Colla Jean MacDonald

Colla Jean MacDonald
Colla Jean MacDonald
Distinguished Professor




Colla Jean MacDonald is a Full Professor cross appointed with the Faculty of Medicine, and Senior researcher at the Élisabeth Bruyère Research Institute. Her research concentrates on curriculum design, evaluation and eLearning. She has published over 70 refereed articles, book chapters and conference proceedings. Professor MacDonald has been principal investigator of SSHRC, Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care, Inukshuk Wireless, Canadian Foundation for Innovation, Office of Learning Technologies and CIHR funded research projects related to designing and evaluating online programs in Physician Wellness; Workplace Health; Disruptive Behaviour; Dementia Care, Inter-professional Education, Global Health; Palliative Care, Designing and Validating Program Evaluation tools; and Reproductive Research. Currently, seven PhD students work with her to conduct research on various aspects of emerging technologies. She published the Demand-Driven Learning Model and W(e)Learn framework which have been used across Canada, the US, UK and New Zealand as quality standards to design, deliver and assess programs. She has twice won the International WebCT Exemplary Course Award. She has two eBooks accepted for publication by Bentham Science Publishers.

Research interests

  • Online learning and e-learning
  • Health care technology
  • Distance education
  • Health care
  • Technology in teaching and learning
  • Learning technologies Emerging technologies