About IRFOL
Michael Young
Personnel
Consultants

IRFOL PERSONNEL

IRFOL operated with a small and dedicated team who work with a wider group of research associates who are selected for their specific skills on a contract basis.

Roger Mills, ex Pro-Vice-Chancellor and Regional Director of the Open University UK, was the last Chairperson of IRFOL before it's closure in September 2005.

Profiles of associates are given below organised in alphabetical order.

Terry Allsop - Research Associate
Terry Allsop joined IRFOL as its second director in July 2002 and retired in 2005. Prior to joining IRFOL he has been a senior education adviser with the UK. Department for International Development (DFID), working first in West and North Africa and more recently in Central Africa. For three years he also managed the Education Research programme of DFID. Prior to the DFID experience he had a long career in science education and teacher education, in Uganda, Hong Kong and latterly the University of Oxford. Particular research interests have been in the teaching of practical work in science, in new approaches to teacher education (editing Mentoring for Science Teachers for Open University Press in 1997), and in Education in China. He has a strong interest in research methodology and the communication of research findings, in addition to hard-won understandings about the nature of educational innovation and change in developing countries.

Charlotte Creed - Research Associate
Charlotte Creed's work has mainly focused on research for policy makers. The emphasis is primarily in the African and Asian contexts and in the fields of teacher education, basic education, agricultural extension and non-formal education. She has just completed a major project which involved co-ordinating the development of self- study materials, on behalf of the Commonwealth of Learning, to help ODL practitioners develop research and evaluation skills in particular fields of open and distance learning (PREST). This includes researching costs, researching marginalised and disadvantaged learners, conducting research and evaluation in ODL. Her research interests include teacher and basic education by distance, the ethical dimensions of ODL, the distinctive demands of research and evaluation in ODL.

Kate Crofts - Administrator
Kate Crofts joined IRFOL as the administrator in January 2003. Prior to this she worked in the University of Cambridge Computer Laboratory and in administrative roles in start-up research organisations. Kate was the administrator of the 11th Cambridge International Conference on Open and Distance Learning, many of the delegates commented on the excellent organisation and smooth running of the conference.

Alicia Fentiman - Research Associate
Alicia Fentiman specialises in basic education. She has recently completed a research project funded by DFID to strengthen basic education through open and distance learning. She has just completed a research project in partnership with the Africa Educational Trust and funded by DFID called Basic Education in countries emerging from conflict. Alicia is a social anthropologist with extensive ethnographic field experience in Nigeria and Ghana. Her research interests include - identifying the cultural constraints to basic education, devising models to provide basic education to out-of-school youth and adults, and incorporating HIV/Aids awareness in distance learning.

Anne Gaskell - Research Associate
Anne Gaskell is Assistant Director, Professional Development, in the Open University UK and in this role is responsible for the staff development and support of 7,700 part-time and distributed tutors. She has a long record of scholarly engagement with issues of open and distance learning, particularly in the context of the media for student support (paper, mobile, online etc) and in terms of student motivation and success.

Anne is also Editor of Open Learning www.tandf.co.uk/journals/titles/02680513.asp one of the leading international journals in the field of Open and Distance Learning, Co-Director of the Cambridge International Conference on Open and Distance Learning www2.open.ac.uk/r06/conference/index.htm and Assistant Editor of the European Journal of Open and Distance Learning www.eurodl.org.

Palitha Edirisingha
Information to follow...

Keith Harry - Research Associate
Keith Harry is an educational consultant and the former director of the International Centre for Distance Learning at the Open University.

Elizabeth Mattson - Research Associate
Liz Mattson specialises in Teacher Education. Formerly from the University of Pietermaritzburg she has recently completed a DFID Project 'Field-based Models of Primary Teacher Training - Case Studies of Student Support Systems from Sub-Saharan Africa'. This report will be published early in 2006. She was previously working on a related theme for the UK Open University.

Roger Mills - Research Associate
Roger Mills was part of the group of people who helped to set up IRFOL in 1995. He has served as a trustee and succeeded Sir Kenneth Berrill as Chair of Trustees in 2003. Roger has had a distinguished career at the UK Open University as Regional Director of the Open University of the East of England (1986 - 2004) which included a period from 1990 - 1993 when he was Pro-Vice Chancellor with responsibility for student support. He has published widely in ODL particularly in the fields of learner support and quality assurance. His research interests include the design and delivery of distance learning systems including assessment and validation. Roger is Associate Director at the Von Hügel Institute, St Edmund's College, University of Cambridge and a special advisor to the University of London External Studies Programme. He is also a director of the Cambridge International Conference series on Open and Distance Learning. He has undertaken consultancies in Malaysia, China, Bulgaria, Australia, New Zealand, Bangladesh, Guyana, South Africa and India .

Ros Morpeth - Research Associate
Ros Morpeth was Director of IRFOL from May-July 2005. She has served on IRFOL's steering group since it was established. Ros' previous post was as Executive Director of the National Extension College (NEC) 1987 - 2003 and prior to that she was NEC's director of publishing. She is a social anthropologist by training and did field work in Northern India and has also worked in Jamaica and Greece. Her research interests include course design and development, open learning systems, marketing business development and management of ODL. She was the editor of Open Praxis, the Journal of the International Council for Distance Education and treasurer of the European Association of Distance Learning. She is a trustee of the International Extension College and the Open College of the Arts.

Hilary Perraton - Research Associate
Hilary Perraton was the founding director of IRFOL. He has worked in international education since 1970s. Previously he served in the Education Programme of the Commonwealth Secretariat, and at the University of the West Indies as the Educational Planner. His recent book "Open and Distance Learning in the Developing World" reviews the use of distance education for basic and non-formal education, schooling, teacher education and higher education, within the context of general educational change in the latter half of 20th Century.

Reehana Raza - Research Associate
Reehana Raza specialises in higher education and has recently completed a DFID Skills for Development Project on Distance Education. She is a development economist by training. Her previous work experience has mostly been in Pakistan where she worked for a number of multi-lateral and bi-lateral funded projects covering the areas of the environment, gender and project evaluation. Within distance education, her areas of interests are: measuring outcomes, cost and cost effectiveness; globalisation and education and the usage of distance education for vocational training.

Bernadette Robinson - Research Associate
Bernadette Robinson is an independent education consultant. She has research and evaluation experience in: - uses and costs of open learning, distance education and ICT for teacher education; - uses of distance education and ICT for literacy, community development, and non-formal education; - use of telecommunications for learner support in distance learning systems; - effectiveness of training systems. Bernadette works as a consultant for the World Bank, UNESCO, UNICEF and the EU as well as for IRFOL.

Greville Rumble - Research Associate
Greville Rumble is an independent consultant and has worked for IRFOL on the development of planning tools and templates for distance education. Greville worked for the UK Open University from 1970 - 2001 as a corporate planner and as Director of one of the University's regions. He was appointed Professor of Distance Education Management in 1998. His areas of expertise are in policy development in the use of ODL, planning the establishment of distance education systems, institutional planning and management of distance education institutions and the costs, economics and funding of distance education. He has consulted widely in his fields of expertise in Latin America, Africa, Europe, India, Iran and in the Arab States. He is the author and editor of a number of books on costing, management and economics of ODL.

Alan Tait - Research Associate
Alan Tait holds a Chair in Distance Education and Develeopment at the Open University UK and is presently Dean of the Faculty of Education and Language Studies at the Open University. He has spent his career in open and distance learning, in particular in the field of learner support, guidance and counselling and tutoring. He has a long record of professional practice, publication and the support of professional development in distance and e-learning. He was Editor of the journal Open Learning from 1989-1998, and is presently Editor of the European Journal of Open and Distance Learning www.eurodl.org. His research and publication has been primarily in the fields of post secondary education and training, and in learner support in distance and e-learning, and has been international in its range. He has worked widely in developing counties as well as in Europe, and he is currently Vice President of the European Distance and E-Learning network (EDEN) www.eden.bme.hu

Alan Woodley - Research Associate 
Alan Woodley is a Senior Research Fellow in the Student Research Centre of the Open University's Institute of Educational Technology. A sociologist by training, he has carried out a large number of policy-related studies into issues of access, retention and student outcomes within the field of distance education. He worked closely with Charlotte Creed on the development of PREST and has been involved in a number of training activities which have come out of this work.