The team
- David Balch - Senior Web Developer
David's work is centered on TALL’s XML based development process and the Moodle and Drupal platforms. Using technology including PHP, XML, and XSLT, David develops, maintains, and operates software tools for research and production of TALL’s web properties and high quality online learning materials.
David has a Bsc (Hons) in Food Marketing Management from Sheffield Hallam University. After university he spent two years with a commercial Internet firm, before joining TALL in early 2002.
Currently, most of David's spare time is consumed by playing the drums in a couple of bands, and trying to learn enough electronics to build electronic instruments and light-based artwork.
- Tom Box - Project Officer
Tom joined TALL in March 2005 but has recently moved into the Project Officer role. As such he is responsible for overseeing the development and delivery of a number of TALL's online courses and managing the procedure for requesting to use copyrighted material from third parties.
Tom has a degree in Earth Sciences and a PGCE qualification in General Primary, both obtained from Oxford Brookes University. Before joining TALL, he worked on an online export, sales lead system for the Department of Trade and Industry.
- Zoe Burns – Project Assistant
Zoe joined TALL in October 2010 and helps the team with the delivery of a number of online courses. Prior to joining TALL Zoe worked as an Assistant Web Producer for BBC GCSE Bitesize before moving to Oxfordshire where she joined a conservation charity as Web Editor.
Zoe has a degree in Geography from the University of Wales, Lampeter and is currently studying towards an AAT Accounting Diploma.
- Sue Dale - Administrative and Project Assistant
Sue joined TALL in April 2009 where her role is to ensure the smooth running of the office, provide administrative support for the team and contribute in variety of ways to TALL’s course development and course delivery activities.
Sue has a degree in modern languages from Oxford University and is a qualified librarian. Before joining TALL, she worked for a number of years as a library manager in further education. She is delighted to have achieved her long held ambition of moving into higher education.
- Sean Faughnan - Director of TALL
Sean joined the Department for Continuing Education at the University of Oxford in 2002. Though it is not widely known, the University of Oxford has one of the UK's largest continuing education departments, and its operation is one of the most successful globally. For over 120 years the Department has enabled learners to engage with the University, and each year more than 15,000 students study with the Department. As the Director of Finance and Administration Sean is responsible for all aspects of the Department's commercial management and for the core services (such as Human Resources, Finance, Facilities and Services, and IT) provided to the academic divisions of the Department.
In addition to these duties Sean became Director of TALL in 2005. TALL has become one of the most successful and innovative e-learning groups in the continuing education sector. In September 2010 the team was awarded, by the Association for Learning Technology (ALT), a prestigious national award in recognition of its excellent practice and achievement in the learning technology field. As well as delivering online distance learning to more than 3,000 students each year, TALL offers e-learning consultancy services, which are informed by its extensive range of research projects that focus on new ways of using technology to enhance teaching and learning at a distance. This work helps the Department and its clients to deliver its wide range of high-quality courses to students in innovative ways, giving an even broader range of students the opportunity to benefit from continuing education.
Sean's recent projects have included: the Cascade project, which investigated how technology can be harnessed to improve effectiveness and efficiency in curriculum delivery; the exploration of the size and shape of the UK online learning market; and the application of process review to improve organizational efficiency.
- Ian Gloster - Web Developer/IT Support
Ian joined TALL in 2001 as a Web developer, and IT support assistant. He works predominantly on developing web material for the online 'Diploma in Computing' and 'Advanced Diploma in Local History', but also works closely with the other members of the technical team producing materials for all of TALL’s projects utilising XML, Flash, and Video technology. More recently he has been involved in TALL’s implementation of streaming media. In addition to his Web development responsibilities, Ian assists the head of IT in providing support to the department’s online students.
Ian graduated from the BBC engineering training programme in Electronics and Broadcast engineering (Wood Norton, Evesham), and went on to acquire considerable experience in broadcast and video technical operations. Having moved to Internet based media, he continues to develop his skills in Web technology.
- Alison Le Cornu - Research Assistant
Alison first joined TALL in November 2008 when she worked with Dave White on the JISC-funded Open Habitat and Isthmus projects. After a period at Warwick University as an Educational Developer, she returned to TALL in September 2011, this time to work with Dave on the JISC-funded Visitors and Residents project. In early September 2011, their publication Visitors and Residents: A new typology for online engagement was published in First Monday.
Alison has a background in adult education, distance and online learning, and theology, and, alongside her work with TALL, she is an Accreditor Assessor for the HEA, a member of the core tutorial team for an MA in Consultancy for Mission and Ministry at York St John University, and a freelance educational consultant working mostly with theological colleges and courses. She also supervises Professional Doctorate students at Birmingham and Anglia Ruskin Universities, and is an External Examiner at the College of the Nazarene. In her spare time she sings with the Oxford Bach Choir, enjoys bird watching, travels regularly to Jersey, France and anywhere else that she can, is a member of Oxford Spires Rotary Club and of St Mary the Virgin University Church, and clocks in for a daily cuddle with her two cats, Tom and Barbara.
- Marion Manton - eLearning Research Project Manager
Marion’s web profile
TALL blog: Book boxes to OER: opening up Oxford .Marion is TALL's eLearning Research Project Manager. As well as managing research projects, she is responsible for ensuring that all online courses developed by the team are best practice examples of learning online for their audience.
In her role, Marion works closely with academic colleagues and course teams to specify the learning they want to achieve with their programme and to identify the best uses of technology to do this. She also maintains currency with the latest research in eLearning to ensure that the Department is aware of and exploits the best current knowledge of what works in terms of effective eLearning. Marion managed the learning design for two programmes (MSc Public Policy and Management, University of York and MA War in the Modern World, King's College, London) that have been runners up in HEFCE's eTutor of the year competition. She is also an active member of the UK eLearning community and regularly take part in events.
Marion holds an MA (Hons) in History from the University of Edinburgh and an MSc in Information Management from the University of Sheffield. Prior to joining the University she was eLearning Manager at Henley Management College before moving to FTKnowledge where she worked on projects with several leading business schools.
- Mike Taylor - IT Support & Systems Administrator
Mike joined TALL in June 2000 to lead the IT support team where he provides support to the in-house staff, the TALL students and the TALL tutors. Since joining TALL Mike has overhauled the server architecture that underpins TALL, improving performance for students, tutors and staff. At present he is working with the TALL team to move all online courses to a Moodle environment running on Linux servers.
Mike Taylor has a degree in Business Information Systems from Anglia University. He then spent 4 years with BancTec Limited, he joined BancTec as a Project engineer before moving to the MIS department to support PCs and the company Intranet.
- Sara Tindall - Project Manager
Sara is TALL’s Project Manager and is responsible for the development and delivery of the wide range of projects undertaken by the TALL unit. Sara has several years’ digital project management experience, gained in the commercial and not for profit sectors. Prior to joining TALL Sara worked for the Oxford Internet Institute, an academic centre at the University of Oxford for the study of the societal implications of the Internet.
Sara has a degree in English Literature from University College of Wales Swansea and an MA in Mass Communications from the University of Leicester.
- Rachel Thomas - Public Engagement Officer (Maths)
Rachel is the Public Engagement Officer for the Maths in the City project. She is working with Marcus' Marvellous Mathemagicians (M3), a group of volunteer undergraduate and postgraduate mathematicians, to create walking tours of Oxford and London that will highlight the maths hiding in our urban environments.
Rachel has more than 12 years experience communicating maths to the general public. After obtaining her MSc in Semigroup Theory in 1998 from the University of Western Australia, Rachel worked as a mathematics consultant to government and industry. After moving to the UK in 2000 she worked with the Millennium Mathematics Project promoting maths to a variety of audiences. She is currently co-editor of the award-winning popular maths magazine Plus.
- Nicola Warren - Co-Manager (Administration)
Nicola is TALL's Co-Manager (Administration) and is responsible for the administration, personnel and finances of the TALL unit as well as overseeing the group's course production and delivery services.
After graduating from the University of Leicester in 1995 with a BSc in Combined Sciences, Nicola spent six years supporting the use of networked services at the University of Sussex Computing Service, UKERNA, and the Trans-European Research and Education Networking Association (TERENA), based in Amsterdam. Nicola joined the University of Oxford in 2001 as Online Learning Research/Project Officer to manage online projects and assist the University's Director of Distance and Online Learning to seek funding and further develop the University's provision of online courses. Nicola joined TALL in February 2005 as Administration Manager and was promoted to be co-manager of the unit in October 2007.
- David White - Senior Manager: Development
Dave’s web profile
TALL blog: Education should move us .David has worked in the overlapping space between education, technology and media for nearly 16 years. He co-manages Technology-Assisted Lifelong Learning (TALL), an elearning research and development group at the University of Oxford.
At TALL he is responsible for the production and delivery of a wide range of online distance courses. The courses include philosophy, art, literature, economics, history and even nanotechnology. Students aged from 18 to 72 (so far) have enrolled on the courses, from all over the world, so David needs a good insight into individuals’ and groups approaches to the web.
David released some of the first data on ‘web 2.0’ platforms which contained the type of diagrams that have ‘social’, ‘studying’ and ‘professional’ nestling alongside each other to highlight out how these boundaries are blurring. He has also researched the wild frontiers of Virtual Worlds and Massively Multiplayer Online games in the context of teaching and learning.Recently he has been closely involved in the work of the HEFCE Online Learning Task Force, which has been set-up with the aims of maintaining and developing the position of UK higher education as a world leader in online learning.
David is an engaging speaker who has presented at numerous conferences and workshops. He is keen to see beyond the technology to the larger underlying trends that are emerging as society moves online. Visit the TALL blog for some of his recent thoughts, or follow his thinking as ideas occur to him: @daveowhite.See his research profile for more details.
