D2L Connection: London

Colin Moran

Colin has been involved in education all his professional career, initially as a secondary school teacher and then in rugby development with both the Irish Rugby Football Union (IRFU) and World Rugby. Over the past 27 years he has witnessed both evolution and revolution in his sport and considers himself very privileged to have played a part in some of the most significant developments in the IRFU and rugby in Ireland. In recent times one of those revolutions has been brought about by the adoption of Brightspace by the organisation – its first ever eLearning platform.  

He is a regular presenter at conferences and workshops and has travelled the world to avail of opportunities to both teach and learn – though always looks forward to returning home to his wife and teenage daughter.  

Agustina Bruno Videla

Agustina Bruno Videla is an accomplished E-Learning & Digital Co-ordinator with a remarkable journey beginning in Argentina. With a decade-long journey that spans the globe, Agustina’s career ignited as a media creator within an Argentine biochemistry enterprise, where her innate prowess for digital innovation flourished. With a profound passion for leveraging technology to enhance learning experiences, she swiftly transitioned to freelancing, engaging with diverse global communities. Her expertise flourished and eventually led her to the dynamic landscapes of Ireland, where she currently serves as a pivotal force within the Irish Rugby Football Union (IRFU). As a visionary leader, Agustina ardently orchestrates the GAINLINE platform, striving to empower players and coaches from around the world to thrive amid their demanding schedules. With an innate ability to harmonize innovation and practicality, Agustina Bruno Videla stands as an inspiring advocate for seamless e-learning journeys, poised to share her wealth of knowledge at the Connections event in London, hosted by D2l, igniting the path towards enhanced e-learning experiences. 

Mairi McLaughlin

Mairi McLaughlin is a Partnership Manager with sportscotland, the national agency for sport in Scotland and leads on Digital and blended learning. Mairi is responsible for overall management and delivery of the Learninginsport Brightspace project, which is designed and delivered as a virtual learning environment to be utilised across the sporting sector in Scotland. To date, Mairi and her team have managed and supported over 30 partners to on board and go live in their digital journey through the platform. 

Ashley Bruce

Ashley Bruce is a Partnership Manager with sportscotland, the national agency for sport in Scotland. She is responsible for the area of Leadership Development as well as supporting the delivery of the LearningInSport Brightspace platform. Ashley’s main role within Brightspace is to manage the onboarding process of new partners to the platform. To date, Ashley and the team have managed and supported over 30 partners to on board and go live in their digital journey.

Cairo Okba

Meet Cairo, an experienced learning professional with an impressive journey spanning more than a decade. Her key focus revolves around creating engaging learning experiences and overseeing the intricacies of Gafta’s online learning platform, Agribility™. In fact, she’s the driving force behind the scenes, supervising the entire cycle of Gafta’s digital learning programmes – from pre-analysis and design to rollout and delivery. 

Prior to Gafta, Cairo’s career path meandered through various industries such as healthcare and finance. Her expertise found its roots in training management, Learning Management Systems (LMS), instructional design, and delivering valuable learning experiences. 

Cairo’s dedication and achievements haven’t gone unnoticed. In 2021, her outstanding contributions secured her the esteemed Association Executive of the Year award at the AAE International and European Association Awards. This recognition speaks volumes about her impactful work on Gafta’s Distance Learning Programme and the pioneering Agribility™ platform. With Cairo, you’re accessing a wealth of experience and expertise wrapped up in a friendly and professional package. 

Dr. Lesley Snowball

With a Diploma in Education at the University of London, as well as a Masters and PhD in Philosophy at the University of Bath, Dr. Lesley Snowball has a strong expertise in the education sector and has gained extensive experience in the field by working in 50+ countries across the world. She has previously worked on the design and reform of systemwide curriculum plans, with a large focus on school evaluation and improvement.  

She has also explored personalized learning plans and alternate learning pathways for those students with special educational needs, striving to establish more inclusive education systems. In the past, she has held positions such as Teacher, School Principal, Adjunct Professor, and Special Needs Coordinator, with a current role as Educational Director at the MBRGI Digital School. 

Lisa Nelson

Lisa is the Director of Learning & Curriculum at Kaplan UK, an independent training provider specialising in accountancy, financial services and data & technology apprenticeships and professional qualifications. She discovered her passion for learning while working in the training department of Deloitte, shortly after qualifying as a chartered accountant in 1996. This led to her career at Kaplan which has included roles as a full time tutor, head of the London training centre and subject matter expert for ICAEW. Since 2006, she has immersed herself in digital and blended learning and pioneered Kaplan’s first implementation of its digital, online and virtual learning environments and then led the selection of and migration to Brightspace in 2016.

Lisa has led the Learning and Curriculum team since 2020, focusing on the design and development of programmes for apprenticeships and professional qualifications, championing the learner experience – using data, research, and learner and employer feedback.

Martin Sexton

I currently work at Mildenhall College Academy, part of Academy Transformation Trust. I have been teaching computing in secondary schools for 11 years, 9 at my current school. As well as my teaching role, I also lead Business, Health and Computing at MCA and help lead Computing across the trust. I was part of the team to choose and start to introduce Brightspace at our trust and we now use Brightspace as the way to share lesson and homework resources. 

Rebecca Harnett

I am an eLearning Technology Manager at the Royal College of Psychiatrists where I manage BrightSpace and Course Merchant platforms delivering a range of learning resources to psychiatrists.  I have over 10 years LMS and eLearning experience, including LMS migration projects.

Dr. Sue Folley

Dr. Sue Folley is an Academic Developer at the University of Huddersfield, with a remit to support the pedagogic development of staff with the use of digital technologies. Her role involves contributing to the University’s strategic developments in this area and providing training courses, resources and support for academic staff. She has worked in Higher Education for the last 24 years and has a PGCE, a master’s degree in Multimedia and eLearning, and a doctorate in Education focusing on tutors’ experiences of teaching online. She is a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy and her research interests include online teaching, digital literacy, and student dashboards. 

Steve Bentley

Steve is the Strategic Learning Technology Advisor at the University of Huddersfield, and has over 20 years’ experience of supporting and developing learning technologies. His particular areas of interest are in assessment and feedback and in using analytics to inform decision making and development.  He has developed a number of API driven widgets to enhance Brightspace functionality to support Huddersfield’s existing workflows and requirements.

Danny Ball

Danny Ball is the Learning Design Manager at The London Institute of Banking & Finance. Joining in 2018, he has extensive experience of designing and developing, learner-centric online learning experiences for higher and further education. In addition to leading on the design of training and qualifications, he has overseen the implementation of several learning technologies and has a keen interest in how technology can be used to enhance learning.

Chris Holmes

Chris Holmes is the Manager for Education Technology at The London Institute of Banking & Finance. Joining in 2015, he delivers education technology across a range of educational levels: Professional Education, Global Learning, Higher Education and Financial Education. Taking the lead responsibility for managing the content on our VLEs and maintaining the consistency of our course websites, he has ensured that student needs are met every step of the way.

Tracey Webb

Tracey Webb is the Learning Technology Team Manager at Bournemouth University. She is a certified member of the Association for Learning Technology and an Advance HE Fellow. Tracey has over 30 years’ experience of working within the education sector; within higher education and in Learning and Development in the charity sector. She has worked with several different virtual learning environments and contributed to the production of an institutional framework to support the adoption of TEL tools and digital pedagogies.

Dr. Gelareh Roushan

Dr. Gelareh Roushan has extensive leadership expertise in higher education and is currently the Head of Centre for Fusion Learning Innovation and Excellence where she leads institutional projects in education enhancement and innovative pedagogies for Higher Education. She led the successful achievement of AACSB accreditation in her previous role in the Business School and more recently, she led the successful achievement of bronze award in Race Equality Charter. She has served on the Board of UK Academy of Information Systems and is mentor for AACSB International. Current research interest includes using digital transformation to develop staff capabilities and enhance students’ experience. Gelareh is a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy.

Jiska Bomans

Jiska Bomans is a seasoned professional who has worked in the field of education at Leiden university for over 20 years. She started out as an assistant professor in the psychology department and got involved in managing the digital learning environment in 2009 when she began as an assistant application manager of Leiden University’s previous digital learning environment.   

Over the years, Jiska’s expertise and dedication have been instrumental in guiding the department through a transformative period. She actively participated in the tender process and subsequent implementation of Brightspace, a monumental shift that revolutionized digital learning at Leiden University. 

Jiska’s wealth of experience, from her early days as an assistant professor to her current role as a Functional Consultant, has not only contributed to the department’s success but has also paved the way for cutting-edge solutions in educational technology. Her commitment to improving the learning experience at Leiden University is unwavering, making her a respected and indispensable member of the Digital Learning Environment team.

Simon Danckaerts

Simon Danckaerts embarked on his journey with the University Leiden’s Digital Learning Environment department in 2018 as a Functional Application Manager. With a passion for innovation and a strong commitment to enhancing the educational experience. 

In his role, Simon specializes in the seamless integration of learning tools into Brightspace, a task that requires a keen understanding of both educational technology and the unique needs of the academic community. He’s familiar with APIs and uses them effectively to improve the university’s digital learning ecosystem.

Dr. Carmen Miles

Dr. Carmen Miles is currently leading a Brightspace implementation, as part of embedding the university’s vision for empowering staff and students and supporting the creation of transformative learning experiences across the diverse curriculum at De Montfort University. An experienced educator, having 30 years teaching experience, she has spent over 20 years leading distance and online education and is regularly invited to share her insights on drawing from her vast experience in learning design, learning technology and academic development. Having led learning, teaching and academic development through the formation of Arden University, the first private online university, she is reputable leader in creating a vision for pedagogical change and harnessing innovative ways to embed these across an institution. 

Andy Lancaster

Andy Lancaster leads the vision for workplace learning at the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD). He has been at the heart of CIPD’s transformation to digital and self-directed learning, now accessed in over 180 countries. He has more than 30 years’ experience in learning and organizational development in a range of sectors and has a research Masters’ degree in instructional design. He regularly speaks at conferences, writes, and contributes to research in learning. His award-winning book “Driving Performance Through Learning” is available through Kogan Page publishing, and his new book on social collaborative learning entitled: “Organizational Learning Communities” is due out in mid-2024. 

Samuel Tanner

As Head of Flexible and Work-Integrated Learning within the Centre for Academic Development and Quality (CADQ), Samuel is responsible for leading flexible and online courses, lifelong learning, continuous innovation for new methods of delivery of education, and work-integrated provision. Samuel manages the Apprenticeship team, which is accountable for apprenticeship funding, regulatory compliance, quality management, and external engagement, and the Flex team, which manages the institutional Virtual Learning Environment and designs and develops online provision at NTU. In support of this, Samuel acts as Chair for the Online Learning Governance Committee. 

Allard Naber

Allard is one of the coordinators for educational applications in the University of Groningen’s team ICT for Education. In this role, he has been involved in the early phases of digital exams at the institution and the university’s transition to Brightspace as LMS and exam environment. The team is responsible for a collection of applications that span the whole student lifecycle, which allows the team to optimally align these systems to pursue the best possible user experience. The team consists of coordinators, student assistants to provide first and second line support, application managers and developers.

Kelvyn Hicks

Kelvyn has over 2 decades of experience within the education software industry. His career started in the Royal Air Force. A qualified aerospace engineer and pilot, Kelvyn first got interested in virtual learning by designing, building and selling a Learning Management System, with his own company back in the early days! He was also an inaugural board member of the UK SCORM standards committee. After selling his company, he joined Microsoft and enjoyed a 10 year period which culminated in him managing education software solutions in the Middle East & Africa, covering 79 countries, based in Istanbul. Since then, Kelvyn has helped to build a joint venture start-up between Capita PLC and the UK Government, which delivers global best practice certifications, working with over 700 global partners. He has also lived and worked all over the world, for many large and small learning & development companies, during which time he has amassed a vast amount of industry knowledge and experience. Today, Kelvyn is the UK & Ireland Country Manager for Class Technologies.

John Baker

John founded D2L in 1999, at the age of twenty-two, while attending the University of Waterloo. He strongly believes that learning is the foundation upon which all progress and achievement rests. 

He is a member of the Business Council of Canada, board member of the Business Higher Education Roundtable, member of the Industry Strategy Council in Canada, Chair of the Digital Economic Strategy Table in Canada, has served on the Governing Council of the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, is the Past Chair of the board of Communitech, and is a board member of Canada’s National Ballet School. 

John was awarded the Meritorious Service Cross, the EY Entrepreneur of the Year (Ontario for Software and Technology), Young Alumni Achievement Medal from University of Waterloo, and Intrepid Entrepreneur of the Year in Waterloo Region Hall of Fame. 

John graduated from the University of Waterloo with an Honours B.A.Sc. in Systems Design Engineering, with First Class Honours and an option in Management Sciences.

Dr. Cristi Ford

Dr. Cristi Ford serves as the Vice President of Academic Affairs at D2L. She brings more than 20 years of cumulative experience in higher education, secondary education, project management, program evaluation, training and student services to her role. In this role, she offers thought leadership and direction to the academic affairs unit of the organization. Her previous roles have allowed her to have impact in education from secondary and higher education settings within North America and as part of the international landscape. Her reach has allowed her to focus on building online education in the US and in Africa. 

In addition to her experience building new online learning programs and research related to online teaching and learning, Dr. Ford possesses significant experience in the design and delivery of integrated educational support, training and transition services for young adults and children with neurodevelopment disabilities. 

Dr. Ford was selected by the Online Learning Consortium as the 2022 OLC Fellow (the highest professional distinction offered by the association). She is a tireless advocate for quality online education and has leveraged her passion and expertise in many realms in the education space. She is known for utilizing her leadership in extraordinary ways to help institutions build capacity to launch and expand online programming through effective faculty development, instructional design and pedagogical practices. 

Dr. Ford holds a PhD in Educational Leadership from the University of Missouri-Columbia and undergraduate and graduate degrees in the field of Psychology from Hampton University and University of Baltimore, respectively. 

Stewart Watts

A graduate of The University of Nottingham, Stewart has worked in the software industry within Education since 2011 gaining a good understanding of the intricacies of FE/HE institutions, the challenges they face and the common goals and objectives across the sector. Stewart moved to D2L in January 2016 having previously run the sales operation at Blackbaud Europe helping schools, colleges, universities and charities grow their revenue through fundraising and alumni relations technology.  

 At D2L, Stewart manages the EMEA sales operation and has overall responsibility for the retention and growth of D2L’s customer base within both the education and enterprise sectors. Since joining D2L in early 2016, Stewart has worked closely with a large number of universities across Europe and acts as D2L’s Project Sponsor for any new implementations of Brightspace within the region.

Surekha Rao

Surekha Rao is a seasoned Senior Manager, Product Management at D2L. She has been in the technology industry for over 20 years. She has a deep passion for education and technology and has devoted much of her career to educational technology.

Throughout her career, Surekha has demonstrated exceptional leadership and expertise in driving the development and launch of innovative productions. Her extensive experience in ed tech has equipped her with a profound understanding of the unique challenges and opportunities within the education sector. Her inclusive and customer-focused leadership style creates an environment that encourages innovation, problem-solving and continuous improvement.

She always stays abreast of emerging technologies and market trends in the ed tech industry. Recognizing the transformative potential of AI, she is proactively exploring opportunities to integrate AI technologies, such as natural language processing, machine learning, and predictive analytics, into her products to deliver engaging learning experiences.

Chris Watson

Over his career, Chris has worked as a Commercial Pilot, Canadian Forces Officer, Transportation Systems Engineer, Flight Instructor, Secondary School Teacher, and Level 1 Crossfit Instructor. Applying his experiences in these diverse learning environments, Chris has spent the past 4 years at D2L helping clients around the globe create engaging Learning Experiences in Brightspace.

Bettina Schlass

Bettina Schlass is a subject-matter expert in the digital development of educational organizations. She joined the D2L Europe team in 2016 as a Customer Success Manager, advising and supporting Higher Education institutions in their strategic implementation and operation of D2L’s Brightspace learning environment. Now she manages D2L’s Customer Success team in the EMEA region for the education and the enterprise sectors.

Bettina holds master degrees from the University of Amsterdam in Literature (1995) and in Teaching (2013) and an MBA in Education and Research Management from the University of Oldenburg (2018).

Heather Williams

Heather is a Senior Implementation Consultant and Trainer who has been with D2L for over 5 years. She has a strong focus on accessibility and is a Certified Professional in Accessibility Core Competencies (CPACC) with the International Association of Accessibility Professionals. She has previous experience in education technology and also as a professional dog trainer!