Projects

The Higher Education Statistics Agency’s (HESA) statistics indicate that the proportion of UK postgraduate (PG) students who identify as having a disability (10%) is significantly lower than that of undergraduate (UG) students (15%).

Since March 2020 many of us have had to move to working from home using our home internet whether as Wi-Fi or data.  As well as work shifting to online, The Open University also moved all its tuition seminars online.    

Following two successful small-scale pilots in 2015 and 2017 the current project evaluates the upscaled peer-to-peer mentoring scheme rolled out in the Open University’s Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences in 2020 - 2023.

This project responds to a practical problem faced by members of the module production team on the new English MA (A893).

Phase 1 has been completed, and an application for Phase 2 of this project has been approved in principle and is being refined in light of feedback received from the FASSTEST Coordination Group and EDI team. Details will be available soon. 

Anyone who has taught via online platforms will be aware that some students find it hard to engage with this medium of learning. Many students sign up to such sessions but do not join on the day, whilst others do not sign up at all.

This study links together research on the role of feedback/correspondence tuition in student engagement and student retention and progression.

This project explores whether structured weekly email contact, relating to specific aspects of the module that students are studying, helps to support and retain younger students (i.e. those aged under 25 years). 

The rising numbers of university students reporting mental health difficulties – and how best to respond to this need - is a known concern in the sector.

This project aspires to provide helpful insights into how tutors can best teach and support students with mental health difficulties in a distance learning context.