FASSTEST

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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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40 results found

Arts-based Collaborative Digital Eco-Pedagogies for Teaching about the Climate Crisis and Intersecting Global Challenges in Higher and Distance Education

Project leader(s):  Maria Nita Yoseph Araya

The project aims to start a cross-faculty conversation about the current use of novel reflective, digital, public engagement and teaching methodologies in Higher and distance education (Cooke, Araya, Bacon, et al. 2021; Walsh and Powell, 2019).

Creative Interactions: Phase 2

Project leader(s):  Heather Richardson Clare Taylor Helen Mosby Diana Newall

This project builds on the recently completed FASSTEST project, Creative Interactions: Teaching with OU's Art Collection.

‘The Project Game: Is My Topic EMA Material?’

Project leader(s):  Renate Dohmen Georgina Holden Pamela Bracewell-Homer Georgina Holden

This project aimed at first year students on the MA in Art History (A843) supporting them in their preparation for their assignment, the 3,000-word final assignment for A843, with a focus on helping them identify a suitable topic that allows for a successful discussion.

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.

Pedagogies at the Intersection of Arts and Academia

Project leader(s):  Agnes Czajka

Having co-led the Open University’s Tate Exchange initiative over the past three years, I have come to realise that a number of colleagues in FASS and other faculties have worked – or have expressed interest in working – at the intersection of arts and academia.

Take a Picture of Religion

Project leader(s):  Stefanie Sinclair John Maiden

This project critically evaluated the effectiveness and wider applicability of a creative and collaborative assessment activity included in the new OU Religious Studies module A227 ‘Exploring religion: places, practices, texts and experiences’ (TMA01), presented for the first time in October 2017

Impact on formal points of tutor contact on student outcome and experience on new L1 module D120

Project leader(s):  Marianna Latif Alicia Townshend

This study aims to explore the impact of early tutor contact on the D120 module, looking at the student experience, the tutor relationship and retention and progression. D120 is a new level 1 psychology module which started in October 2023.

Learning from YouTube: Popular Culture and Geography Distance Education

Project leader(s):  Benjamin Newman Colin Lorne George Revill

The purpose of this project is to explore the potential of thinking from popular and everyday online media spaces such as YouTube.

Creative Interactions: Teaching with the OU’s Art Collection

Project leader(s):  Clare Taylor Heather Richardson

This pilot project brings together two disciplines from the School of Arts & Humanities, Creative Writing and Art History.

Planning Online Conferences in the Arts and Social Sciences

Project leader(s):  Maria Nita Stefanie Sinclair David Robertson Alison Kirkbright Heather Scott

The foci of this project is to understand best practice in (1) the delivery of online conferences; (2) promoting and hosting; and (3) engagement and inclusion. Consequently, the research questions are: