Dr Mark Childs is a learning designer at the Open University. His research is in online collaborative learning, and in learners’ experiences of digital identity and online presence. He has (with Anna Peachey) co-edited a book on digital identity for Springer, Reinventing Ourselves: Contemporary Concepts of Identity in Virtual Worlds (2011), and (with Iryna Kuksa) co-authored one on the experience of online spaces for Chandos, Making Sense of Space: The Design and Experience of Virtual Spaces as a Tool for Communication (2014). His most recent book, Online Learning for STEM Subjects: International Examples of Technologies and Pedagogies in Use (Routledge), was published in January 2017. Mark’s PhD on learners’ experience of presence was awarded in 2010 by the University of Warwick. He is a senior fellow of the Higher Education Academy and a visiting fellow at Edge Hill University.