Supporting students

Gaining a deeper understanding of the experience and equitability of extensions and their impact on retention for Stage 1 Engineering students

Previous scholarship has shown that students with extensions have poorer outcomes on modules and that extensions are used by a higher proportion of students within Equality, Diversity, Inclusion and Accessibility (EDIA) groups.

Evaluating the Programming for Physical Sciences website and forums on SM123 Physics and Space

Students on SM123 Physics and space learn programming in Python across the module. Some find it straightforward, others very difficult.

The STEM Good Tutor Guide

It has been 20 years since the university published Supporting Open Learners: Reader, and the accompanying publication, Supporting Open Learners: Theoretical Reader for its tutors. These booklets offer practical guidance about many aspects of the role as a tutor.

Making space for female engineering students: an evaluation of the effectiveness of a face-to-face Student Conference

The Engineering profession offers intellectually and financially rewarding careers, with skills in high demand globally. However, women are significantly under-represented, with female students making up 18% of first year Engineering undergraduates in UK HE¹.

An investigation into the progression of OU STEM students from taught courses to postgraduate research

In the conventional HE sector, there is often an established pathway for the progression of undergraduate and taught postgraduate students to postgraduate research within the same institution.

Investigate how integrating vendor certifications within Computing modules affect student motivation, engagement and employability prospects

Within many OU Computing modules and microcredentials, vendor certification content is partially integrated, or the modules are created solely based on the vendor qualifications (e.g., Cisco, Amazon Web Services (AWS), Education & Development Group (OpenEDG), EC-Council, Microsoft etc).

Evaluating students’ experience of tuition in S217

Great effort and time is spent by Associate Lecturers (ALs) on delivering tutorials. Uptake of tutorials in all modules is low. This investigation will concentrate on the experience of students on S217, a second level physics module.

Exploring timeliness, positivity and collection rates of TMA feedback

This project is designed to extend the recently concluded project “Improving student use of feedback on marked TMAs” to analyse in more detail three areas.  The aim and the sub questions we will seek the answers to are set out below.

Use of OpenLearn materials to improve satisfaction and retention on Degree Apprenticeships in the School of Computing and Communications

Background

I am the Qualification Lead for the Applied Software Engineering Degree Apprenticeship in Wales (R40)¹ and the Staff Tutor managing the associated team of Practice Tutors.

A personal tutor scheme to enhance student retention and improve success

Student retention and continuation are key drivers for this project.