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Access, Participation and Success

Investigation into running course specific taster tutorials within prisons for non-OU students

  • Colin Blundell

    • I am an AL in Maths and Engineering and have tutored in many prisons around the North of England. This has entailed visiting the prison education departments to see the relevant OU student.

    July 2020 to November 2023

    Evaluation of D-flag students accessibility to and use of online tutorials and forums in L2 modules

  • Sarah DaniellLorraine Waters

    • Attendance at online tutorials by LHCS students continues to be low.

    May 2020 to April 2023

    Investigating the motivations of female students choosing an open versus named qualification

  • Elaine McPhersonMary Keys

    • UK universities (including the OU) have continued to struggle to recruit women to certain subjects within STEM despite best efforts to address this gender imbalance. In 2017, the OU introduced a ‘BSc (Hons) Combined STEM’ degree (R28) alongside its single and joint honours degrees in STEM.

    June 2020 to December 2022

    SiSE only tutor groups and the effect on SiSE students and their tutors

  • Laura AlexanderLinda MooreVictoria Nicholas

    • Normally at the Open University Students in Secure Environments (SiSE) are allocated in small numbers to standard tutor groups to form mixed groups of 20 students, of whom 1 or 2 would typically be SiSE students.

    October 2019 to October 2020

    Improving and evaluating inclusivity in group project work for distance-learning engineering students

  • Alice MoncasterHedieh Jazaeri

    • Projects and teamwork are the predominant context in which most engineers work. Providing supported learning experience of such contexts supports employability for our students.

    April 2021 to February 2024

    Accessibility and inclusion in tuition (AccIT)

  • Rachel SlaterAnne CampbellElaine McPherson

    • The AccIT project has four main aims:

    January 2020 to September 2023

    Factors influencing female participation in Physical Science Postgraduate Research Programmes

  • Clare RegerMark BowdenAnne-Marie Gallen

    • The aim of this project was to conduct a scoping study into why lower numbers of female graduates choose nuclear fusion Ph.D.s relative to other physical sciences. This is a particularly nuanced study as we are considering the nuclear fusion research pathway in comparison to other STEM routes.

    April 2019 to February 2022

    Evaluating the accessibility of an alternative format of module materials in Maths & Stats

  • Chris Hughes

    • Winner of the 3rd eSTEeM Scholarship Projects of the Year Awards 2020 under the category - Enhancing the Student Experience.

    January 2019 to February 2020

    Engaging stakeholders as experts in the trial and evaluation of Disability Language Guidance

  • Elaine McPhersonKate Lister

    • To support inclusive and equitable study, universities often categorise students as ‘disabled’ for them to access specific support for their studies and require them to engage with terms such as ‘disclosing a disability’ and ‘reasonable adjustments’.

    February 2019 to August 2021

    Sonification partial pilot on M140

  • Karen VinesChris Hughes

    • Sonifications are audio representations of graphs, and as such are an ‘alternative format’ which could be used to improve accessibility of module materials.

    May 2017 to April 2018

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