STEM Faculty

Professional biography

Karen Kear is Professor of Online Education in the School of Computing and Communications, within the STEM Faculty at The Open University (UK). 

Karen develops and presents courses in IT and Computing, specialising in the social and communication aspects of these subjects.

Karen's main research area is online learning, in particular on online collaboration, and the benefits and issues related to this educational approach. 
 

Research interests

Karen's research is primarily in  online learning, with a particular focus on online communication and collaboration She has researched the use of social technologies such as forums, wikis and web conferencing in educational contexts. A key focus for Karen's research is group projects which students carry out online using communication technologies. She is the author of 'Online and Social Networking Communities: a best practice guide for educators'.

Karen's research projects have included:

• The Open Networking Lab, which developed and evaluated an online approach to the learning of computer networking
• Changing the Pedagogical Landscape, which looked at European policy to support new learning approaches in Higher Education
• E-xcellence Next, which considered quality assessment and enhancement in e-learning.

Publications 

Karen's book Online and social networking communities: a best practice guide for educators was published by Routledge in 2010. She was one of three co-editors of Online communication and collaboration: a reader, also published by Routledge in 2010.  

Karen's publications are listed in the Open University's Open Research Online (ORO) repository.