About us

Dr Alun Owen Coventry University

Alun has taught statistics to students in higher education for over 30 years and is currently Head of the sigma Statistics Advisory Service at Coventry University. Alun has previously worked as Head of Mathematics at the University of Worcester and managed the Statistics Advisory Service at Loughborough University. As well as teaching statistics to students from a wide range of subject disciplines, he has contributed to the development of some of the resources available within statstutor as well as assisting with its development. He is also Chair of the sigma Network and co-ordinates the national sigma Network's Statistics Special Interest Group in Statistics Support. He is also an editor of the learning and teaching journal in Mathematics, Statistics and Operational Research called MSOR Connections.

Ellen Marshall Sheffield Hallam University

Ellen has been teaching statistics across a wide variety of disciplines for over 15 years and has been a lead developer in the field of statistics support since 2011. Ellen is currently the Statistics Support Co-ordinator at Sheffield Hallam University, as well as teaching a range of statistics modules. Ellen has also been instrumental in developing and reviewing a large number of resources all of which appear on statstutor. She also co-ordinates the national sigma Network's Statistics Special Interest Group in Statistics Support and is member of the Steering group for the sigma Network.

Samantha Davis Loughborough University

Samantha's role as Learning Support Specialist for the School of Science at Loughborough University encompassess support of various technology enhanced projects in the School which includes the Maths Education Centre.

Samantha has a responsibility for the mathscentre and statstutorwebsites and the contribution of resources to the communities project for both mathscentre and statstutor.

Dr Janette Matthews Loughborough University

Janette Matthews was the Project Officer in the Mathematics Education Centre at Loughborough University for sigma, mathcentre and statstutor. Janette is responsible for the statstutor website and the contribution of resources to the statstutor Communities project. She played a major role in the upgrade of mathcentre in 2009 and the deposit of resources to OpenJorum and FETLAR.  She is now Lecturer in Textiles at Loughborough University.

Janette is part of the team which developed two of Loughborough University's three FutureLearn MOOCs, Getting a grip on mathematical symbolism authored by Tony Croft and Numeracy Skills for Employability and the Workplace which she authored.

She was previously a Support Tutor in the Eureka Centre for Mathematical Confidence working with students with Specific Learning Differences and provided workshops for students preparing for Employers' Numeracy Tests.  

Professor Tony Croft Loughborough University

Tony has taught mathematics to students in further and higher education for over thirty years. He is currently one of the Directors of sigma - the Network for Excellence in university-wide mathematics and statistics support and is Professor of Mathematics Education in the Mathematics Education Centre at Loughborough University. 

In 2013 sigma was awarded £817,000 from HEFCE to further develop the mathematics support community. Tony continues to work to ensure that all students entering higher education who need additional help with mathematics, have access to quality resources. A recent contribution has been the development of a free on-line course Getting a grip on mathematical symbolism which he co-developed with Janette Matthews and which is available on the FutureLearn platform.

He was awarded a National Teaching Fellowship in 2008.

Moira Petrie sigma Network

Moira Petrie is currently the Assistant Director for the HEFCE funded sigma Network programme. She worked previously at the Faculty of Engineering and Computing at Coventry University, where, as Senior Lecturer (STEM Student Support), she was responsible for the development of peer assisted learning and mentoring initiatives.

She has been involved with the mathematics support community since 2007 when she joined sigma as Assistant Director.  sigma was the Centre for Excellence in the Provision of University-wide Mathematics and Statistics Support - funded by HEFCE and run collaboratively by Loughborough and Coventry Universities. sigma built on the extensive experience in the support of thousands of students from across these universities for whom mathematical and statistical methods are required components of their undergraduate and postgraduate programmes. All materials developed are made available through the mathcentre site.

Moira has several years experience of working in industry, in a number of sectors, including e-learning, IT training and electronic media production.

Audrey Jones Pink Mayhem

Audrey Jones is a designer and developer for Pink Mayhem and has been responsible for the design and development of statstutor. She has over twelve years experience of providing web and elearning services to both educational institutions and the private sector.

Dr David Green Loughborough University

David has taught a wide variety of mathematics, statistics and computer programming courses at Loughborough University since 1973. He has held a variety of external posts, including:  Editor of the international journal Teaching Statistics, and member of the Education Committee of the Royal Statistical Society. Since taking early retirement in 2004 he has continued to work for the Loughborough Mathematics Education Centre on a variety of projects, including statstutor.

Steve Joiner Coventry University

Steve Joiner works within the Mathematics Department at Coventry University providing support to students within the sigma Mathematics Support Centre. Steve was involved with the production of several case study videos and the development of a number of other resources on the site.

Dr Aruna Palipana University of the West of England

Aruna Palipana was the Learning Technology Manager at Loughborough University's Mathematics Education Centre since its establishment in 2002. Aruna's e-learning experience includes development and evaluation of educational software, web based distance learning and computer aided assessments.  He was involved in e-learning projects such as HELM, EASEIT-Eng, BestMaths, ExPOUND and FETLAR. With a first degree and a PhD both in Mechanical Engineering and five years of experience as a university Lecturer in Mechanical Engineering, Aruna has a good understanding of the mathematical needs of the engineering undergraduate.