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ORGANIZATION	Athabasca University
PROFESSION	Professor and Chair
COUNTRY	Canada
WEBSITE	http://cde.athabascau.ca/faculty/martic.php

Dr. Martha Cleveland-Innes is Professor and Chair in the Center for Distance Education at Athabasca University in Alberta, Canada. She studied the sociology of education at the University of Calgary where she developed her strong views on the importance of high quality education in the development of healthy societies with a well-developed citizenry. Her commitment to open and distance learning is rooted in this perspective; education must be accessible, affordable, and of high quality for everyone, anywhere.

Evidence-based practice with sound theory is a main driver in Martha’s scholarly work. She is a principal researcher on the Community of Inquiry framework for online and blended learning, which is designed to maximize deep learning and provide students with a learning experience that is developmental and sustainable. She is co-author of a book on the topic with Drs. N. Vaughan and D.R. Garrison: Teaching in Blended Learning Environments: Creating and Sustaining Communities of Inquiry. Martha held a major research grant from the Canadian Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council which supported rigorous empirical tests on the value of this framework.

community of inquiry, higher education reform, leadership and education innovation