Learning: Research, Innovation and the Challenges of High-Quality Education London: Routledge, pp. 89-102.
2021
Farrow, Robert; Iniesto, Francisco; Weller, Martin; Pitt, Rebecca; Algers, Anne; Bozkurt, Aras; Cox, Glenda; Czerwonogora, Ada; Elias, Tanya; Essmiller, Kathy; Funk, Johanna; Lambert, Sarah; Mittelmeier, Jenna; Nagashima, Tomo; Rabin, Eyal; Rets, Irina; Spica, Elizabeth; Vladimirschi, Viviane and Witthaus, Gabi (). GO-GN Guide to Conceptual Frameworks. Global OER Graduate Network (GO-GN). The Open University (UK).
Rets, Irina and Rogaten, Jekaterina. (). To simplify or not? Facilitating English L2 users’ comprehension and processing of Open Educational Resources in English using text simplification. Journal of Computer Assisted Learning, 37 (3) pp. 705-717.
Rets, Irina (). Linguistic accessibility of Open Educational Resources: Text Simplification As An Aid To Non-native Readers Of English. PhD thesis The Open University.
Rets, Irina and Rienties, Bart (). Virtual exchange: supporting online collaboration to benefit all learners. THE campus / Times Higher Education.
Rets, Irina; Herodotou, Christothea; Bayer, Vaclav; Hlosta, Martin and Rienties, Bart. (). Exploring critical factors of the perceived usefulness of a learning analytics dashboard for distance university students. International Journal of Educational Technology in Higher Education.
Savasci, Merve and Rets, Irina. (). “As the Twig is bent, so is the Tree Inclined”: Research engagement among pre-service EFL teachers. The Journal of Language Teaching and Learning, 11 (2) pp. 114-137.
2020
Rets, Irina. (). What if ‘eye’ find it too difficult? English L2 users’ response to text simplification. In: SIG27: Sharpening the facets of online measures: Research at the cutting edge, 14 Dec - 16 Dec 2020, [Online].
Papathoma, Tina; Ferguson, Rebecca; Iniesto, Francisco; Rets, Irina; Vogiatzis, Dimitrios and Murphy, Victoria. (). Guidance on how Learning at Scale can be made more accessible. In: Proceedings of the Seventh ACM Conference on Learning@ Scale, Aug 12-14, Georgia Tech, Atlanta, GA.
Rets, Irina; Rienties, Bart and Lewis, Timothy. (). Transforming pre-service teacher education through Virtual Exchange: a mixed-method analysis of perceived TPACK development. Interactive Learning Environments, 31 (3) pp. 1229-1241.
2018
Rets, Irina and Ilya, Ali. (). Eliciting ELT students’ Understanding of Plagiarism in Academic Writing. Eurasian Journal of Applied Linguistics, 4 (2) pp. 193-211.
2017
Rets, Irina. (). Vocabulary Retention and Concordance-based Learning in L3 Acquisition. Eurasian Journal of Applied Linguistics, 3 (2) pp. 313-324.
Media appearances
First time OU students commented on their own learning analytics data in a research study – how did it go?
Blog post
OpenTEL blog | 30th September 2021
How can Text Inspector help with comparative readability analysis?
Blog post
Text Inspector blog | 8th November 2021
Virtual exchange: supporting online collaboration to benefit all learners
Article
The Times Higher Education (THE) | 27th January 2021
Why open educational resources are failing to widen access to education
Article
British Educational Research Association (BERA) blog | 13th January 2021
Awards
Going the Extra Mile (GEM) Award
An award for my work on QEI’s Learning Gains project and going the extra mile to ensure my work runs smoothly, the data I collected and insight have been of excellent quality, and I am sharing methods and findings with others on the team to help direct their tasks.
WELS research degree student prize for research excellence
An award for the outstanding contribution to the research environment of the university
Research programmes
Expertise
Professional memberships
- Fellow of the Higher Education Academy