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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7 results found

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):

Employability and Graduate Outcomes in the Arts and Humanities

Project leader(s):  Richard Marsden Angeliki Lymberopoulou Joanne Fallows Ed Swithenby Sara Wolfson Beverley Mason Claire Blanchard

The school of Arts and Humanities faces some significant challenges around employability and graduate outcomes. There is an increasing emphasis on vocational subjects in the public discourse around university education.

The Next Chapter: Understanding the Career Aspirations of Students on the MA in Creative Writing, and Developing Teaching and Assessment to Support Them

Project leader(s):  Heather Richardson Ed Hogan Claire Blanchard Lindsey Smith

Creative Writing MAs in traditional bricks and mortar universities such as University of East Anglia and Lancaster are highly selective in their intake and attract students who intend to pursue literary writing as a career.

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.

Transition to Postgraduate Study: the MA in Music

Project leader(s):  Rosemary Golding Byron Dueck

This project considers some of the barriers students might face when moving onto the MA in Music, either from within the OU or with prior experience of higher education from external institutions.