Rate My Professor Ben Daniel

Associate Professor Ben Daniel is affiliated with the Higher Education Development Centre (HEDC) at the University of Otago, where he spent 11 years as an academic and faculty developer, including serving as Chair of the department and full professor. His academic qualifications include a PhD from the University of Saskatchewan, an MPhilEd from the University of Oslo, an MSc from the University of Twente, and a BSc from the University of Juba. Daniel's expertise encompasses educational technology, online learning, big data in educational research, learning analytics, research methodologies (quantitative, qualitative, and mixed methods), data science in education, artificial intelligence in education, program evaluation, logic modelling, and medical education. He has supervised doctoral students, including theses on digital technologies in authentic assessment and students' engagement patterns with digital learning technologies.

Daniel has made significant contributions through authorship and editorship of key publications. Notable books include Higher Education Research Methodology: A Step-by-Step Guide to the Research Process (2018, Routledge, with Tony Harland), Big Data and Learning Analytics in Higher Education: Current Theory and Practice (2017, Springer), and Higher Education in Sub-Saharan Africa in the 21st Century—Pedagogy, Research and Community-Engagement (2023, Springer, co-edited with Richard Bisaso). Selected recent journal articles are "Psychometric Properties of the TACT Framework—Determining Rigor in Qualitative Research" (2024, Frontiers in Research Metrics and Analytics), "Online Assessment in Higher Education: A Mapping Review and Narrative Synthesis" (2024, Research and Practice in Technology Enhanced Learning), "A Decade of Research into the Application of Big Data and Analytics in Higher Education: A Systematic Review of the Literature" (2023, Education and Information Technologies), and "Institutional Readiness for the Implementation of Micro-Credentials in Higher Education" (2025, Distance Education). His research has garnered over 8,900 citations on Google Scholar. Professional honors include Senior Member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), and memberships in the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM), International Society for Artificial Intelligence in Education, and New Zealand Council for Educational Research. Daniel's work influences digital transformation and pedagogical advancements in higher education.