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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31 results found

Dyslexia: Perceived Barriers and Facilitators to Success at Postgraduate Study

Project leader(s):  Rhiannon Edwards Jo Horne

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%).

Supporting Younger Students with Weekly Communications

Project leader(s):  Sue Nieland

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). 

University Connectedness, Relational Depth, Wellbeing, Anxiety, and Academic Achievement in FASS Students

Project leader(s):  Gina Di Malta Naomi Moller Katy Smith

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.

Improving the Collaborative TMA on DE200 and Assessing the Impact of these Improvements on AL Satisfaction

Project leader(s):  Tracey Elder

The aim of this project was to solve the issues related to TMA15, which is a collaborative TMA in DE200. This module has around 3000 students and forms one of three core modules on the psychology degree programme.

Supporting Learners with Mental Health Difficulties

Project leader(s):  Anastasia Economou

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. 

Exploring Dissertation Students’ Experiences of Working with Ethical Issues when Undertaking their Dissertation Research

Project leader(s):  Jenny Lynden

Students studying for British Psychology Society (BPS) accredited degree pathways (Psychology, Forensic Psychology, Social Psychology and Psychology with Counselling) complete a final year dissertation module (DE300).  This module trains students in advanced research methods and involves th

Making the Most of Monitoring

Project leader(s):  Sue Nieland

As one of the largest universities in Europe, and the largest in the UK, the quantity of assessment that has to be carried out by tutors at the Open University is far greater than in most institutions. The Open University routinely processes over 600,000 assignments in a year.

Identifying Future Directions: Where do Final Year Psychology and Counselling Students Find Information about Postgraduate Study?

Project leader(s):  Rhiannon Edwards Mary Dobson

Research question: Where do final year Psychology and Counselling students gain information about postgraduate study? 

(Not) On My Own: Using Online Communities of Practice (CoP) to Encourage Development of Academic Identity of Distance Tutor

Project leader(s):  Marianna Latif Malik Refaat

DE200 is in a unique position in 19J presentation as we are lowering the group size from 20 to 15, hence need to recruit a large number of ALs to cover the groups (approximately 35). This will include ALs new to the University as well as existing ALs new to the module. 

Teaching Sensitive Topics

Project leader(s):  Stephen Robinson David Morrison

The ‘Teaching Sensitive Topics’ project was set up to support tutors at the Open University in providing tuition to students studying modules that contained potentially sensitive material that might be triggering or upsetting. The aims were: