FASSTEST

FASS Centre for Scholarship and Innovation logo

FASSTEST brings together colleagues from across the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, providing a mechanism for professional development through practice-based scholarship within a mentored community.

Much of our work is organised on a project basis with project management aimed at the delivery of new educational outcomes and scholarship outcomes. FASSTEST supports a rolling portfolio of approximately 40 active scholarship projects under a number of themes which include:

  • Online and blended tuition
  • Assessment
  • Employability/careers
  • Equality, diversity and inclusion
  • Mental health and wellbeing
  • Multisensory/multimodal learning

If you are interested in learning more about a particular project or connecting with a project team, please contact us at FASS-Scholarship@open.ac.uk. 

Projects

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10 results found

Embedding Employability Resources in DB125: An Evaluation

Project leader(s):  Jonquil Lowe

DB125 You and Your Money replaced DB123 from October 2018J.

SMART Feedback: Exploring the impact of action-focused student feedback on the student experience of learning

Project leader(s):  Charlotte Lattin-Rawstrone

The proposed study intends to investigate the application of aspects of the research and framework through an intervention that builds on this framework with a specific focus on the reciprocal process and enactment of outcomes of feedback components by using SMART goals in the feedback process.

Enhancing Student Retention, Progression and Attainment at Level 1 in Arts and Humanities by Increasing Student Recruitment to the Access Programme: An Investigation into Declining Student Numbers on Y031

Project leader(s):  David Grummitt

The purpose of the project is to carry out an investigation into reasons for declining student numbers on Y031 J and B presentations. While there was some fluctuation across presentations in the first five years of the module, the overall trend since 2018J has been a marked decline in studen

Tracking retention and building community in distance music study

Project leader(s):  Alexander Kolassa Lilian Simones

There are three objectives of this project (presented in order of priority):

Criminology: Where Do They Go? A Thematic Analysis of Final Year Criminology Students Pursuing Career Development or Career Change

Project leader(s):  Deborah Drake Karen Sharpe

A key objective of this project is to find ways of ensuring that students are on the right pathway and make the right qualification choices at the outset. This will help to improve the learning experience of students and support retention and progression.

The Role of Peer-to-Peer Mentoring in a Distance Learning University: An Evaluation of a Three-Year Pilot in the Arts and Social Sciences

Project leader(s):  Joanna Robson Tina Forbes Sue Watkins

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.

Improving the Retention and Progression of Students on the Arts and Humanities Access Module at the Open University

Project leader(s):  Hannah Lavery Steve Padley Anactoria Clarke

This project aims to improve the retention and progression of students on our Arts and Humanities Access module by trialling additional support and advice initiatives.

Running an Effective Online Gallery Visit

Project leader(s):  Lindsay Crisp Veronica Davies

We know that there are a number of both tangible and intangible ‘tried and tested’ benefits of face-to-face gallery visits.

An Investigation into the Use of Peer Observation as a Tool for Professional Development and an Aid to Developing a Professional Evaluative Culture Among Associate Lecturers

Project leader(s):  Judith Wilson-Hughes Tatiana Blackmore Liz Wright

The idea for this scholarship project stemmed from the search for alternative routes of professional development which can be offered to Associate Lecturers (tutors).  The recent changes in teaching practice following the introduction of the group tuition policy in 2016 brought a shift

The OU and Scotland’s Colleges’ Collaborative Teaching Partnership: An Evaluation

Project leader(s):  Gerry Mooney Janet Cole Iain Macpherson Steven McGeever Khadija Patel

The primary purpose of the proposed project was to: