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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103 results found

Raising Student Awareness of Employability Through Multiple Curriculum Adjustments at the Module Level

Project leader(s):  Jonquil Lowe

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

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.

An Enquiry into the Impact of TMA Extensions: Stage 1

Project leader(s):  Zoe Doye Ieman Hassan

This project aims to explore whether the granting of extensions to TMA cut off dates has any impact on student retention and whether there is a relationship between TMAs and extensions in relation to different student groups at Level 1. 

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

Understanding Student Learning of Emotive and Sensitive Content

Project leader(s):  Julia Downes Ruth Wall Anne Alvaer

This ongoing project investigates how diverse distance students learn about sensitive and emotive topics in an undergraduate introductory criminology module.

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.

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.