2024 Lifetime Achievement Award Winner

Martin Weller

The Open University (United Kingdom)

This award recognizes the 30 year career achievements in open education by Martin Weller, recently retired as a Professor of Educational Technology at The Open University.

Martin has been integral into making the Open University a leader in online distance learning having introduced and led a number of key programs that have shaped the university. In 1995 he started his career at the Open University as a lecturer in Artificial Intelligence.

Graphics by Bryan Mathers / Visual Thinkery

In the mid 1990s Martin recognized the potential of the world wide web as a vehicle for distance learning, shifting the OU’s traditional approach of print and radio broadcast modes. He then co-taught with John Naughton the first “massive” eLearning course, You, Your Computer and the Net (Ti171) teaching over 15,000 students at a time, years before the coining of the term “Massive Online Open Courses.” He moved on to become the first director of the Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) and led the initiative to adopt Moodle as the single OU platform, still used to this day.

He has led significant projects, such as the OER Research Hub and the Global OER Graduate Network (GO-GN). Martin has contributed to a large body of published research papers and is a frequently invited keynote speaker. In 2019, he delivered the inaugural lecture for the OU’s 50th anniversary celebration, exploring the meaning of the term ‘open’ and speculating what an Open University would be like if it were created now.

Martin is cherished for the volume of critical and explorative writing on his blog The Ed Techie including as well his dogs and a curious fascination with sharks.

He has authored several books, many of them charting the history of educational technology:

Martin Weller’s impact on and contributions to open education over his career at the Open University and ongoing in his post retirement era are here recognized by the OEGlobal Board of Directors with a Lifetime Achievement award.

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About Lifetime Achievement Award

Special Merit Award presented by the OEG Board of Directors to individuals who, during their lifetimes and careers, have made creative contributions of outstanding significance to the advancement of open education.