Copyright

Tony Bates

Published On

2023-08-18

Page Range

pp. 141–154

Language

  • English

Print Length

14 pages

11. Serendipity: Becoming a Specialist in Online Learning

Chapter of: Research, Writing, and Creative Process in Open and Distance Education: Tales from the Field(pp. 141–154)
This chapter describes the journey from a 16-year-old with no prospects to a distinguished consultant in digital learning, with twelve books on educational technology. The chapter emphasizes the importance of the kindness of strangers taking a little effort to help your career path; of serendipity–being in the right place at the right time; of flexibility, in being willing to change course when new opportunities appear; and of determination, to take disappointment and reversals in one’s stride. Lastly the chapter ends with ten lessons from this experience for those wanting to teach or do research.

Contributors

Tony Bates

(author)
Senior Advisor, Chang School of Continuing Education at Toronto Metropolitan University
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5677-369X

Tony Bates is a senior advisor at the Chang School of Continuing Education, Ryerson University, Toronto and is also a research associate at Contact North, Ontario. He was chair of the Board of the Canadian Digital Learning Research Association from 2018 to 2022 and is a consultant assisting with the implementation of the British Columbia Institute of Technology’s e-Learning Strategy. He is the author of twelve books, including his latest online, open textbook for faculty and instructors, Teaching in a Digital Age, which has been downloaded over one million times and translated into ten languages. He has honorary degrees from two Canadian universities (Laurentian and Athabasca) and four foreign universities for his research into online learning and distance education.