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Looking through the lens of compassionate pedagogy: attending the Open University WELS EDI Festival
Hayley Kelly, Cinzia Imbriano-Merner, Anna Judd-Yelland, Catriona Matthews, and Mark Williams ~ Learning Designers The WELS Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) Festival 2026 ran from 20 April –1 May online for Open University staff and student reps. It was organised to celebrate the diverse journeys of OU students and staff in the Faculty of…
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Getting the Narrative Right: Storytelling for Student Engagement
Chris Cox ~ Learning Designer The call to adventure. The refusal of the call. Meeting the mentor. Crossing the threshold. The road of trials… Stories are everywhere, from entertainment to news, politics, ideologies… and learning. Storytelling has been part of the Open University (OU) Learning Design Team for years, as we explored how it…
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Innovating Learning Design in Higher Education: Project Outcomes and Open Resources
Paul Astles and Catriona Matthews ~ Learning Designers In our first article on this topic, Innovating Learning Design in Higher Education: Reflections from an International Collaboration, we explored the rationale for the iLED project and why learning outcomes led design matters across diverse higher education contexts. If you haven’t yet had a chance to…
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Maximising student support: Equitable Outcomes Challenge Week 2025
Jannah Aljafri, Anna Judd-Yelland, Penelope Lee, and Catriona Matthews ~ Learning Designers The days may be getting colder and darker, but the Christmas season is upon us, plus we’ve just enjoyed some great virtual ‘fireside chats’ during The Open University’s Equitable Outcomes Challenge Week. 🍵🔥 Colleagues from across the University shared their projects on…
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How do online students use digital technologies to manage their emotions?
Jake Hilliard ~ Learning Designer Have you ever put on a music playlist to help you focus on a task, or turned to YouTube for a quick break when you feel stressed or overwhelmed? For many online learners, these aren’t just habits, they’re strategies for managing emotions while studying. Last month I had the…
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Innovating Learning Design in Higher Education: Reflections from an International Collaboration
Paul Astles and Catriona Matthews ~ Learning Designers Since 2022, members of The Open University’s (OU) Learning Design and Institute of Educational Technology (IET) teams have played an integral role in the Erasmus+ project Innovating Learning Design in Higher Education (iLED). The three-year iLED project was co-ordinated by the University of Zagreb and alongside…
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Evolving design: shaping our work around a service-led model
Gerald Evans ~ Head of Learning Design Since 2020 our experiences as a Learning Design (LD) team have been heavily influenced by much of our work moving online. The pandemic led to us resetting how we operated and in particular required us to find effective online mechanisms for running collaborative sessions while continuing to have…
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Who needs superpowers when we have SKILLS!?
Clare Hill ~ Learning Designer Let’s face it, we’d all secretly like to have a superpower but do we really need one? We already have the capacity to learn how to do something and practise to get better, and in doing so we develop skills. We have all been developing a variety of skills to…