Ellen obtained a master's degree in Pedagogical Sciences with distinction at the University of Ghent in 2011. As a scientific researcher she participated in several projects such as the PISA-research, policy evaluation of teacher education programmes, reading comprehension research, keys of effective reading didactics comprehension (VLOR) and CLIL. As a PhD student she was involved in the LEMMA research project of Language, Education, and Memory in Mutilingualism and Academia at UGhent where her research focused on academic reading of students in a foreign language. Subsequently, she was part of the team that was responsible for the policy for the launch of the educational master's programmes and developed, for example, an online learning path for master's theses. Her research interests include reading comprehension, online learning, English as an instruction language, academic reading, eye tracking and learning in higher education.
Since December 2019, Ellen is part of the educational research unit at AP University College where she coordinates PWO projects such as flexibilisation in higher education (FlexistAP), Learning Analytics at AP (LAP!) within the fields of expertise "learning in (higher) education" and "use of data in innovation and guidance", as well as participating in the admission test for the graduate programmes.