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Mrs Helene Pulker

Profile summary

  • Central Academic Staff
  • Senior Lecturer (French)
  • Faculty of Wellbeing, Education & Language Studies
  • School of Languages & Applied Linguistics
  • Languages
  • helene.pulker

Professional biography

I have been working in languages at the Open University since June 2005. I was first employed as a Staff Tutor for the West Midlands region. I then became a central academic, and developed several French courses from beginners to advanced levels. I also worked on the design of an online course: ‘Learning how to reuse open educational resources’ and the first OU language MOOC ‘Talk the talk’.

Before joining the OU, I was a senior Lecturer in French at the University of Derby managing French modules on the undergraduate programmes. I was also responsible for the design and delivery of in-company training programmes in French, German and Spanish.

I am now senior Lecturer in French in the School of Languages and Applied Linguistics (LAL), and module team chair for L112 French Studies 1 (Intermediate).   

Research interests

My research interests include the reuse of Open Educational Resources (OER) by language practitioners and the development of Open Educational Practices in the context of distance and online language learning. I was one of the main developers of the LORO (Languages Open Resources Online) repository and have been researching in the field of open education for over ten years. My doctorate: ‘Teachers’ practices through adaptation of open educational resources for online language teaching’ is an investigation into the activities language teachers engage with while re-using and adapting OER and the impact of OER reuse on online language teaching. The thesis is available here: http://oro.open.ac.uk/62109/.

I also have a strong interest in teachers' profesional development and I am currently supervising two students who research in this field.

Teaching interests

I am particularly interested in the design of online and blended language courses from traditional text-based courses to courses delivered through a Virtual Learning Environment and MOOCs. I am also interested in the creation of OER for language teaching. I contributed many resources to support the teaching of French online. I am also interested in student completion and retention. In 2015, I designed a programme of induction for Level 1 students new to studying a language at a distance and online. Over the last five years the programme has developed and is now available on all LAL modules.

Publications

Openness re-examined: teachers' practices with open educational resources in online language teaching (2020)
Pulker, Hélène and Kukulska-Hulme, Agnes
Distance Education, 41(2) (pp. 216-229)

Teachers’ Use and Acceptance of Gamification and Social Networking Features of an Open Repository (2018-01-23)
de los Arcos, Beatriz; Faems, Bram; Comas-Quinn, Anna and Pulker, Hélène
European Journal of Open, Distance and e-Learning, 20(1) (pp. 126-137)

Languages Open Resources Online (LORO): fostering a culture of collaboration and sharing (2011-03)
Comas-Quinn, Anna; Beaven, Mary; Pleines, Christine; Pulker, Helene and de los Arcos, Beatriz
The EuroCALL Review(18)

‘Moving Your Language Teaching Online’ Toolkit: Teachers’ Early Reflections on their Experience and Skills (2023-04-20)
Lindeiner-Stráský, Karina von; Pulker, Hélène and Vialleton, Elodie
In: Stickler, Ursula and Emke, Martina eds. Online Language Teaching: Crises and Creativities. Developing Online Language Pedagogies
ISBN : 9781914291173 | Publisher : Castledown | Published : London

Well-rounded graduates – what languages can do (2021-02-26)
Pulker, Helene; Stickler, Ursula and Vialleton, Elodie
In: Plutino, Alessia and Polisca, Elena eds. Languages at work, competent multilinguals and the pedagogical challenges of COVID-19 (pp. 23-35)
Publisher : Research-publishing.net

Learners’ perceptions of online elements in a beginners’ language blended course – implications for CALL design (2015-12-02)
Pulker, Hélène and Vialleton, Elodie
In : EUROCALL 2015 (26-29 Aug 2015, Padova, Italy) (pp. 475-479)

Online revision and assessment on a beginners’ French course: using learning analytics to understand language learners’ behaviors (2014)
Pulker, Helene and Vialleton, Elodie
In : CALICO conference 2014: Open, Online, Massive: The Future of Language Learning? (6-10 May 2014, Ohio University)

The evaluation and re-use of Open Educational Resources in language teaching – a case study (2013-03)
Pulker, Helene and Calvi, Anna
In : OER13: Creating a Virtuous Circle (26-27 Mar 2013, Nottingham, UK)

Teacher's Practices through Adaptation of Open Educational Resources for Online Language Teaching (2019-05-22)
Pulker, Hélène
edd thesis The Open University

Tookit "Moving your Language Teaching Online" (2020)
von Lindeiner-Stráský, Karina; Pulker, Hélène; Barkanyi, Zsuzsanna; Pleines, Christine and Vialleton, Elodie
Open Learn Create