EdTech blog by Alexander Mikroyannidis

EdTech blog by Alexander Mikroyannidis

News

1 May 2020

The 9th eSTEeM Conference: Informing Student Success – From Scholarship to Practice

The 9th eSTEeM conference took place online on April 29-30, 2020. The conference is organised...

31 March 2020

eLmL 2020 and QualiChain Special Track Proceedings

Alexander Mikroyannidis has co-edited the proceedings of the 12th International Conference on Mobile, Hybrid, and...

30 January 2020

Open Networking Lab Accessibility – The Challenge

In the UK, there are over 2 million people with sight loss, with 360,000 registered...

10 December 2019

The OpenLang Network meets at the Open University

The latest meeting of the Erasmus+ project OpenLang Network took place at the Open University...

4 December 2019

The Open Education Global 2019 conference: Open Education for an Open Future

The Open Education Global Conference (OE Global 2019) took place in Politecnico di Milano, Milan...

22 November 2019

The Ufi VocTech Showcase 2019

The annual Ufi VocTech Showcase took place on November 21, 2019 in IET London. The event...

5 November 2019

Discovering Computer Networks: Hands on in the Open Networking Lab

The Open Networking Lab project has launched a free online course entitled “Discovering computer networks: hands on in...

24 October 2019

The Online, Open and Flexible Higher Education Conference 2019

The Online, Open and Flexible Higher Education Conference (OOFHEC2019) took place on October 16-18 in...

23 September 2019

QualiChain meets in Madrid

The consortium of the QualiChain project has met in Madrid, Spain on September 19-20, 2019...

‹
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
›
»

Professional biography

Dr. Alexander Mikroyannidis is a Senior Research Fellow (Associate Professor) in the Knowledge Media Institute of The Open University, UK. He holds a Ph.D. in Informatics from Manchester Business School, an M.Phil. in Computation from the University of Manchester Institute of Science and Technology (UMIST), and a B.Eng. in Electrical and Computer Engineering from the University of Patras, Greece.

Research interests

The research expertise of Dr. Mikroyannidis is in the field of Technology-Enhanced Learning. He has been investigating the use of novel educational technologies for enhancing personalised learning, self-regulated learning, lifelong learning, as well as open education. He is currently working on the transformative applications of Generative AI and decentralisation blockchain technology in the context of online and distance education. He is the author of over 130 peer-reviewed publications that have received over 1,800 citations (21 h-index). He sits on the editorial boards of several globally renowned scientific journals, such as Open Learning, a leading international journal in the field of open, flexible and distance learning.

As presented in this conference publication, the current research of Dr. Mikroyannidis is focused on harnessing Generative AI to support learner autonomy and personalisation in digital education. This research introduces a framework that integrates Generative AI tools to assist learners in setting goals, reflecting on progress, and adapting learning strategies in real time. This approach aims to transform AI from a passive content generator into an active partner in the learning process. Additionally, Dr. Mikroyannidis is investigating the potential of Generative AI to support curriculum development and improve the production of distance learning materials, as outlined in this conference publication.

Teaching interests

Dr. Mikroyannidis has extensive experience in developing rich interactive learning materials for Open Educational Resources (OERs), Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs), Badged Open Courses (BOCs), and eBooks. Some highlights from this work are the following:

In recognition of this experience, Dr. Mikroyannidis has been appointed International Expert in Distance Learning by the Agency for the Assessment and Accreditation of Higher Education (A3ES), Portugal’s national authority for quality assurance in higher education. In this role, Dr. Mikroyannidis is contributing to the assessment of distance learning programmes across Portuguese universities, and advising A3ES on best practices in distance learning, including the use of emerging technologies such as AI and Blockchain.

Impact and engagement

The work of Dr. Mikroyannidis has led to strategic partnerships with key technological companies, most notably with Cisco and its global educational network, the Cisco Networking Academy, which has over 1 million students worldwide. Within this partnership, Dr. Mikroyannidis is in charge of the design, development and deployment of PT Anywhere, a novel educational tool for teaching computer networking skills by performing network simulations on any device. PT Anywhere has played a vital role in remote teaching and learning during the COVID-19 pandemic, and has been featured in the UK government’s Digital Skills Toolkit, which is offering essential digital skills to job seekers.

Dr. Mikroyannidis has led a successful pilot for facilitating lifelong learning using blockchain technologies, in the context of the European project QualiChain. In particular, he has been in charge of deploying and evaluating decentralised education and employment qualifications with learners and educators within various lifelong learning contexts. The results of this pilot are presented in this journal article. Additionally, Dr. Mikroyannidis has been investigating the impact of Web 3.0 and Blockchain on the open upskilling and reskilling of job seekers, as outlined in this journal editorial co-authored with several other renowned experts in the field of open education.

External collaborations

Dr. Mikroyannidis has been driving significant educational technology initiatives at an international level, by establishing a network of collaborators inside and outside the Open University and acquiring external funding, in order to implement and evaluate novel educational solutions in real-life settings and with real users. He has been awarded and worked on a wide range of European and nationally funded research projects, including SAGE-RAI, QualiChain, DEL4ALL, OpenLang Network, Open Networking Lab, Institute of Coding, SlideWiki, EDSA, HUB4NGI, FORGE, weSPOT, EUCLID, ROLE, OpenScout, CASPAR, and PARMENIDES.

In collaboration with the European partners of the Erasmus+ project OpenLang Network, Dr. Mikroyannidis has led the design, implementation and evaluation of the OpenLang Network platform. This platform provides an open and collaborative online learning environment that brings together language teachers and learners across Europe. This journal article presents the sustainable design of the platform and the tools that the platform is offering for practicing innovative learning methods, such as tandem language learning. The goal of this work is to foster the European multicultural and multilingual vision by building a sustainable online community around open educational resources and practices.