IET’s research portfolio includes the following programmes:
- Digital scholarship
The digital scholarship programme researches existing practice both within and outside the University, and investigates the changing nature of scholarly practice among students and academics.
- Learning in an Open World
The Learning in the Open World programme explores the impact that an increasingly ‘open’ technologically mediated learning environment will have on learning in the future.
- Next Generation Distance Learning
This research programme aims to keep the OU at the forefront of developments in teaching and learning using the latest technologies and pedagogical innovations, and to define the future of learning.
Projects in the programmes include research into learning in a more open world, digital scholarship, researching how the net generation learns, social networking in education, learning design and mobile technologies such as the use of mobile devices in teaching and learning. At any one time IET also runs relatively short-term projects funded by official bodies. They often lead to significant research publications, although they may not be counted as research projects in the Research Excellence Framework (REF).
Research in IET has strong links with the Centre for Research in Education and Educational Technology (CREET) represented by the Technology Enhanced Learning Cluster and the Centre for Research in Computing (CRC)
IET's research is also prominent in the University's institutional research activity, especially in survey and evaluation work. A number of inter-faculty Research Groups are based in IET.
Some IET researchers use the Jennie Lee Research laboratory facilities for empirical work to capture video records of human-computer interaction.
