We use some essential cookies to make this website work. We’d also like to set additional analytics cookies to help us understand how you use this website.
For more information, or to change your preferences, go to our cookies page. A link to which can always be found in our footer.
I'm a Senior Lecturer in the Institute of Educational Technology at The Open University, and our Associate Director for Research and Knowledge Exchange.
My research crosses the areas of Education and Human-Computer Interaction. I’m particularly focused on the design and evaluation of systems that support inclusion, creativity, and openness in learning.
Recent projects include:
Collaborating with Goggleminds and colleagues from the School of Health, Wellbeing and Social Care to evaluate uses of VR simulations for online healthcare training.
The Microsoft funded ADMINS project and Open Societal Challenge: Digital Access Advisor which focus on developing AI assistants for students to discuss disabilities, barriers and relevant support for their studies.
The British Council funded Digital Decisions project, which explored key decisions made as higher education in Sub-Saharan Africa moves to make greater use of online and blended modes of study. This led to the creation of new resources for educators and managers.
Our Journey - a platform to represent the challenges and achievements in study journeys, supported by Jisc, Office for Students and Higher Education Innovation funding.
I led the development of the postgraduate microcredential Accessibility and Inclusive Learning and continue to chair the course. I chair the Securing Greater Accessibility (SeGA) initiative and Coordination Group, and chair the Tuition Accessibility Group. Through this I play a role in steering some of the pan-university activities to make OU study accessible to all.
My passion is for user-centred and participatory research. However I also work on approaches to analyse the large quantitative data sets generated by learners at scale, and am interested in how we interpret and use these analytics through the participation of learners and staff in educational institutions.
Biography
Dr Tim Coughlan is Associate Director for Research and Knowledge Exchange and a Senior Lecturer in the Institute for Educational Technology at the Open University. His research crosses the areas of Education and Human-Computer Interaction. He is particularly focused on the design and evaluation of systems that support inclusion, creativity, and openness in learning.
Tim chairs the OU's Securing Greater Accessibility (SeGA) Coordination Group, and the Tuition Accessibility Group, which provides a pan-university forum for enhancing accessibility. He also led creation of the postgraduate microcredential: Accessibility and Inclusive Learning.
He led the development of Our Journey, a platform to support students to represent and reflect on their study journeys, and in ADMINS, led creation of a virtual assistant to support disabled students. More recent work has focused further on the ways in which AI assistants can support online study, and the use of VR simulations and AI to support healthcare training.
He currently co-supervises four doctoral students: Jade Matos Carew, Marilyn Long, Sam Johnson and Mychelle Pride, and has supervised seven doctoral students to completion in projects that focus on various aspects of inclusion in educational technology and online learning.
Other recent research projects explore the experiences of online and open learning for disabled students, the uses of open data as a material for learning, and collaborative authoring of open online courses to widen participation in higher education.
Before that, Tim worked as a researcher at the Institute of Educational Technology at the OU, working on the Bridge to Success, Digital ScholarshipandOut There and In Here projects.
Before that, he completed PhD research in Computer Science at the University of Bath. This studied how computers can be designed to support creative interaction.
Coughlan, Tim; Rienties, Bart; Domingue, John; Herodotou, Christothea; Ullmann, Thomas; Bektik, Duygu; Edwards, Chris; Whitelock, Denise; Coughlan, Emily and Tessarolo, Felipe. (). Holding a lead, or the tail wagging the dog? Exploring educator influence over the behaviour of AI Digital Assistants. In: European Distance and E-Learning Network (EDEN) Proceedings: Human and Artificial Intelligence for the Society of the Future, European Distance and E-Learning Network.
Iniesto, Francisco; McAndrew, Patrick; Minocha, Shailey and Coughlan, Tim (). Accessibility in MOOCs: the stakeholders’ perspectives. 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. 119-130.
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 (). Innovating Pedagogy 2020: Open University Innovation Report 8. The Open University, Milton Keynes.
2019
Coughlan, Tim; Lister, Kate; Seale, Jane; Scanlon, Eileen and Weller, Martin (). Accessible Inclusive Learning: Foundations. In: Ferguson, Rebecca; Jones, Ann and Scanlon, Eileen eds. Educational visions: The lessons from 40 years of innovation London: Ubiquity press, pp. 51-73.
Coughlan, Tim; Lister, Kate; Seale, Jane; Scanlon, Eileen and Weller, Martin (). Accessible Inclusive Learning: Futures. In: Ferguson, Rebecca; Jones, Ann and Scanlon, Eileen eds. Educational visions: The lessons from 40 years of innovation London: Ubiquity press, pp. 75-91.
Ferguson, Rebecca; Herodotou, Christothea; Coughlan, Tim; Scanlon, Eileen and Sharples, Mike (). MOOC development: priority areas. In: Luckin, Rosemary eds. Enhancing Learning and Teaching with Technology: What the Research Says London: UCL IOE Press.
Iniesto, Francisco; McAndrew, Patrick; Minocha, Shailey and Coughlan, Tim. (). What do MOOC providers think about accessibility?. In: EARLI 2017: Education in the crossroads of economy and politics – Role of research in the advancement of public good, 29 Aug - 2 Sep 2017, Tampere, Finland.
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 (). Scholarly insight Spring 2017: A Data Wrangler Perspective. Open University UK.
Iniesto, Francisco; McAndrew, Patrick; Minocha, Shailey and Coughlan, Tim. (). How can MOOCs be more accessible?. In: OER17: The Politics of Open, 5 & 6 Apr 2017, London.
Rienties, Bart; Edwards, Chris; Gaved, Mark; Marsh, Vicky; Herodotou, Christothea; Clow, Doug; Cross, Simon; Coughlan, Tim; Jones, Jan and Ullmann, Thomas (). Scholarly insight 2016: a Data wrangler perspective. Open University UK.
Baron, Nick; Carletti, Laura; Muñoz Civantos, Angeles; Coughlan, Tim; Allen, Robert; Lach, Pamella; Davies, Catherine; Tyler-Jones, Richard and Ferran, Bronac. (). Spatial Humanities Moving Beyond the Dot on a Map. In: Proceedings of the Digital Research in the Humanities and Arts Conference, DRHA2014, 111-116.
Giannachi, Gabriella; Sinker, Rebecca; Stack, John; Locatelli, Cristina; Carletti, Laura; Price, Dominic; McAuley, Derek; Coughlan, Tim and Benford, Steve. (). ArtMaps: A Technology for Looking at Tate’s Collection. Leonardo.
Coughlan, Tim; Carletti, Laura; Giannachi, Gabriella; Benford, Steve; McAuley, Derek; Price, Dominic; Locatelli, Cristina; Sinker, Rebecca and Stack, John. (). ArtMaps: interpreting the spatial footprints of artworks. In: ACM Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI) 2015, 18-23 Apr 2015, Seoul, Republic of Korea.
Coughlan, Tim; Leder Mackley, Kerstin; Brown, Michael; Martindale, Sarah; Schlögl, Stephan; Mallaband, Becky; Arnott, John; Hoonhout, Jettie; Szostak, Dalila; Brewer, Robin; Poole, Erika; Pirhonen, Antti; Mitchell, Val; Pink, Sarah and Hine, Nicholas. (). Current Issues and Future Directions in Methods for Studying Technology in the Home. PsychNology Journal, 11 (2) pp. 159-184.
Coughlan, Tim; Adams, Anne and Rogers, Yvonne. (). Designing for balance: 'Out There and in Here'. In: 24th BCS Conference on Human-Computer Interaction (HCI2010): Play is a Serious Business, 6-10 Sep 2010, Dundee, Scotland.
Go The Distance gives you a 10-week taste of what distance learning is really like – with real students, real tutors, key study and digital literacy skills and lots of help with your English.
BBC | 1st November 2017
Overcoming barriers to accessible and inclusive digital learning
A practical article describing strategies that educators can use to make online learning more accessible and inclusive.