TERRY ANDERSON

Terry Anderson PhD is a Professor Emeritus and former Canada Research Chair in the Centre for Distance Education and the Technology Enhanced Knowledge Research Centre at Athabasca University.  Terry has published widely in the area of distance education and educational technology and has co-authored or edited 10 books and numerous papers.

Much of Terry’s research work revolves around studying interaction amongst and between students, teachers and content.  He claims to have organized (in 1992) the first virtual conference ever held using a variety of networks that preceded the Internet (see Anderson, Terry D. “The Virtual Conference: Extending Professional Education in Cyberspace.” International Journal of Educational Telecommunications 2, no. 2 (1996): 121-135).

He also co-authored one of the few books and an article on the costs, both economic and ecological, and benefits of online virtual conferences.

Terry’s books and research articles have, since 2004, been published under open access licenses so as to maximize their availability to all distance education practitioners, students and researchers.

Terry was active in provincial, national, and international distance education associations and is a regular keynote presenter at professional and academic conferences. Many of his slide show presentations are available on SlideShare.

Virtual Online Conferences: How good do they have to be to be good enough?

This session looks at the the characteristics, advantages and challenges of virtual conferences in academic contexts. The session gives examples of three such conferences organized by the presenter and notes the carbon costs and social benefits.

Selected Works:

• Anderson, T., & Christiansen, J. (2002). Virtual Conferences for Professional Development. In C. Vrasidas & G. Glass (Eds.), Online Professional Development for Teachers pp. 13-29). Greenwich, CT: Information Age Publishing.
• Anderson, T., & Kanuka, H. (2002). E-Research: Methods, strategies and issues. Boston: Allyn and Bacon.

Website: https://landing.athabascau.ca/pg/profile/terrya

Blog: virtualcanuck.ca

Twitter: @Terguy