About
I am currently employed as the Associate Director, Strategy Planning & Operations in the Institute of Educational Technology (IET) at the UKOU. In this role I am responsible for leading on strategic and operational activity and change across IET. This includes working closely with the other members of the Senior Leadership Team on the development and implementation of strategy, budget and policies.
My research interests include professional development, learning design approaches and learning analytics. Specific areas of interest include the impact of professional development on the professional identity of Chinese HE educators, the implementation and practice of learning analytics in HE, and the development of learning design approaches (both pedagogical and organisational) for supporting academics in HE.
I am currently working towards a PhD by Published Work for submission and review in 2026. A full list of my published authored work can be found on my Google Scholar page.
Publications
2025
Olney, Tom. (). Evaluating learning analytics implementations: three approaches for practice. In: The Companion Proceedings of the 15th International Conference on Learning Analytics and Knowledge (LAK25), The Association for Computing Machinery (ACM), New York, USA, 17-20.
2024
Olney, Tom; Rienties, Bart; Chang, Daphne and Banks, Duncan. (). The Learning Design & Course Creation Workshop: Impact of a Professional Development Model for Training Designers and Creators of Online and Distance Learning. Technology, Knowledge and Learning, 29 pp. 45-63.
Olney, Tom; Chang, Daphne and Lin, Lin. (). Implementing distance learning approaches: lessons from six impact narratives. Distance Education, 45 (2) pp. 229-243.
2023
Olney, T. and Wood, C.. (). The evolution of learning analytics practice over six years at the Open University, UK: what are the arrangements that enable or constrain this practice?. In: 16th Annual International Conference of Education, Research and Innovation, 13-15 Nov 2023, Seville, Spain.
Olney, Tom and Wood, Carlton. (). Using the Theory of Practice Architectures to establish what it means to “do” learning design, and the arrangements that enable and constrain practice. Frontiers in Education.
2022
Olney, Tom; Chang, Daphne and Lin, Lin. (). The UKOU Learning Design & Course Creation Workshop: Pedagogy and Impact. In: 35th Asian Association of Open Universities (AAOU) Annual Conference 2022, 2-4 Nov 2022, Jeju, South Korea.
2021
Olney, Tom; Li, Chenxi and Luo, Juan. (). Enhancing the quality of open and distance learning in China through the identification and development of learning design skills and competencies. Asian Association of Open Universities Journal, 16 (1) pp. 61-78.
Olney, Tom; Walker, Steve; Wood, Carlton and Clarke, Anactoria. (). Are We Living in LA (P)LA Land? Reporting on the Practice of 30 STEM Tutors in Their Use of a Learning Analytics Implementation at The Open University. Journal of Learning Analytics, 8 (3) pp. 45-59.
Olney, Tom and Piashkun, Siarhei. (). Professional development for sustaining the ‘pivot’: the impact of the Learning Design and Course Creation Workshop on six Belarusian HEIs. Journal of Interactive Media in Education.
2020
Olney, Tom; Endean, Mark and Banks, Duncan. (). How might the cultural learning preferences of the participants of the enhancement of lifelong learning in Belarus (BELL) project impact on their learning designs?. In: Proceedings of the final conference on the Erasmus+ project "Enhancement of Lifelong Learning in Belarus", Brest State Technical University, Brest, Belarus, 20-28.
Rienties, Bart; Olney, Tom; Nichols, Mark and Herodotou, Christothea. (). Effective usage of Learning Analytics: What do practitioners want and where should distance learning institutions be going?. Open Learning: The Journal of Open, Distance and e-learning, 35 (2) pp. 178-195.
Olney, Tom; Endean, Mark and Banks, Duncan. (). Evaluating the impact of the Learning Design and Course Creation (LDCC) workshop on the participants of the enhancement of Lifelong Learning in Belarus (BELL) project. In: Proceedings of the final conference on the Erasmus+ project. Enhancement of Lifelong learning in Belarus, 13-14 Oct 2020, Brest.
2019
Walker, Steve; Olney, Tom; Wood, Carlton; Clarke, Anactoria and Dunworth, Moira. (). How do tutors use data to support their students?. Open Learning: The Journal of Open, Distance and e-Learning, 34 (1) pp. 118-133.
2018
Rienties, Bart; Herodotou, Christothea; Olney, Tom; Schencks, Mat and Boroowa, Avi. (). Making sense of learning analytics dashboards: a technology acceptance perspective of 95 teachers. International Review of Research in Open and Distance Learning, 19 (5) pp. 186-202.
Olney, Tom; Rienties, Bart and Toetenel, Lisette (). Gathering, visualising and interpreting learning design analytics to inform classroom practice and curriculum design: A student-centred approach from the Open University. In: Lodge, Jason M.; Horvath, Jared Cooney and Corrin, Linda eds. Learning Analytics in the Classroom: Translating Learning Analytics Research for Teachers London: Routledge, pp. 71-92.
2016
Rienties, Bart; Boroowa, Avinash; Cross, Simon; Farrington-Flint, Lee; Herodotou, Christothea; Prescott, Lynda; Mayles, Kevin; Olney, Tom; Toetenel, Lisette and Woodthorpe, John. (). Reviewing three case-studies of learning analytics interventions at the open university UK. In: Proceedings of the Sixth International Conference on Learning Analytics & Knowledge, ACM, New York, 534-535.