About Us
Executive Committee
ODLAA is managed by an unpaid volunteer executive committee with support of a paid Executive Officer. The executive committee is elected for a two-year period by ODLAA members at the Annual General Meeting, with half of the executive committee being elected each year.
Each month the executive committee meets to formulate strategy, approve association expenditure, and undertake planning of member activities and events. Executive members are assigned a portfolio responsibility for advancing the association.
These portfolios include:
- Affiliations and Partnerships
- Webinars
- Website
- Events and Conference
- Marketing and Communication
Executive Committee
President
Professor Dawn Marie Gilmore
Victoria University
Dawn’s passion is in online education. In addition to holding senior and executive roles in online education, she has extensive experience teaching fully online and has been involved in accelerated online learning models since the early 2000s.
Dawn is currently the Executive Dean at Victoria University Online.
Dawn’s passion is in online education. She has extensive experience teaching online and has been involved in accelerated online learning since the early 2000s.
Her career spans leadership roles in online learning, academic strategy and quality, and the teacher and student experience. Most recently, she worked in the Office of the Provost at the University of Melbourne to establish and launch Melbourne Online. Her previous roles have included Director of Quality and Enhancement at RMIT’s Centre for Academic Quality and Enhancement and Academic Director and Director of Teaching & Learning at RMIT Online where she developed and scaled evidence led practices in the recruitment and training of online teachers and in online student support from enrolment to graduation.
She has authored peer review academic journal articles, news articles, and blogs about online teaching, learning, and quality. Dawn has edited two books including Partnering with Online Program Managers for Distance Education and The Remaking of the university educator (in progress). During the pandemic her short online teaching tips were read globally by a community of more than 15,000 and endorsed as best practice by colleges, schools, and organisations around the world.
In 2015, Dawn was awarded funding as a Visiting Research Scholar at South Africa’s University of Witwatersrand Centre for Learning, Teaching & Development. More recently, she has been invited to speak locally and globally at various events including for the Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency (Australia), Distance Education Accrediting Commission (United States), Ministry of Education and Training (Vietnam), and Fatima Jinnah Women’s University (Pakistan).
Research interests: Online Learning, Distance Education, Academic Quality, Student Experience, Academic Development.
Vice President
Dr Chinh Nguyen
Melbourne University
Dr Chinh Nguyen is Senior Advisor (Student Experience) with Melbourne Online in the Office of the Provost at the University of Melbourne. He leads strategic initiatives to enhance the online student experience, with a focus on online teaching and learning, student success, educator capability, learning analytics, and the effective use of educational technologies.
Previously, Chinh held leadership roles in online education at Curio and coordinated global online programs at the LH Martin Institute for Tertiary Education Leadership and Management, University of Melbourne, supporting learners from more than 45 countries. He had also taught business and management in the Faculty of Business and Economics at the University of Melbourne. Chinh holds a PhD from the University of Melbourne and is a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy UK (FHEA).
Research interests: Human-centred online education, authentic learning, Students as Partners, and the future of higher education in an AI-enabled world.
treasurer - previous president
Dr Mutuota Kigotho
University of New England
Mutuota has been involved in distance education in Australia since 2009 when he took up a position as Lecturer at the University of New England (UNE) where over 80% of the student’s study online and by distance learning.
His expertise lies in digital literacy where his focus has been the intersection between broadband and analogue investigating the literacies that users need to make sense of their learning environment. He has published in the Journal of Distance Education and in Literacy Learning- the Middle Years. He has also presented papers at the International Council of Distance Education (ICDE) conferences in Sydney and in Bali – Indonesia.
Mutuota is a long-standing member of ODLAA having served as a committee member, secretary, vice-president, treasurer, and between 2017 and 2021, as president of the association. He believes that access continues to be one of the biggest challenges of our time and is strongly persuaded in sharing content at minimal cost.
Research interests: Distance Education, eLearning, the uptake in Information and Communication Technology (ICT) in African Educational systems, and the use of social media and ICT for educational purposes.
Distance Education Journal Representative
Rose Babaee
Dr Rose Babaee is a higher education leader and researcher with 15 years of experience in educational strategy, digital transformation, academic quality, and innovation across Australia and the United States. Her work focuses on advancing teaching excellence, strengthening institutional capability, and translating educational research and innovation into sustainable practice.
Dr Babaee has extensive experience leading multidisciplinary education teams and managing complex portfolios of academic initiatives across business, engineering, health, education, and professional disciplines. Her expertise spans online and blended learning, curriculum and assessment design, faculty development, quality assurance, organisational change, and the implementation of scalable educational models.
Most recently, she completed a postdoctoral appointment at UCLA Anderson School of Management, where she contributed to school-wide AI strategy through the Anderson AI Taskforce and conducted research on teaching excellence at scale in AI-mediated higher education. Her work also includes assurance of learning, curriculum alignment, and academic quality within the school’s accreditation environment.
As ODLAA’s Distance Education Journal Representative, Dr Babaee is committed to strengthening connections between educational research, academic practice, and the wider open, distance, and online learning community. She is particularly interested in promoting research-informed innovation, supporting scholarly engagement, and advancing equitable, high-quality education in an increasingly AI-enabled landscape.
EVENTS (New)
Currently Vacant
KEY TASKS
- Event coordination and planning for online events with APODE, for ODLAA and Distance Education
- Leading the organisation of annual hybrid event.
Social Media (New)
Currently Vacant
KEY TASKS
- Creates and maintains social media presence by promoting ODLAA, its partners and the Distance Education journal
- Organises quarterly newsletter via LinkedIn
Member representative
Sharon Altena
Queensland University of Technology
Sharon Altena (SFHEA) is a Senior Curriculum and Learning Designer in the Learning and Teaching unit at Queensland University of Technology. She has worked in curriculum and learning design for the past 30 years across the secondary, vocational education and higher education sectors.
In her current role, Sharon leads course teams to re-imagine their curriculum and implement evidence-based digital learning practices into their on-campus, blended, flipped and online classrooms. Sharon is a member of the Digital Learning for Change Research Group at Queensland University of Technology.
Research interests: Third space workers, online learning, curriculum, and educational technology.
Member representative
Chen Wang
University of Otago
Chen Wang has a deep-rooted passion for enhancing digital learning experiences, I currently serve as a Senior Professional Practice Fellow eLearning at the University of Otago.
In her role, Chen is responsible for delivering comprehensive digital learning professional development programs tailored to meet the needs of both teaching staff and students. At the heart of her work lies a dedication to research-informed practical solutions. Chen is deeply invested in exploring innovative approaches that leverage educational technologies, data analysis, and research methodologies to create interactive, adaptive, and inclusive learning environments.
Research interests: Educational technology, learning analytics and self-regulated learning. Chen aims to contribute to the body of knowledge and foster evidence-based decision-making in eLearning.
Member representative
Georgina Pazzi
Edumazing Foundation
Georgina Pazzi is an educator, researcher, consultant and educational leader with nearly four decades of experience across primary, secondary, specialist and tertiary education. She is currently the Founder and CEO of Edumazing Foundation.
Find Out More about ODLAA
