Tim Coughlan

I am a Lecturer in the Institute of Educational Technology at The Open University. 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.

Current research projects include designing tools for the representation of challenges and achievements in study journeys (Our Journey), improving support in online and open education for disabled students (Ed-ICT, Time Better Spent, Open Learning and Accessibility), and teaching community-led design practices through online courses (Empowering Design Practices).

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.

I was previously a Horizon Digital Economy Research Fellow and Lecturer in Computer Science at the University of Nottingham. As part of Horizon I worked on a variety of projects funded by RCUK and AHRC. These included the design and evaluation of new technologies to support participation and informal learning in museum spaces, and studies to understand data sharing and assistive technologies in the home.

My current teaching covers the areas of networked practice, accessible online learning, and computing project courses. I support Open University teaching through roles as a Data Wrangler for the WELS faculty, and as an Open Media Associate and Accessibility Coordinator.

Dr Tim Coughlan is a Lecturer in 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 is a member of the Securing Greater Accessibility (SeGA) coordination group, an Accessibility Coordinator, and an Open Media Associate. The Open University has a mission to widen participation and success in education, and these roles involve working to create the most effective formal and informal learning opportunities that are accessible to the widest range of people.

He is also a Data Wrangler, working as part of a team to enhance the use of learning analytics at the OU. This involves working with WELS faculty and contributing to projects conducted and reported in the Scholarly Insight series.

Tim leads on the development of Our Journey. This is a set of openly licenced tools to support students to represent their experiences of study over time. Work to develop these tools further is currently funded by Jisc and LATIS.

He is a Co-Investigator on the AHRC-funded Empowering Design Practices project and a core member of the Leverhulme-funded international network:Disabled students, ICT, post compulsory education and employment: in search of new solutions.

He co-supervises four PhD students: Irina Rets, George Alain, Francisco Iniesto and Jo Buxton and two EdD students: Wendy Fowle and Karen Foley.

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.

Tim was previously a HorizonResearch Fellow and Lecturer in the School of Computer Science at the University of Nottingham, where he was involved in a range of research projects including ArtMaps, Creativity Greenhouse,and Stories of User Appropriation.

Before that, Tim worked as a researcher at the Institute of Educational Technology at the OU, working on the Bridge to Success, Digital Scholarship and Out 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.

2019

Coughlan, Tim; Pitt, Beck and Farrow, Rob. (2019). Forms of Innovation Inspired by Open Educational Resources: A Post-Project Analysis. Open Learning: The Journal of Open, Distance and e-learning, 34 (2) pp. 156-175.

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.

Coughlan, Tim; Lister, Kate and Freear, Nick. (2019). Our Journey: Designing and utilising a tool to support students to represent their study journeys. In: 13th Annual International Technology, Education and Development Conference (INTED), 11-13 Mar 2019, Valencia, Spain.

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.

2018

Iniesto, Francisco; McAndrew, Patrick; Minocha, Shailey and Coughlan, Tim. (2018). Open Education while discussing accessibility with MOOC providers and learners. In: OER18: Open to All, 18-19 Apr, Bristol.

Lister, Katharine and Coughlan, Tim. (2018). Student perceptions of the language of disability, deficit and empowerment. In: Proceedings of the fifth Widening Participation Conference, 26-27 Apr 2018, Milton Keynes.

Coughlan, Tim and Lister, Katharine. (2018). The accessibility of administrative processes: Assessing the impacts on students in higher education. In: Proceedings of the 15th International Cross-Disciplinary Conference on Web Accessibility (Web4All 2018), ACM Press, New York.

Ullmann, Thomas; Lay, Stephanie; Coughlan, Tim; Lister, Katharine; Cross, Simon; Rienties, Bart and Whitelock, Denise. (2018). Understanding SEaM student comments from a Big(ger)Data perspective: what are students saying?. In: CALRG Annual Conference 2018, 18-19 Jun 2018, The Open University, Milton Keynes.

Iniesto, Francisco; McAndrew, Patrick; Minocha, Shailey and Coughlan, Tim. (2018). Widening disabled learners’ participation to HE through the use of MOOCs. In: Widening Participation Conference: Is widening participation to higher education enough?, 26-28 Apr 2018, Milton Keynes.

Alain, George; Coughlan, Tim; Adams, Anne and Yanacopulos, Helen. (2018). A Process for Co-Designing Educational Technology Systems for Refugee Children. In: British HCI 2018, 4-6 Jul 2018, Belfast, Northern Ireland, UK.

Alain, George; Coughlan, Tim; Adams, Anne and Yanacopulos, Helen. (2018). Qualitative Data Analysis Challenges in Co-Designing Educational Technology Systems for Refugee Children. In: British HCI 2018, Workshop Title: Qualitative Data Research in HCI, 3 Jul 2018, Belfast.

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.

2017

Evans, Elizabeth; Coughlan, Tim and Coughlan, Vicky. (2017). Building digital estates: Multiscreening, technology management and ephemeral television. Critical Studies in Television: The International Journal of Television Studies, 12 (2) pp. 191-205.

Iniesto, Francisco; McAndrew, Patrick; Minocha, Shailey and Coughlan, Tim. (2017). What are the expectations of disabled learners when participating in a MOOC?. In: L@S '17 Proceedings of the Fourth (2017) ACM Conference on Learning @ Scale, ACM, New York, NY, USA, 225-228.

Iniesto, Francisco; McAndrew, Patrick; Minocha, Shailey and Coughlan, Tim. (2017). Auditing the accessibility of Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs). In: 14th AAATE Congress 2017, 13-14 Sep 2017, Sheffield.

Iniesto, Francisco; McAndrew, Patrick; Minocha, Shailey and Coughlan, Tim. (2017). How can MOOCs be more accessible?. In: OER17: The Politics of Open, 5 & 6 Apr 2017, London.

Iniesto, Francisco; McAndrew, Patrick; Minocha, Shailey and Coughlan, Tim. (2017). 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.

Iniesto, Francisco; McAndrew, Patrick; Minocha, Shailey and Coughlan, Tim. (2017). An investigation into the perspectives of providers and learners on MOOC accessibility. In: TEEM'17: international conference technological ecosystems for enhancing multiculurality, 18-20 Oct 2017, Cadiz, Spain.

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.

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.

Coughlan, Tim; Ullmann, Thomas Daniel and Lister, Kate. (2017). Understanding Accessibility as a Process through the Analysis of Feedback from Disabled Students. In: W4A '17 Proceedings of the 14th Web for All Conference on The Future of Accessible Work, ACM, New York, USA.

2016

Iniesto, Francisco; McAndrew, Patrick; Minocha, Shailey and Coughlan, Tim. (2016). The current state of accessibility of MOOCs: What are the next steps?. In: Open Education Global Conference 2016, 12-14 Apr 2016, Krakow, Poland.

Iniesto, Francisco; McAndrew, Patrick; Minocha, Shailey and Coughlan, Tim. (2016). Accessibility of MOOCs: Understanding the Provider Perspective. Journal of Interactive Media in Education.

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.

Muñoz Civantos, Angeles; Brown, Michael; Coughlan, Tim; Ainsworth, Shaaron and Lorenz, Katharina. (2016). Using mobile media creation to structure museum interpretation with professional vision. Personal and Ubiquitous Computing, 20 (1) pp. 23-36.

Coughlan, Tim; Rodriguez-Ascaso, Alejandro; Iniesto, Francisco and Jelfs, Anne. (2016). OLA! A Scenario-Based Approach to Enhance Open Learning Through Accessibility. In: Computers Helping People with Special Needs: Proceedings of the 15th ICCHP conference, Springer, 445-452.

Lawson, Glyn; Brown, Michael; Floyde, Anne; Coughlan, Tim; Baurley, Sharon; Elliot, Meretta; Koppe, Therese and Tsai, Allen. (2016). Enhancing the Design Process with Drama-Related Methods. The Design Journal, 19 (4) pp. 605-623.

Schnädelbach, Holger; Sun, Xu; Kefalidou, Genovefa; Coughlan, Tim; Meese, Rupert; Norris, James and Mcauley, Derek. (2016). Creativity Greenhouse: At-a-distance collaboration and competition over research funding. International Journal of Human-Computer Studies, 87 pp. 1-19.

2015

Evans, Joanna; Brown, Michael; Coughlan, Tim; Lawson, Glyn and Craven, Michael P.. (2015). A systematic review of dementia focused assistive technology. In: Human-Computer Interaction: Interaction Technologies, Springer, 406-417.

Coughlan, Tim (2015). Using Open Data as a Material for Introductory Programming Assignments. In: Atenas, Javiera and Havemann, Leo eds. Open Data as Open Educational Resources: Case studies of emerging practice London: Open Knowledge: Open Education Working Group, pp. 38-48.

Coughlan, Tim; Carletti, Laura; Giannachi, Gabriella; Benford, Steve; McAuley, Derek; Price, Dominic; Locatelli, Cristina; Sinker, Rebecca and Stack, John. (2015). ArtMaps: interpreting the spatial footprints of artworks. In: ACM Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI) 2015, 18-23 Apr, Seoul, Republic of Korea.

Giannachi, Gabriella; Sinker, Rebecca; Stack, John; Locatelli, Cristina; Carletti, Laura; Price, Dominic; McAuley, Derek; Coughlan, Tim and Benford, Steve. (2015). ArtMaps: A Technology for Looking at Tate’s Collection. Leonardo.

Baron, Nick; Carletti, Laura; Muñoz Civantos, Angeles; Coughlan, Tim; Allen, Robert; Lach, Pamella; Davies, Catherine; Tyler-Jones, Richard and Ferran, Bronac. (2015). Spatial Humanities Moving Beyond the Dot on a Map. In: Proceedings of the Digital Research in the Humanities and Arts Conference, DRHA2014, 111-116.

Schnädelbach, Holger; Coughlan, Tim; Kefalidou, Genovefa; McAuley, Derek and Meese, Rupert. (2015). Creativity Bento Box: a physical resource pack to support interaction in virtual space. International Journal of Human-Computer Interaction, 31 (11) pp. 790-804.

2014

Shipp, Victoria; Coughlan, Tim; Martindale, Sarah; Ng, Kher Hui; Evans, Elizabeth; Mortier, Richard and Reeves, Stuart. (2014). Wearables or infrastructure: contrasting approaches to collecting behavioural data in the home. In: HomeSys 2014, 7 Sep 2014, Seattle, WA, USA.

Coughlan, Tim; Brown, Michael; Lawson, Glyn; McAuley, Derek; Baurley, Sharon; Tsai, Allen; Koppe, Therese; Elliott, Meretta; Green, Stephen and Martin, Jen. (2014). Living with the user: design drama for dementia care through responsive scripted experiences in the home. In: UbiComp 2014, 13-17 Sep 2014, Seattle, WA, USA.

Brown, Michael; Coughlan, Tim; Blum, Jesse; Lawson, Glyn; Houghton, Robert; Mortier, Richard; Goulden, Murray and Arunachalam, Unna. (2014). Tailored Scenarios: A Low-Cost Online Method to Elicit Perceptions of Home Technologies Using Participant-Specific Contextual Information. Interacting with Computers, 27 (1) pp. 60-71.

Brown, Michael; Tsai, Allen; Baurley, Sharon; Koppe, Therese; Lawson, Glyn; Martin, Jen; Coughlan, Tim; Elliott, Meretta; Green, Stephen and Arunachalam, Unna. (2014). Using cultural probes to inform the design of assistive technologies. In: Human-Computer Interaction. Theories, Methods, and Tools, Springer, 35-46.

2013

Coughlan, Tim; Brown, Michael; Lawson, Glyn; Mortier, Richard; Houghton, Robert J. and Goulden, Murray. (2013). Tailored scenarios: a low-cost online method to elicit perceptions on designs using real relationships. In: CHI 2013 Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, 27 Apr - 02 May 2013, Paris.

Coughlan, Tim; Ebrahimi, Nassim; McAndrew, Patrick and Pitt, Rebecca. (2013). Assessing OER impact across varied organisations and learners: experiences from the "Bridge to Success" initiative. In: OER13: Creating a Virtuous Circle, 26-27 Mar 2013, Nottingham, UK.

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. (2013). Current Issues and Future Directions in Methods for Studying Technology in the Home. PsychNology Journal, 11 (2) pp. 159-184.

Coughlan, Tim; Pitt, Rebecca and McAndrew, Patrick. (2013). Building open bridges: collaborative remixing and reuse of open educational resources across organisations. In: 2013 ACM SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems ‘changing perspectives’ (CHI 2013), 29 Apr - 02 May 2013, Paris, France.

van der Linden, Janet; Rogers, Yvonne; Coughlan, Tim; Adams, Anne; Wilson, Caroline; Haya, Pablo; Martin, Estafania and Collins, Trevor. (2013). Evocative computing – creating meaningful lasting experiences in connecting with the past. In: Interact 2013, 2-6 Sep 2013, Cape Town. South Africa.

Brown, Michael; Coughlan, Tim; Lawson, Glyn; Goulden, Murray; Houghton, Robert J. and Mortier, Richard. (2013). Exploring Interpretations of Data from the Internet of Things in the Home. Interacting with Computers, 25 (3) pp. 204-217.

2012

Coughlan, Tim; Brown, Michael; Houghton, Robert and Lawson, Glyn. (2012). Exploring new connections between the physical and digital for future heritage interpretations. In: CHI 2012 Workshop: Heritage Matters, 5-10 May 2012, Austin, Texas.

Coughlan, Tim; Brown, Michael; Mortier, Richard; Houghton, Robert J.; Goulden, Murray and Lawson, Glyn. (2012). Exploring acceptance and consequences of the Internet of Things in the home. In: iThings 2012, 20-23 Nov 2012, Besancon, France.

Coughlan, Tim; Collins, Trevor D.; Adams, Anne; Rogers, Yvonne; Haya, Pablo A. and Martin, Estefania. (2012). The conceptual framing, design and evaluation of device ecologies for collaborative activities. International Journal of Human-Computer Studies, 70 (10) pp. 765-779.

Coughlan, Tim; van der Linden, Janet and Adams, Anne. (2012). Local connections: designing technologies for discovery and creativity within the community. Interactions, 19 (1) pp. 18-22.

2011

Adams, Anne; Coughlan, Tim; Lea, John; Rogers, Yvonne; Davies, Sarah-Jane and Collins, Trevor. (2011). Designing interconnected distributed resources for collaborative inquiry based science education. In: ACM/IEEE Joint Conference on Digital Libraries, 13-17 Jun 2011, Ottawa.

Adams, Anne; Coughlan, Tim; Rogers, Yvonne; Collins, Trevor; Davies, Sarah-Jane; Blake, Canan and Lea, John. (2011). Live linking of fieldwork to the laboratory increases students inquiry based reflections. In: CSCL 2011: International Conference on Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning, 04-08 Jul 2011, Hong Kong.

Coughlan, Tim; Adams, Anne; Collins, Trevor; Davies, Sarah-Jane; Lea, John and Rogers, Yvonne. (2011). Working with ‘mission control’ in scientific fieldwork: supporting interactions between in situ and distanced collaborators. In: The 2011 ACM Conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Work, 19-23 Mar 2011, Hangzhou, China.

Coughlan, Tim; Adams, Anne; Rogers, Yvonne and Davies, Sarah-Jane. (2011). Enabling live dialogic and collaborative learning between field and indoor contexts. In: The 25th BCS Conference on Human Computer Interaction, 04-08 Jul 2011, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK.

2010

Middup, Christopher P.; Coughlan, Tim and Johnson, Peter. (2010). How Creative Groups Structure Tasks through Negotiating Resources. In: COOP 2010: the 9th International Conference on Designing Cooperative Systems, 18-21 May 2010, Aix-en-Provence, France.

Coughlan, Tim; Adams, Anne and Rogers, Yvonne. (2010). 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.

2009

Coughlan, Tim and Johnson, Peter. (2009). Designing personal information management systems for creative practitioners. Journal of Digital Information.

Coughlan, Tim and Johnson, Peter. (2009). Understanding productive, structural and longitudinal interactions in the design of tools for creative activities. In: Creativity and Cognition, 26-30 Oct 2009, Berkeley, California.

2008

Coughlan, Tim and Johnson, Peter. (2008). An exploration of constraints and end user development in environments for creative tasks. International Journal of Human-Computer Interaction, 24 (5) pp. 444-459.

2006

Coughlan, Tim and Johnson, Peter. (2006). Interaction in creative tasks: ideation, representation and evaluation in composition. In: Proceedings of ACM CHI 2006 Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems 2006, ACM Press, 531-540.

Current

	Ed-ICT (Disabled Students, ICT, post compulsory education and employment: in search of new solutions)	2016 - 2019
	Empowering Design Practices: historic places of worship as catalysts for connecting communities	2014 - 2019