Jörg Pareigis
Course organiser
 

Jörg Pareigis is Head of the Centre for Teaching and Learning at Karlstad University, where he is also Assistant Professor in Business Administration and researcher at CTF, Service Research Center. In addition to his role as program manager of the International Business program, he leads the externally funded WISR16 and WISR17 course development projects. The purpose of the projects is to develop open online graduate courses for professionals in the private and public sector based on strategically important research centres at Karlstad University.

 

Lars Uhlin
Course organiser
 

Lars Uhlin has recently retired from his position as Educational Developer at Linköping university. He has a background in Nursing and has long experience of Health Care Education and Problem-based learning (PBL). For the last 20+ years he has worked with educational development in different settings both on the national and international arena and is one of the founders of ONL. Some of Lars’ main focus areas has been professional development and educational design within a framework of problem based-, interprofessional- and online learning. He continues to be engaged in ONL, as a member of the organising team and is also involved in coordinating a national/nordic network for PBL as well as being a member of the steering group for the Swedish Network for Information Technology in Higher Education (ITHU).

 

Lotta Åbjörnsson
Course organiser
 

From September 1st, 2022, Lotta Åbjörnsson works as Coordinator at the Unit for Educational Services, Lund university, Sweden. She has a background in physiotherapy and as educational developer. During the Covid-19 pandemic she worked as system manager for e-meeting tool Zoom at Lund university. Eight years as part of the organiser group behind the ONL project from the start in 2014 transformed her from tech-adverse to tech-savvy, counting teenage kids saying “we’ll ask mom” one of her main feats.

 

 

Alan Soong 2020
Alan Soong
Course organiser, PBL facilitator
 

Alan Soong is Associate Director at the Centre for Development of Teaching & Learning, National University of Singapore. He teaches courses on blended learning, education grant writing and other topics such authentic learning environments and module design. His research focuses on academic development, online teaching & learning in higher education and living-learning communities. Alan served on the executive committee of the Australasian Society for Computers in Learning in Tertiary Education (ASCILITE) from 2012 till 2019. He participated in ONL171, and has since been a co-facilitator or facilitator.

 

 

Alexandra Wirth
Course organiser
 

Alexandra Wirth I work at the Careum Foundation, Department Educational Development and Kalaidos University of Applied Sciences Switzerland in Zurich, Department of Health Science. In Careum Educational Development I work as pedagogical researcher in the main areas of further development of curricula for problem-based learning (PBL) as well as teacher training PBL, interprofessionality and health literacy. At Kalaidos University I work as junior researcher in a EU project H2020 about mental health and wellbeing of adolescent young carers. I was an open learner in ONL181 and was completely enthusiastic, and have been engaged in the ONL project since.

 

Filip Levälahti
Course organiser
 

Filip Levälahti works as an e-learning specialist at Arcada, University of applied sciences in Helsinki, Finland. His job is to support and develop the teachers’ competences in online and blended teaching and to coordinate the pedagogical infrastructure in the campus. Filip also teach a course in digital literacies for all new students at the university. He follows the expression “good online pedagogy begins with good pedagogy, period” (Paul Creasman) and is eager to find out how good pedagogy can be applied with modern technology.

 

 

Lotta Fröjdfeldt
Course organiser
 

Lotta Fröjdfeldt is an academic developer at Mälardalen University (MDU), Eskilstuna, Sweden. She focuses on the pedagogical aspects of ICT in Higher Education. Lotta is experienced both as a system developer, 15 years, and as teacher, 7 years, and has worked with academic development since 2015. She is interested in, and is now studying for a masters degree in online teaching and learning in higher education. Lotta was a participant in ONL172, and has since been co-facilitator and facilitator.

 

 

Tore Nilsson
Course organiser
 

Tore Nilsson is a senior lecturer in language education, Stockholm University. With a background in English linguistics he now works with foreign language teacher education, in-service training of language teachers and research in language education with a special interest in teacher cognition and professional development. Over the years he has developed several outreach projects together with colleagues, the latest being CIRCLE – Current Inquiry and Research Conversations in Language Education. Tore participated in ONL171, and he has (co-)facilitated PBL groups in subsequent iterations. Now he is co-ordinating the team meetings together with Alexandra Wirth.

 

Ann Vestfält
PBL facilitator
 

Ann Vestfält works as a Lecturer at Karlstad University in Sweden, where she manages and teachers courses at the university’s Teaching Programmes. Having taught upper secondary school students for over a decade and being involved in various school development projects as well as international collaboration, she is now keen to pay her knowledge and experiences forward, but is equally open to acquiring new competences, especially within the area of blended learning. Ann took the ONL course in the spring of 2021 and has been a co-facilitator or facilitator since.

 

Anne Whaits
Contributor
 

Anne Whaits joined the executive team at Educor in May 2018 as Chief Academic Officer (CAO) after having spent most of 2017 with Academic Partnerships – an American Online Programme Manager (OPM) Business in partnership with public universities in South Africa to take a portfolio of their degree programmes 100% online. The group established a second holding company, Uni4, to drive education innovation and online learning in which Anne remains CAO. Having facilitated several iterations of ONL since 2015, Anne’s current action research interests include new learning ecosystems with particular interest in developing online facilitation skills amongst academics and digital literacies amongst students in Africa. UNi4 partners with Education institutions both in South Africa and internationally to power the delivery of online education.

Bernadine Mons
PBL co-facilitator
 

Bernadine Mons is the Learning and Development Manager at Uni4 Online, part of the Educor group. She leads the product development unit, designing online digital products for higher education programmes. Uni4 Online collaborates with leading institutions locally and internationally to create interactive and engaging content. Bernadine was a participant in the ONL221 iteration and joined as a co-facilitator.
Her interests are using ICT in education and leading projects to make education accessible to everyone.

 

 

Bianca LeCornu
PBL co-facilitator
 

Bianca LeCornu I started my career as a multimedia designer, moving into branding, marketing, and copywriting and then finding a passion for the education of design. I have been an educator for 16 years and have a passion for the development and improvement of online education specifically within the field of design. I am still a part time lecturer supervising postgrad design students in transdisciplinary design and visual communication, but my main career currently is in instructional design as a Learning Designer for Educor. I have recently received my masters in ICT education and when I am not studying or working you can find me designing, 3D printing, learning how to use new technologies, as well as get lost in books and games (both board and PC).

Charlotta Edlund
PBL facilitator
 

Charlotta Edlund is a lecturer at the School of Business, Society & Engineering, Mälardalen University, Sweden since 20 years. Her main lecturing and research areas are international marketing, international business, multinational enterprises, consumer behaviour and cross-cultural management. During her time at the University she has also worked seven years as Head of Internationalization, a position that has given her lots of skills and valuable experience in dealing with different types of cultures. Within this frame she also manages two international networks: (1) PRIME Networking with 17 partner institutions from 16 different countries and (2) NordBiz, a Nordplus network with eight partners from the five Nordic and three Baltic countries. She is also responsible for the Bachelor’s Programme International Business Management. Besides this she also coordinate all thesis courses in business administration. In all roles, she always strives for development: personal, pedagogical, didactic or organizational…while being on a “Life Long Learning Journey”

David Bevington
PBL facilitator
 

Until August 2022, David Bevington was a Study Support Tutor at the Cornwall College Group. He was based at the Camborne campus. Currently he is working as an educational consultant for a local community interest company delivering online training sessions to the widely dispersed primary and secondary schools in the county. This allows the schools to receive training in a timely fashion and avoids the problems involved in travelling to each one individually. David is also a foster carer and, with his wife, provides TEFL training.

Since 1986, he has worked as a teacher-librarian at colleges and universities in both the UK, in Cornwall and London; and overseas in Papua New Guinea and Namibia. During his career, he has participated in a variety of networks and initiatives that have increased his interest and involvement in developing online learning opportunities for academics and students. David participated as an open learner in ONL192 and is enjoying incorporating the concepts he learned into his design, development and delivery of blended learning courses. He has been  a co-facilitator or facilitator in each iteration since.

Diane Pilkinton-Pihko
PBL facilitator
 

Diane Pilkinton-Pihko is a linguist, who is teaching English to non-native speakers at Aalto University in Finland. She did her graduate work at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and her post-graduate studies at the University of Helsinki (Finland). Her research interests include English as a lingua franca, recognition or prior learning, and content and language integrated learning. Her main work involves teaching oral and written communication to students in the fields of engineering or industrial arts. In recent years, developing and teaching courses as blended or online have become a central focus. She designed and taught her first fully online course in 2011, and since then has continued to develop herself and her courses for e-learning.

Erik Månsson
Contributor
 

Erik Månsson I am a Swedish citizen who has been an expat in a number of countries since 1993. Currently I am based in Germany, since I came to Frankfurt in 1998 to help build up the European Central Bank. During that period, I was programme manager for the Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA) introducing BIC and IBAN account numbers and harmonizing European payment systems. Since beginning of 2019 I have a new role at Karlstad University in Sweden teaching leadership and project management remotely.

In autumn 2020 I participated for the first time to the ONL training and found that it was very useful and highly adapted to my new job for online education. ONL helped me to continually improve and develop my own teaching practice with the ability to test and put into practice along with my own personal learning. The PBL group served as a global peer group learning community to exchange experiences, discover new perspectives and challenge each other in a positive way.

Esther Ventura-Medina
Contributor
 

Esther Ventura-Medina works as a professor of Innovation in STEM Education at Eindhoven University of Technology (TU/e), the Netherlands. She combines her engineering background, educational training and experience using student-centre pedagogies to support the development of professional skills in engineering students both face-to-face and online learning environments. Her research interests have focused on investigating teamwork and problem solving skills and the role that interactions have in student-centred settings. In her own practice she uses PBL as the learning method and is increasingly interested in collaborative online-learning, the role of machine learning and artificial intelligence in learning.

Gizeh Perez-Tenorio
PBL co-facilitator
 

Gizeh Perez Tenorio loves research and considers herself a passionate educator. For many years she has mentored students at Linköping University where she also practiced Problem Based Learning as part of the PhD program: “PBL, for me, was hard at the beginning but brought a lifelong reward at the end”. During ONL162 she discovered the power of PBL online and became fascinated by the course design and pedagogy. In the future she would like to understand more about what makes a successful collaboration in virtual teams, to design pedagogical material for digital courses and to learn MOOC design.

Gregor Theilmeier
Contributor
 

Gregor Theilmeier is a trained anesthesiologist, translational researcher and passionate teacher. He has taught at various medical schools since 1995 and now holds a professorship at the University of Oldenburg in Germany, where he participates in the founding of a new medical school. He holds a cross appointment at the University Medical Center in Groningen. He started to teach PBL (offline) courses in the late 1990s at the medical school of the University of Münster. Ever since he has been engaged in and passionate about teaching PBL in medical contexts. He participated as a student in ONL181 and was so excited about online teaching and learning in the ONL format that he immediately returned to ONL191 to join in supporting the next generation of ONL enthusiasts as a co-facilitator, and hasn’t left since.

Kiruthika Ragupathi
Contributor
 

Kiruthika Ragupathi is an academic developer with the Centre for Development of Teaching and Learning (CDTL) at the National University of Singapore (NUS). She has a background in Engineering and has worked with academic development since 1997. Her research interests are in analyzing pedagogical issues surrounding the integration of educational technologies into teaching and learning; understanding the learning processes and outcomes for learners engaged in technology-supported tasks; and in tracking and supporting learning in interactive learning environments. Her current research focuses on using student evaluation of teaching to enhance teaching practices and policies; in optimizing instructor interventions in online discussion forums to enhance the student learning experience; and also in studying the impact of gradeless learning on student motivation. Kiruthika took the ONL171 journey, and has since then been a co-facilitator or facilitator.

Minna Koponen
Contributor
 

Minna Koponen works as an educational designer and project manager at the Zurich University of Applied Sciences (ZHAW) Innovation Centre for Teaching and Learning. She focuses on managing and coordinating the production and processes of a massive open online course (MOOC). She holds a Ph.D. in Education from the University of Tampere, Finland, with a focus on digital competence development and intercultural dialogue in online higher education. Her current research interests include educational design, learning analytics, open education, and their use in MOOC production.

Miriam Fischer
Contributor
 

Miriam Fischer works in the E-Learning Team of Zurich University of Applied Science Department of Social Work. She has a linguistic and paedagogical background.

Mirko Ahonen
PBL facilitator
 

Mirko Ahonen is a Senior lecturer in Online Media at Arcada University of Applied Sciences in Helsinki. He teaches media production, audio/video/animation, multi-camera production, streaming, programming, and game design. On the side he works with live television as a Technical operations manager. He has always been interested in pedagogy and e-learning, and he wrote his Master’s thesis about creating engaging online courses. In his free time, he is either at the gym, listening to audiobooks, or learning something new.

Nicolette Karst
PBL facilitator
 

Nicolette Karst I work as a lecturer at Lund University, facilitating introductory and advanced courses in higher education development. I also am the system manager of our video platform (Studio), and give weekly workshops to our teaching staff in the use of video in education. My pedagogical interests are accessibility and generic skills, in on-campus and online teaching and learning. I attended ONL 202, liked it very much, learned a lot, and increased my network. I then stayed on as a co-facilitator in ONL222 and in this iteration I am the facilitator of PBL group 04.

I look forward to working and learning together!

Oksana Chernysh
PBL co-facilitator
 

Oksana Chernysh I am an Associate Professor (Ph.D. in Linguistics) and E-learning Specialist, working as Dean of the Pedagogical Sciences and Lifelong Learning Faculty and is also Director of International Education and Science Centre at Zhytomyr Polytechnic State University, Ukraine.
My scientific interests include media linguistics, computer lexicography,  lifelong learning and U3A (University of the Third Age).
I am so very happy to be a part of the ONL community. In 4 years, it has already become my way of life. And truth be told, I also look forward to new iterations, meeting new people, participating in discussions, and having exciting projects for the mutual benefit of the learners.

Raheel Lakhani
PBL facilitator
 

Raheel Lakhani is an Educational Development and Digital Learning professional. He currently serves as an Assistant Director, Research and Faculty Development at a private university in Pakistan. He was heading the Digital Publishing department at Oxford University Press Pakistan. He has also served as an Educational Technologist at The Aga Khan University, Network of Blended and Digital Learning. He is a recipient of High Honours in Master of Education from The Aga Khan University – Institute for Educational Development. He participated as a digital innovator in an academic scholarship program ‘Social Innovation in a Digital Context’ funded by the Swedish Institute, where he explored the development of a digital storytelling approach for promotion of pluralistic and creative expression. He holds an MA in Technology and Social Change from Lunds Universitet by the same program. His interests include eLearning pedagogy, learner autonomy, pluralism education and visual narratives.

Selen Savsin
PBL co-facilitator
 

Selen Savsin works as a lecturer at Mälardalen University, Sweden. She has a Ph.D. in economics and is currently teaching microeconomics, econometrics, and globalization. She has research experience in experimental economics, international trade and interest in behavioral economics. She attended ONL221.