Dr Simon Paul Atkinson (PFHEA) is an international higher education consultant with thirty years of experience transforming how universities design, deliver, and evaluate learning at scale. Drawing on sustained practice across institutions in the United Kingdom, New Zealand, Europe, Africa, and beyond, Simon translates research-grounded insight into institutional change that is both practical and lasting.

What Simon Offers

Institutional Review and Strategy

Institution-wide curriculum and learning design audits, including blended and fully online provision, aligned to strategic priorities and regulatory frameworks. Recent engagements include whole-institution reviews for British universities and business schools, delivered remotely from New Zealand.

Framework Development

Creator of the Eight-Stage Learning Design Framework (8-SLDF), the SOLE Model (Student-Owned Learning Engagement), the JISC-funded DiAL-e Framework (with Professor Kevin Burden, University of Hull), and the POISE epistemological profiling project. Each framework has been adopted across multiple international institutional contexts.

Faculty Capacity Building

Tailored professional development programmes for academic and design staff preparing for flexible, distance, and technology-enhanced delivery. Workshop formats range from single-day interventions to multi-day residential programmes, with a proven track record across Kenya, Croatia, and New Zealand.

Scholarship and Recognition

Simon is a Principal Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (2015) and currently serves as Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Open, Flexible and Distance Learning. He holds a PhD from the University of Leicester, an MA from the University of Exeter, and a Postgraduate Certificate in Teaching and Learning in Higher Education from the Open University.

His peer-reviewed scholarship spans learning analytics, educational taxonomies, open and distance education, and the epistemological foundations of student success. He has delivered invited conference keynotes internationally, including the inaugural address at the Croatian National e-Learning Centre (2007) and the closing keynote at the Estonian e-Universities Annual Conference (2009).

Selected Publications

  • Atkinson, S. P. (2026). 10 Principles of Learning Design: A Strategic Architecture for Institutional Agility and Future-Making. Sijen Education.
  • Atkinson, S. P. (2025). Reimagining open, flexible, and distance learning in the age of academic ableism. Journal of Open, Flexible and Distance Learning, 29(2), 1–14. https://doi.org/10.61468/jofdl.v29i2.735
  • Atkinson, S. P. (2025). Navigating the AI frontiers in academic publishing: Responding with openness. Journal of Open, Flexible and Distance Learning, 29(1), 1–11. https://doi.org/10.61468/jofdl.v29i1.733
  • Atkinson, S. P. (2024). 8-Stage Learning Design Framework: Using Student Profiles and Personas. Sijen Education. ISBN: 978-0-473-70414-8
  • Atkinson, S. (2015). Graduate competencies, employability and educational taxonomies: Critique of intended learning outcomes. Practice and Evidence of the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning in Higher Education, 10(2), 154–177.
  • Atkinson, S. (2011). Embodied and embedded theory in practice: The Student-Owned Learning Engagement (SOLE) model. The International Review of Research in Open and Distance Learning, 12(2), 1–18.

View full publications list

Selected Presentations

  • 2023: AI and Ethics for School Governors (keynote), Independent Schools of New Zealand Annual Conference, Auckland
  • 2022: Defining open, distance and flexible learning (invited presentation), APODE 2022, online
  • 2018: Designing Learning Pathways: Which Way to Innovation (invited presentation), EDEN European Distance Learning Week
  • 2015: Using Learning Design to Unleash the Power of Learning Analytics (refereed paper), ascilite 2015, Perth
  • 2009: Schools: From Teaching Places to Learning Spaces (closing keynote), Estonian e-Universities Annual Conference, Tartu
  • 2007: Giving Up Control: The Future of e-Learning (inaugural keynote), Croatian National e-Learning Centre, Zagreb

View the full presentation list

Work With Simon

If you are leading institutional change in curriculum design, online learning strategy, or academic development, Simon is available for consultancy engagements, keynote presentations, and strategic reviews.

Enquire About Consultancy

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