Dr. Peter Sloep is a professor of Technology Enhanced Learning at the Open Unversity of the Netherlands' Welten Institute. He studied theoretical biology at the Free University of Amsterdam (MSc 1978) and received his PhD from the University of Groningen (1983). Since then he has worked at the Open University, first as a course developer, later to turn his attention to technology enhanced learning. His research interests include the technical affordances – including specifications for interoperablity - and social affordances - including social software - that are conducive to independent learning in online, networked learning environments.