Judy Roberts & Associates / Associés Inc.

JUDITH M. (JUDY) ROBERTS, M.A., is President of Judy Roberts & Associates/ Associés Inc. (RAA). Judy Roberts has over Judith M. Roberts 25 years' experience in national and international applications of learning technologies, with particular emphasis on distance and open learning, and telemedicine. Before starting her consulting practice, she worked from 1974-1990 as senior founding staff member of projects such as telemedicine in Newfoundland and Labrador, Telemedicine for Ontario in Toronto, and Contact North/Contact Nord in Sudbury Ontario.

She is an Adjunct Faculty member of the Graduate School of Management and Technology, University of Maryland University College, Consulting Editor to the International Review of Research in Open and Distance Learning published by Athabasca University and serves on the Editorial Board of Distance Education, published for the Open and Distance Learning Association of Australia. She was a member of the first Office of Learning Technologies (Social Development Canada, formerly Human Resources Development Canada) Advisory Network of Experts, served on the Editorial Boards of the American Journal of Distance Education (2000-2004), developed the series Lifelong Learning on the Information Highway/L'apprentissage à vie sur l'inforoute (1998, 1999) and co-edited Why the Information Highway? Lessons from Open and Distance Education (1995). Her educational and work experiences have taken her to countries such as Turkey, Lebanon, Jordan, Israel, Guyana, Bermuda, the West Indies, Venezuela, Brunei, India, Singapore, Norway, Germany, Austria, the United Kingdom and France.

Judy Roberts & Associates/Associés Inc., incorporated in 1998 and founded initially as Roberts & Associates/Associés in 1990, specializes in enabling clients to harness information and communications technologies to meet their learning and performance support needs. Services are available in both French and English and include applied policy research, and strategic and business planning; project planning, management and evaluation; and capacity building focused on enabling education and training professionals to use learning technologies appropriately.

Clients include the University of Toronto, the Association of Colleges of Applied Arts and Technology of Ontario, Industry Canada, the Insurance Institute of Canada, the Brewers Association of Canada, the Council of Ministers of Education, Canada, the Reed Midem Organisation in France, the Association for the Development of Education in Africa, the Commonwealth of Learning, The University of the West Indies and The World Bank. Project funders include IDRC, CIDA, the World Bank, the Caribbean and Asia Development Banks, WUSC and the Shastri Indo-Canadian Institute.

IAN MUGRIDGE, Ph. D., has been involved in distance education since 1979 as a teacher, administrator and author, with particular emphasis on programme and and curriculum development, research and evaluation, quality assurance and credit accumulation and transfer at schools, colleges and universities. He was the founding principal of the British Columbia Open University and vice president of the Open Learning Agency of BC, where he directed international development and training projects in China, Indonesia, Jordan and Malaysia. He was appointed to the Planning Committee and later to the Council of the Open Learning Institute, now the Open University, of Hong Kong. As Director of Programmes for The Commonwealth of Learning in Vancouver BC, he was responsible for its Commonwealth-wide initiatives. He is a former vice president for North America, the International Council for Distance Education.

Ian is presently an Adjunct Faculty member with Athabasca University. He teaches three courses in the Masters in Distance Education program: Introduction to Distance Education and Training, International Issues in Open and Distance Education, and Planning and Management in Distance Education and Training. He also supervises several independent study projects and is a thesis examiner.

Ian is an Associate Editor of the International Review of Research in Open and Distance Learning published by Athabasca University. In August, 2004, he was appointed for a second 3-year term to the Post-secondary Education Quality Assessment Board established by the Ontario Ministry of Training, Colleges and Universities.

Ian’s RAA clients include the Ontario College of Teachers, Contact North/Contact Nord and The World Bank.

ERIN M. KEOUGH, M.A. has over 20 years’ experience in the application of information and communications technologies (ICT’s) in telehealth and telelearning. As director of Telemedicine and co-director of TETRA (Telemedicine and Educational Technology Resources Agency), Erin oversaw the implementation and development of this provincial telemedicine network and its related programs and services in 120 communities in Newfoundland and Labrador. She also directed the provincial Open Learning and Information Network (OLIN), an agency aimed at enhancing distance and online learning programs and networks through partnering with existing institutions and agencies. Erin is currently on executive secondment to Industry Canada's office in St. John's NL to oversee the implementation of its broadband program in Newfoundland and Labrador.

Erin’s international activities include all aspects of project deployment from negotiating contracts with donor agencies, to in-country delivery and overall project direction. Her international projects include countries such as the Philippines, the Caribbean, Japan, Africa, Jordan, Ireland and the Ukraine. Project funders include SAEMEO, IDRC, CIDA, the World Bank, the Caribbean Development Bank and UNESCO.

Erin has served on numerous Boards, most recently as chair of the board of CANARIE, Inc. (2001/2002). She was a member of the first Advisory Network of Experts, Office of Learning Technologies (Social Development Canada, formerly Human Resources Development Canada). She has published some 20 articles and book chapters and presented a many professional conferences. She is a member of the editorial board of the International Review of Research in Open and Distance Learning published by Athabasca University.

Erin has collaborated with RAA on consultancies for the Office of Learning Technologies, the University of the West Indies and the Commonwealth of Learning.

JANE E. BRINDLEY, Ph.D., has over 20 years' experience as a clinician, educator, researcher, and administrator in open and distance learning. She is a chartered psychologist (Alberta) who specializes in the development, delivery, and evaluation of support services for adult learners using alternate delivery modes. Jane has held a variety of positions in post-secondary settings, including Director of Student Services at Athabasca University in Alberta, Coordinator of Planning, Development, and Review at Cambrian College in Ontario, and Special Consultant to The Centre for Innovation in Learning at Contact North/Contact Nord in Ontario. Jane is currently Intake Coordinator at the Centre for Psychological Services, University of Windsor, a training clinic for Ph.D. interns in the Clinical Psychology program. She has also worked as a researcher, consultant, and trainer in distance education in Canada, England, New Zealand, Scandinavia, and South and Central America.

Jane is presently an Adjunct Faculty member with Carl von Ossietzky University of Oldenburg in Germany. She co-authored and teaches a course on "Student Support in Distance Education" in the joint University of Maryland/Oldenburg Masters in Distance Education program, an international online program. Jane is co-author (with Judy Roberts and Barbara Spronk) of Learning on the Information Highway: A Learner's Guide to the Technologies, part of the Lifelong Learning on the Information Highway™ Series of books.

Jane's RAA clients have included Athabasca University and the Association of Colleges of Applied Arts and Technology of Ontario.