Our researchers work together in research groups and centres across the Institute and the University. Our work with the Centre for Education and Educational Technology (CREET) brings together a diverse, multi-disciplinary group of researchers engaged in broadly based programmes of research into education, educational technology and allied fields of enquiry, including developmental psychology, socio-linguistics, childhood studies and policy studies from several Open University faculties and units.
We use a wide variety of qualitative and quantitative methodologies including questionnaires, surveys, interviews, focus groups and observational studies. Our state-of-the-art Research Labs allow us to study how learners interact with the latest educational media and technologies - see Jennie Lee Research Labs http://www8.open.ac.uk/about/campus/jennie-lee-research-labs/
CREET research groups whose members are primarily based in IET are:
Computers and Learning Research Group (CALRG)
CALRG investigates ways in which computers can be used to improve the quality and accessibility of education.
Digital University Research Group (DURG)
This group replaces the Teaching and Learning Research Group (TLRG) from November 2012.
The group aims to foster the development of an interdisciplinary field of scholarship around the role of digital technologies in the social shaping of higher education in the 21st century and to provide a space for more critical responses to the increasingly strategic focus of the organisation of research and teaching in universities.
The following IET based research groups have now been closed or replaced:
Higher Education Policy and Practice Research Group (HEPPRG)
Members had wide ranging interests, deep expertise and international reputations in wide areas of HE policy and practice. The Humanities in HE Research Group (HERG) and the Carnegie Academy for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (CASTL) project had close ties to HEPPRG. This research group has now closed (May 2012).
Technology and Learning Research Group (TLRG)
TLRG aimed to develop research in online and networked learning, to identify aspects of best practice in innovative distance learning course design, and to investigate technologies for collaborative and mobile working. This group has been replaced by The Digital University Research Group (November 2012).
IET people are also key members of the Applied Languages and Literacies Research Unit (ALLRU) and the Educational Dialogue Research Unit (EDRU)