MAOT Commonwealth Distance Learning Scholarships – 2025 entry

Commonwealth Scholarships, MAOT, scholarships

Do you have a serious interest in online teaching, technology-enhanced learning and educational technology?

Would you like to gain a Master’s degree with one of the UK’s leading providers of digital education, for study commencing in February 2025? Are you a citizen of one of the following developing Commonwealth countries, a refugee from one of the following countries, or a British Protected Person?

Bangladesh, Belize, Botswana, Cameroon, Dominica, Eswatini, Fiji, Gabon, Ghana, Grenada, Guyana, India, Jamaica, Kenya, Kiribati, Lesotho, Malawi, Malaysia, Maldives, Mauritius, Montserrat, Mozambique, Namibia, Nauru, Nigeria, Pakistan, Papua New Guinea, Rwanda, Saint Helena, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Samoa, Sierra Leone, Solomon Islands, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Tanzania, The Gambia, Togo, Tonga, Tuvalu, Uganda, Vanuatu, Zambia

Are you permanently resident in one of the above countries?

The Open University’s Institute of Educational Technology (IET) has been awarded 10 fully funded Commonwealth Distance Learning Scholarships for citizens of developing Commonwealth countries who wish to study IET’s Masters in Online Teaching (MAOT). We are pleased to invite applications for these scholarships.

The closing date for applications is 16.00 (GMT) on 28 March 2024.

These Scholarships are funded by the UK Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office (FCDO) and are intended to contribute to the development needs of Commonwealth countries by enabling talented and motivated individuals to access training and skills required for sustainable development by undertaking part-time Masters study with UK universities while remaining in their home countries.

Intended beneficiaries

High-quality candidates from eligible low and middle-income Commonwealth countries who wish to access training not available in their home countries, who wish or need to remain in their home country while they study, and who have the potential to enhance the development of their home countries with the knowledge and leadership skills they acquire.

About the Masters in Online Teaching

The Open University’s Masters in Online Teaching (MAOT) is studied entirely online. The MAOT develops skills in the theory-informed design of technology-enhanced, blended and online learning. The MAOT is designed to address educational inequity in all its forms and, as such, is relevant to achieving inclusive, high quality, equitable blended and online education. The Commonwealth Distance Learning Scholarships are for three years’ part-time distance learning, commencing in February 2025. The scholarships will cover the full cost of tuition fees but no other expenses.

It is likely that Commonwealth Distance Learning Scholarship holders will study the following modules, in the order stated. However, there may be some variation in the exact content offered.

Stage 1 – February-October 2025:

Stage 2 – October 2025 – September 2026
60 credits from either four of the following 15-credit microcredentials, currently presented three times annually:

  • Online teaching: Evaluating and improving courses.
  • Teacher development: Embedding mental health in the curriculum.
  • Online teaching: Accessibility and inclusive learning.
  • Online teaching: Embedding social, race and gender-related equity.
  • Online teaching: Addressing the climate emergency (first presentation date to be confirmed).

Or one 60-credit postgraduate module chosen from:

  • Social justice, equity and equality: inclusive practice for all.
  • Exploring educational leadership: values, context and strategy.
  • Learning and teaching: educating the next generation.

Stage 3 – October 2025 – May 2026:

Who can apply?
To be eligible for a Commonwealth Distance Learning Scholarship to study the Masters in Online and Distance Education you must:

  • Be a citizen of, or have been granted refugee status by one of the eligible developing Commonwealth countries listed above, or be a British protected person; and
  • Be permanently in one of the eligible developing Commonwealth countries listed above; and
  • Hold a first degree of at least upper second class (2:1) standard. A lower qualification and sufficient relevant experience may be considered in certain cases; and
  • Be unable to afford to study the programme without this scholarship.

You will also need access to a computer with reliable broadband internet access. You do not need to be working in technology-enhanced learning but you should be interested in developing expertise in this area.

General conditions for the Scholarships are available here: https://cscuk.fcdo.gov.uk/scholarships/commonwealth-distance-learning-scholarships-candidates/.

How to apply

MAODE graduate nominated for Global Teacher Prize

Commonwealth Scholarships, community of practice, MAOT, research, success stories

Our very own Masters in Online and Distance Education graduate, Stephanie Akinwoya from Nigeria, has been nominated as one of the 50 best teachers in the world in 2023!

A posed portrait photo of Stephanie Akinwoya

Stephanie studied for the MAODE while working as a Physics teacher in her native Nigeria, graduating from the MAODE in 2021. She was supported to study the MAODE as one of our Commonwealth Scholarship holders. Upon graduation Stephanie won a place as an Atlantic Fellow at London School of Economics in 2022 and became a 2022 Fellow of the prestigious Fulbright Teacher Excellence Achievement Program. She has since been awarded a PhD scholarship at The Open University and arrived in the UK just one month ago to begin her research doctorate.

Stephanie’s interest in education stemmed from watching her mother’s total dedication and passion as a Chemistry teacher – an interest that eventually resulted in Stephanie becoming a Physics teacher. Seeing her mother explain abstract concepts simply – through their connection to ordinary life – ignited a passion in Stephanie for the sciences and the teaching profession. Her teaching journey started as an undergraduate student, volunteering to teach Physics and Mathematics at rural schools that lacked teachers. Teaching in these communities made her realise how many students (especially female students) have a phobia for STEM subjects or courses. This experience strengthened her resolve to address the gender disparity in STEM and ignite a passion for the sciences in all her students.

To ignite students’ curiosity and sustain their interest in learning, Stephanie employed a student-centred approach – using bitesize explainer videos, animations, hands-on activities, edutech tools and gamification to encourage mastery of concepts. She also started her Girls-Pro-STEM initiative in 2018 to generate interest in STEM amongst girls in public secondary schools. As part of this initiative, Stephanie has partnered with international organisations to provide training, support and mentorship to over 200 girls, many of whom have gone on to represent their school in national and international competitions. Stephanie’s is the first public school to win first prize in the Agbami Chevron Innovative STEM Project Competition (for building a smart self-powered house), and over 80% of her students have gained admission to tertiary institutions. After losing one of her students to suicide in 2020, and seeing how others struggled with their mental health (which is often seen as a taboo subject), Stephanie also created a platform called “Safe Space” as part of her MAODE study which has been used by over 200 students to access help on mental health issues.

Everyone at IET is delighted to hear about Stephanie’s nomination for this Global Teacher Award and wishes her every success with her PhD!

 

 

Open course launched on Digital Learning in Forcibly Displaced Communities

community of practice, open education

Adults work at laptops in an African classroom

This course, Digital learning for youth and adults in forcibly displaced communities, reviews, discusses and critiques existing policies and practices in national or organizational contexts as they relate to digital learning for youths and adults.

It also examines and reflects on case studies of policies and practices that promote evidence-based digital learning programmes for forcibly displaced youths and adults.

The course has a wide scope, covering multiple education sectors and subject areas, and diverse cultural and national contexts. It is intended for policymakers and programme providers who are involved in the design, delivery and monitoring of activities.

The course has been developed by the UNESCO Institute for Lifelong Learning, United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, and The Open University.

You can access the course for free here: https://www.open.edu/openlearncreate/course/view.php?id=9417

Time is running out to register for autumn start modules!

community of practice, higher ed, MAOT, microcredentials, research, scholarships
The banner from the top of the H890 module website, including a photo of two female students examining a paper document.
The module website for H890.

The brand new module H890 ‘Research and Scholarship in Digital Education’ begins in early October and registration closes imminently!  This is a fantastic module with some great practical experiences including designing a detailed research proposal OR undertaking your own piece of scholarship, and on either track you will present your work at our brilliant student online conference in April! It can be taken as an integral part of the Masters in Online Teaching or as a standalone unit that is ideal for anyone about to launch into a postgraduate research degree.

Similarly registration closes soon for our October-start micro-credentials, all of which take 12 weeks with an assignment submission date in early January. These usually run three times a year, with starts also in March and June. These include:
HZFM881 Online Teaching: Creating Courses for Adult Learners (Learn the practical skills you need to create online courses successfully, and develop your ability to teach adults online)
And four (soon 5) micro-credentials that can be used as part of the Masters in Online Teaching pathway (or taken as standalone courses):

(Launching in early 2024 we also have HZFM889 Teacher Development: Addressing the Climate Emergency which will form another option for the Masters in Online Teaching).

Sign up now to avoid missing out!

Ticket to success

community of practice, MAOT, success stories

Kulvir Bahra, a graduate of our Masters in Online and Distance Education, tells us what his study and graduation have meant for his career and the roles he has taken on.

Photo of Kulvir Bahra
Kulvir’s graduation

Kulvir writes:

I studied on the MAODE qualification from 2015-2020 and attended my OU graduation in 2022 at the Symphony Hall in Birmingham.

The study experience stretched me in many ways and I was able to apply my new found knowledge quite rapidly into the specialist fields of Learning Design and course production.

As a learning designer at Coventry University Online I was able to use my skills gained from studying H817 ‘Openness and Innovations in e-Learning’ by using a group project as the theoretical building blocks to assist academics in scoping and storyboarding the postgraduate module content.

Since then I was fortunate to work as a learning design officer at Warwick Business School and carried out student workload analysis across a range of modules in global banking qualifications and distance learning MBA modules. This was an important piece of work as this allowed the students to organise their study schedules around their work and family commitments.

More recently having been an OU student, this has enabled me to understand more about seeing the learning materials from the students perspective, which allowed me to understand the learners journey and help inform my practice in future new course productions. From this I was able to guide faculty teams around technical issues around accessing content from library services. One of the key takeaways that I took forward was to ensure that learners were not overwhelmed with too many assimilative based learning materials as this would be disengaging. Being a student myself enabled me to see the online learning materials as the ‘gold standard’ of what good looked like at postgraduate level of study, which helped me to benchmark best practice and to ensure the learning materials were rigorous and of the highest standards.

My final module H819 prepared me for writing my first research paper by honing in on my skills in researching and writing a literature review. By having the opportunity to be guided step-by-step and into how to carry out my research from keyword searches and forming my research questions to planning the methods and dissemination of my findings, this gave me an immense sense of achievement towards leading and co-publishing a research paper which was published earlier in 2023 with the US based research journal First Monday.

Overall, I believe that my study at the OU enabled me to inspire my family as my eldest child plans to go to university having observed the positive effects OU study had on my career progression. One of the many positive outcomes of studying at the OU was that I gained a promotion 2-3 years into beginning my qualification. This boosted my confidence immensely and gave me a competitive edge when I was applying for my first role. 

But after graduating, my study never stopped there, as I continued to pursue more learning opportunities, from badged open courses on OpenLearn, a range of FutureLearn and Coursera courses, to a range of editorial courses which helped sharpen my skills in proofreading, copy editing and skills gained in collating references and citations. I am indebted to the network of students whom I studied with which helped me to progress and become a proud ambassador for the OU IET MAODE alumni community. Currently I work as a Digital Development Manager in the Stakeholder and Alumni Engagement team in the Faculty of Business and Law looking after the digital strands of the web estate by monitoring and evaluating websites across the business and law schools at the OU.

 

Interested in finding out more about The Open University’s Masters in Online Teaching?

In 2023 we launched the OU’s new Masters in Online Teaching, an innovative postgraduate programme exploring the ways that new media, digital pedagogies and cutting-edge educational technologies can be used effectively and equitably, across multiple sectors, to engage diverse learners and meet their needs. The programme offers flexible study pathways featuring a choice of topics, study intensity and study timing, and the option to include credit from a select postgraduate microcredentials.

Find out more about the OU’s MA In Online Teaching here.

 

Unexpected Opportunities

community of practice, higher ed, MAOT, research, success stories

MAODE tutor Victoria Wright reflects on a student-tutor relationship that keeps on delivering…

When tutoring a group of students on the MA in open and distance education, (MA ODE) in around 2016, I remember the day that a student contacted me. She was working in Kazakhstan up by the Russian border and was having difficulty because sometimes she could only receive in Cyrillic!

Photo of Denise, the student
My past student and co-author looking very pleased with herself after finding our books for sale in the bookshop in Cambridge.

We got to know each other a little better and she moved to head up a school in China soon afterwards, then returned to the UK a year later.

I had been asked by Cambridge University Press to write a book for the International market, iGCSE ICT, and asked to suggest a co-author. I thought of my ex-student, Denise, because the quality of her work was known to me and she had good classroom experience around the world. We then met up in the hotel at Euston Station for lunch to decide on an overview of the book with the contracting manager.

Denise and I have now written around 10 books together, for students and for their teachers and have become close friends. Denise comes to stay with me in our holiday home in France once or twice a year, and we have never looked back.

It makes me think of the unexpected opportunities for those who study a Masters with the Open University can lead to!

In 2023 we launched the OU’s new Masters in Online Teaching, an innovative postgraduate programme exploring the ways that new media, digital pedagogies and cutting-edge educational technologies can be used effectively and equitably, across multiple sectors, to engage diverse learners and meet their needs. The programme offers flexible study pathways featuring a choice of topics, study intensity and study timing, and the option to include credit from a select postgraduate microcredentials.

 

 

My vision of the future of education: Online schools

community of practice, educational futures, higher ed, MAOT
A photo taken from behind of a young woman looking at a person speaking on a laptop screen.
An illustration of online schools. Photo by Giovanni Gagliardi on Unsplash

Kathy Chandler, MAOT Lecturer in Online Teaching, writes:

My vision of the future starts in the recent past. Online distance education has been my area of work for many years. Online teaching was of little interest to most educators until 2020 when the COVID-19 pandemic arrived, and suddenly the screen became the portal through which every teacher and every learner had to operate. There was a huge surge of interest in my research into online tuition. My little-read journal article published in 2016 about using breakout rooms suddenly became a seminal work. All educators wanted to know how to teach effectively online.

For higher education, even after the pandemic ended, online alternatives became the new normal. Students now value flexible and blended options and universities are making these options available. There is still more work to do to ensure that online learning is accessible, inclusive, engaging, and fun but more and more educators are developing the necessary skills.

But what about students in schools? Schoolteachers also developed many skills in online and blended working during the pandemic, but once the lockdowns ended, UK policy makers insisted on a return to ‘normal’. For many, this has been impossible. There has been a huge rise in the numbers of children and young people struggling with mental health issues. When school becomes a place where children and young people feel even more sad or anxious, online education is a very attractive option.

Many schoolteachers have also found benefits in moving online and the number of private companies offering online schooling is growing apace. A browse of their websites and policies shows that quality varies markedly. I suspect there is a big difference between how it feels to be a child required to keep their camera and microphone on constantly from day one and being in an environment where this is something to build up to gradually as confidence grows. This year the Department for Education identified a need for this space to be regulated and established the online education accreditation scheme (OEAS).

Those typically attending online schools include young celebrities needing flexible timetables, children with parents whose well-paid work requires frequent travel and those in other countries whose parents can afford a private British education. They also include children in poor health, those who have been bullied or excluded and those with special educational needs that have not been met elsewhere. For many families, finding the school fees is impossible but there are currently no plans to provide online state schools in the UK as there are in some parts of Australia for those who need them, for example.

My hope for the future of education is that every learner, regardless of age, will have the option of an online or blended education, which will be available at no extra cost and that their experience of learning is accessible, inclusive, engaging, and fun.

What could our educational future look like? A visual dialogue between Carmel Kent and Dall-e.

AI, educational futures, MAOT

Carmel Kent had a dream. A dream about the future of education. She then encountered Dall-e, an AI tool that generates digital images from natural language descriptions. This is the result of Carmel’s ‘conversation’ with Dall-e. We would welcome any further contributions to the blog on this theme, long or short, illustrated or not – what do you think our educational future could look like? 

Like any one of us, I dream a lot (on all levels of consciousness) about how learning would or could look in my community, country, university or globally. I am often very anxious about it. However, I sometimes get so hopeful that I can barely keep myself from jumping excitedly or just mumbling all over the place. I guess as long as I keep on imagining – I keep on learning and vice versa.

For this exercise, I needed a partner to bounce some balls with; it would be even better if this partner could do something I am not very able at – such as create some visuals. So, I found Dall-e. As it turns out, she was even available exactly when I wanted to chat. She was quite patient with my indecisive thoughts and my constant and iterative search for appropriate words. So, we had this back-and-forth: me telling her what I see, she responding with how she sees what I just shared with her, me thinking of new themes coming from her responses, and so it went.

Here is a synopsis of our dialogue:

At first, I was consumed with worry about the climate crisis. I kept imagining us, humans trying to figure us what went wrong at the very last minute:

A Dall-e image showing a group of people kneeling and praying in front of a forest aflame.

Even when I took us humans inside, trying to learn about our world from an imaginative, safe technology-oriented shelter, it still looked quite depressing:

A Dall-e image of three people sitting indoors looking at a laptop screen, while a dark and bleak landscape is viewed through the large window.

I then turned to more optimistic scenarios:

What if we do become kinder to our surroundings?

What if we also become kinder to children and young people?

What if we stop imposing certain types of knowledge and ways of knowing on them, and let them explore their own ways of learning while experimenting with what works for them and keeping them curious about themselves?

A Dall-e image showing a brightly coloured child-like drawing of a house with interconnected outside rooms and people interacting with one another in various spaces, all surrounded by vegetation.

Nice, don’t you think?

I then asked Dall-e what if it’s not just children? How would it look if people, no matter how old, could get out of schools and institutions and get together in learning communities, bringing their life, families and experiences into whatever new paths they want to explore? Yes, at this point, I became a bit ‘light-headed’, I guess. But she was still there with me:

A Dall-e image showing a group of people sitting cross-legged on grass in front of a row of houses, all reading from books, papers or laptops.

I was in the flow … maybe … just maybe … ‘learning’ or ‘education’ will not be associated necessarily with fixed qualifications, with marginalising people who cannot follow those fixed paths, or with following the artificial processes that give us the illusion of progress (e.g., you’re graduate year 2, you will now start year 3)?

Could learning become an activity associated with sensory life around the clock? with different people, different cultures and geographies? As Papert said when asked what he would change about education now that we have technology available to us:

“Do away with curriculum. Do away with segregation by age. And do away with the idea that there should be uniformity of all schools and of what people learn”.

A Dall-e image showing a group of people gardening in a communal garden in front of a row of houses.

I must say, Dall-e and I started connecting at this point. I felt we are getting somewhere. I loved how she kept the characters in her drawing a bit blurry, leaving me some space to guess what they were up to… were they building something? Growing new vegetables? Immersed in a discussion? Taking an online course? Reading a book? Daydreaming like she and I were?

A Dall-e image showing a group of people relaxing, reading, and playing games while others in the background tend a large garden.

I loved how the objects in her drawings didn’t always look like something I could quickly identify from my life. Perhaps those people are innovating? Maybe they are creating a world so different from what I imagined when Dall-e and I started chatting.

I guess that’s the beauty of collaborative learning: you can only know how it starts…

 

Uganda: Barriers to Open Practice in Teacher Professional Development – paper by two former MAODE students

Commonwealth Scholarships, community of practice, MAOT, research

Two of the graduates of our Masters in Online and Distance Education have published a paper entitled “An Assessment of Factors Hindering Educators in Primary and Secondary Education from Utilizing Open Education Resources, Open-Source Tools, And MOOCS in Professional Development and Practice in Kampala District, Uganda”.

These students, both participants in the Commonwealth Scholarship programme, have researched why Teacher Professional Development in their region of Kampala under-utilises the available Open Educational Resources, Open Source tools and MOOCs that could potentially transform knowledge of technology-enhanced education.

Their findings make for a very interesting read. The paper is published under a Creative Commons licence and can be accessed here: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/370299673_An_Assessment_of_Factors_Hindering_Educators_in_Primary_and_Secondary_Education_from_Utilizing_Open_Education_Resources_Open-Source_Tools_And_MOOCS_in_Professional_Development_and_Practice_in_Kampala_ 

Photo of Moses Mwebaze
Moses Mwebaze Mukisa, Head of Online and Distance eLearning at Avance International University, Uganda
Photo of Charles William Zulu
Charles William Zulu, Learning and Innovation Adviser, VVOB Education for Development, Zambia

From Disability to Head of Accessibility via MAODE

community of practice, MAOT, microcredentials, success stories

Nicki Berry, Head of Accessibility for a major UK Government department and 2017 MAODE graduate, explains how her MAODE not only gave her the opportunity to study in a way that worked with her accessibility needs, but also brought her a whole new career!

Photo of Nicki Berry

Nicki writes:

I was a teacher. It was all I’d ever wanted to do, and I loved it. That was until I had a spinal cord injury whilst living in Finland in 2012. That changed everything.

We returned to the UK, and I tried to continue teaching but it was just too difficult as a newly disabled person, and I realised that I had to find an alternative career. As my other passion was IT, I explored the possibility of moving into eLearning, and began studying for the MAODE in 2014.

Having struggled to get through university as a young person, I was surprised to find that I really enjoyed studying again. The style of learning with the Open University suited my learning style well and as well as learning the course content, I learned how to study effectively and how to write academic papers. I had expected the course to be a means to an end, but it opened up a whole new world to me, which also helped me to come to terms with my disability. I was assessed as a disabled student to find out whether assistive software could help me in my studies, and was given Dragon Naturally Speaking, a voice recognition software to help with dictating assignments.

I graduated in 2017, by which time I was working as an Area Manager for our local authority’s Adult Learning Service. As a result of my new MAODE qualification, the senior managers there created a new position for me, as Area Manager – Digital. I took on responsibility for improving the entire IT hardware across the estate, and then began to explore the possibility of providing some of our courses online. This was pre-Covid though, and although there was initial interest, the organisation wasn’t ready for it. So, slightly disheartened, I began to look for a job in eLearning.

In January 2019, I began work as a Junior eLearning Designer for SSCL, a company that provide services for government departments. I started learning to use Articulate 360, one of the eLearning rapid authoring tools, along with Adobe Creative Cloud. I loved my new role and enjoyed immediate success, being promoted within five weeks to Senior eLearning Designer. I managed our contract with the Ministry of Justice, providing bespoke eLearning products for HM Prison and Probation Service, which is possibly one of the most interesting and eye-opening jobs I have ever done. I absolutely loved it! I thought I’d found my new career.

One of the first things SSCL asked me to do, when I started there, was to look into the accessibility of eLearning courses. It was fortunate that I’d had an introduction to accessibility as part of the MAODE course. By now, I had also become proficient in using my Dragon software, using it to operate my computer and navigate the Internet, as well as for producing text. So I began to learn about the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines and how to apply them to eLearning courses. I learned how to use a screen reader to test our products and over a couple of years, developed expertise not just with eLearning accessibility but also document and web accessibility.

I began to realise the importance of accessibility in product design of all kinds, not just eLearning, and took on the role of Chair of our Disability Network. I pushed for a new, full-time role to be introduced, but again, they weren’t ready for this and I started to look into accessibility roles in other companies, to demonstrate its importance.

That was when I saw the advert for a Senior Accessibility Specialist with the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP). It was just what I was looking for to show SSCL what I felt they should be doing… but then I realised that the job advertised was exactly what I wanted to be doing.

So in January 2022, I moved into accessibility as a career. I had a great boss, who taught me even more about legislation, accessibility compliance, assistive software and coding. I felt like I’d finally found my niche. When my boss got another job at the end of 2022, I was initially really worried, but he encouraged me to apply for the temporary backfill of his role. I did and that’s what I’m doing now. I’m Head of Accessibility for DWP. It is possibly the most rewarding job I could have imagined after more than 20 years in teaching. However, it is also extremely challenging and I often find myself drawing on skills that I learned and developed with the OU, whilst studying for the MAODE.

Let’s talk finances for a moment. When I began my studies, I’d just left the only secure career I’d ever known. I was doing little bits of tuition here and there but I had no guaranteed income. Setting out on the course was a huge financial commitment! It was a risk. I might not have passed. It might not have led to anything. It might have been £10,000 for nothing. When I started work in Adult Learning, my salary compared to a teaching salary was low. The initial move to SSCL was another backwards step financially, though the quick promotion helped. However, moving to DWP took me back to where I would have probably been if I’d stayed in education and continued to pursue a leadership path… and now, I’ve probably gone beyond that.

Money isn’t everything, but investing thousands of pounds in study is definitely a risk. I approached it with the view that I had very little to lose. My career was over. It was a sink or swim situation.

I look back and with so much gratitude, realise that the MAODE got me swimming again. It wasn’t just the course content, great as that was. Studying gave me confidence, made me believe in myself again. I thought my life was over, I had nothing to give anymore. The OU gave me new skills that have been instrumental in rebuilding my life.

I wake up every morning, happy to start work. I feel like I have a purpose. If I could turn back time and not injure my back, of course I would be very grateful, but with help, I have turned it into something positive. I can use it to help others and to advocate for the many disabled people who aren’t as lucky as I am.

Interested in finding out more about The Open University’s Masters in online teaching?

In 2023 we launched the OU’s new Masters in Online Teaching, an innovative postgraduate programme exploring the ways that new media, digital pedagogies and cutting-edge educational technologies can be used effectively and equitably, across multiple sectors, to engage diverse learners and meet their needs. The programme offers flexible study pathways featuring a choice of topics, study intensity and study timing, and the option to include credit from a select postgraduate microcredentials. One of these new MAOT micro-credentials ‘Online Teaching: Accessibility and Inclusive Learning‘ focuses on the kind of issues Nicki has become expert in during her recent career, including Assistive Technologies, accessibility legislation, making learning materials accessible, and evaluating the accessibility of teaching materials.

Find out more about the OU’s MA In Online Teaching here.