{"id":2747,"date":"2026-08-06T13:25:00","date_gmt":"2026-08-06T12:25:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/learning-design\/?p=2747"},"modified":"2026-08-06T13:25:00","modified_gmt":"2026-08-06T12:25:00","slug":"cate-2026-awards-reflections-on-what-being-the-open-university-nominee-means-to-us","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/learning-design\/?p=2747","title":{"rendered":"CATE 2026 awards: Reflections on what being The Open University nominee means to us"},"content":{"rendered":"

Paul Astles, Joanna Helms, Eleanor Moore, James Openshaw, Jack Orbell ~~ Learning Designers<\/span><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

In the autumn of 2025, after a rigorous application process, the Learning Design AI group was proud to be chosen as the OU’s CATE (Advance HE’s Collaborative Awards for Teaching Excellence) nomination for 2026. Competition for the award was high and we unfortunately didn’t win this time, but we would like to congratulate all of the winners<\/span><\/a>.<\/span> The process of putting together our nomination was a valuable experience though and, in this article, we would like to share our reflection on the process and how it has helped shape our future direction.<\/p>\n

Preparing the nomination presented an opportunity to gather evidence, talk and listen to one another and understand more clearly the scale of our collaboration. As an initial five-person team, we have collectively worked across all four OU faculties, delivered more than 65 workshops and presentations to over 2000 colleagues, and supported assessment changes across multiple modules. Just as importantly, analyses of over 400 student survey responses informed our guidance, resources and conversations.<\/p>\n

Those numbers tell only part of the story. Our nomination also drew on 25+ testimonials from across the OU and beyond. These offered much more than praise, describing concrete changes in confidence, practice and decision-making, from academics redesigning assessments to colleagues becoming confident in using AI. This qualitative evidence helped us appreciate the value of the human impact.<\/p>\n

Our efforts have already been recognised and celebrated in many ways, most notably winning the ALT Ethical Edtech Award 2025 for our Responsible by Design framework.<\/a> This affirmed both the practical value of our work and the importance of keeping ethics, inclusion and pedagogy at the heart of learning design. The first iteration of the framework is also explored in an ICDE case study, while its continuing development is reflected in Version 2, which will feature in an upcoming QAA case study. These opportunities, together with numerous internal and external presentations, have helped us share our learning more widely, test and refine our approach, and contribute to the broader sector conversation about responsible uses of AI in education.<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s hear from some team members<\/h1>\n

Eleanor:<\/strong><\/h2>\n

I am immensely grateful to be part of a team who care about each other and the work we do. We initially came together simply to help colleagues navigate a fast-changing and uncomfortable area with confidence and care. Preparing the CATE nomination was a particularly humbling experience as it made visible just how far our work has travelled and the scale of its impact on so many.<\/p>\n

Paul:<\/strong><\/h2>\n

When I joined the Learning Design AI Group, my motivation was simply curiosity. I wanted to better understand the potential of a technology that was beginning to disrupt how we think about learning. What I didn\u2019t anticipate was how that curiosity would evolve into helping create sector-leading guidance grounded in and shaped by student voice. Looking back, I\u2019m struck by how much can grow from strong collaboration and listening to colleagues and students. I\u2019m proud of what we have achieved together so far, and excited to see where our collective learning, collaboration and growing expertise will take us next.<\/p>\n

James:<\/strong><\/h2>\n

I joined the group as I was curious how this new technology was going to impact teaching, learning and assessment. As AI developments raced along, we had to evolve through the support we gave to various teams and the resources we developed. Preparing for the CATE award has given me an opportunity to reflect on the journey so far, value our collaborative way of working and see the impact the team has made.<\/p>\n

Joanna:<\/strong><\/h2>\n

I\u2019ve only been a member of the LD AI group for about a year, so preparing the CATE application was a valuable way to look back at all the group has accomplished \u2013 both before and since I joined. It made me appreciate how collaboratively we work, the different strengths we bring to the team, and the true scope of our impact. I\u2019m particularly proud of our recent work in updating the Responsible by Design framework and look forward to sharing this with colleagues at the OU and beyond.<\/p>\n

A new sense of purpose<\/h1>\n

The process has strengthened our sense of purpose and clarified where we want to go next. Indeed, we can never afford to sit still when working with AI! We have already published new versions of the Responsible by Design framework<\/a> and the AI and Assessment toolkit<\/a> for 2026, and created an external AI offer<\/a> aimed at other HEIs to extend support and grow the work.<\/p>\n

Our CATE nomination belongs not just to the named team, but to the students, and academic and professional services colleagues who have contributed, shared experiences and helped our work develop since early 2023. We would particularly like to thank Helen Cooke, the then TEAL, who made the nomination process so easy to navigate, and Professor Al Laville, our mentor, who gave generously of his time to support us.<\/p>\n

Awards offer a form of recognition, but the most meaningful measure is whether our collaborative work helps colleagues make better-informed decisions to create richer learning experiences for students. We know that navigating this space can be a challenge and in this sense our collaboration continues.<\/p>\n

Here to help<\/h1>\n

Please do reach out if you would like support with applying the Responsible by Design approach in your context. If you\u2019re outside the OU, follow this link to some more information about our external work<\/a> and complete the form after clicking \u2018contact us\u2019.<\/p>\n

In the spirit of collaboration, we have made many of our resources available under a Creative Commons licence<\/a>. We want you hear from you, so we invite you to connect with us on LinkedIn<\/a> to share how our resources are supporting your journey.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n

As always, if you\u2019d like to talk with the Learning Design team at The Open University about any design related support you\u2019d find useful for your organisation or department, we would love to hear from you. Please contact us at:\u00a0\u00a0LDS-LearningDesign@open.ac.uk<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Paul Astles, Joanna Helms, Eleanor Moore, James Openshaw, Jack Orbell ~~ Learning Designers In the autumn of 2025, after a rigorous application process, the Learning Design AI group was proud to be chosen as the OU’s CATE (Advance HE’s Collaborative Awards for Teaching Excellence) nomination for 2026. Competition for the award was high and we […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":34,"featured_media":2749,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[134,274,53,86,1,8,47,150,84],"tags":[174,655,139,652,138,277,648,647,653,650,649,654,10,424,179,651],"class_list":["post-2747","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-artificial-intelligence","category-awards","category-community-of-practice","category-ed-tech","category-learning-design","category-reflection","category-resources","category-student-voice","category-technology-enhanced-learning","tag-ou_ld","tag-advance-he","tag-ai","tag-ai-and-assessment-toolkit","tag-artificial-intelligence","tag-awards","tag-cate-awards","tag-collaborative-awards-for-teaching-excellence","tag-helen-cooke","tag-learning-design-ai-group","tag-nomination","tag-professor-al-laville","tag-reflection","tag-responsible-by-design-framework","tag-the-open-university","tag-the-ou"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/learning-design\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2747","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/learning-design\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/learning-design\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/learning-design\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/34"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/learning-design\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2747"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/learning-design\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2747\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2756,"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/learning-design\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2747\/revisions\/2756"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/learning-design\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2749"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/learning-design\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2747"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/learning-design\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2747"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/learning-design\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2747"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}