Our innovation

SCiLAB promotes innovation through financially supporting projects which test new approaches or methods of teaching, and which aim to improve teaching, learning or student outcomes.

 Innovative projects developed through SCiLAB funding include:

Enhancing the Virtual Courtroom in readiness for integration within curriculum

The Open Justice Centre at The Open University has developed an innovative Virtual Courtroom (VCR) platform, which has been developed through research projects with law and policing students. The aim of the project is to move the VCR from pilot/research stage to integration within the law and policing curriculum. To do this the project needs to update the content and develop and expand the avatars that sit within the VCR to make them more customisable and more diverse. 

This will offer students the opportunity to participate in a greater variety of immersive simulations, which supports knowledge and understanding of court systems, advocacy skills, evidence giving, and courtroom procedure in a safe and scalable digital environment. There are also opportunities to embed the VCR into existing policing qualifications, as well as standalone learning for police forces the university does not currently deliver qualifications to.

The project aims to enhance the pedagogical impact of the Virtual Courtroom platform and will focus on two key areas:

• Refining avatar design to enhance inclusivity through diverse avatar representation. 
• Updating the simulations and content within the explore mode of the VCR to support the role out of the VCR into curriculum.

From Learners to Founders: Measuring the Entrepreneurial Impact of Open Business Creators Programme at The Open University

The aim of this project is to evaluate the impact of the Open Business Creators (OBC) programme at The Open University using a robust framework to measure the effectiveness of online entrepreneurship support initiatives. 

Specifically, the project seeks to understand how participation in OBC influences students' entrepreneurial skills, confidence, innovation capability, employability, business creation activities, and overall learning experience. 

By generating evidence-based insights, the project will support the continuous improvement of OBC, contribute to more inclusive and effective entrepreneurship education for distance learners, and provide a transferable evaluation framework that can be adopted by other higher education institutions delivering virtual enterprise support programmes.

Gaming green for business education

This project investigated the effectiveness of game design as a form of module assessment in teaching postgraduate students about green transitions within organisations. 
Through qualitative methods, using semi-structured interviews, analysing students’ assignments (EMAs) and a focus group with ALs as well as an in-depth interview with a module chair, the project team discovered that students found the element of designing a game creative, motivating, and practical for understanding green transitions within organisations. 

The feedback on the module was overwhelmingly positive, however, challenges such as the complexity of sustainability issues, power relations and limited organisational resources were identified.  

Participants highlighted that the experience of game design enhanced their understanding of sustainability and prepared them for real-world organisational contexts, still implementing sustainability in reality is generally difficult and requires additional support as well as from the HE institution as well as from the organisation.