Recruiting tutors to specialist modules in the School of Computing and Communications at the Open University

• Project leader(s): David McDade
• Theme: Other
• Faculty: STEM
• Status: Archived
• Dates: November 2022 to October 2024

Skills shortages outlined by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport (DCMS) and the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT), determined the backdrop for the development of the BSc Cyber Security R60 qualification.

Within the School of Computing and Communications (C&C), recent updates to the curriculum have also highlighted issues around 'skills gaps' and the impact this is having on tutor recruitment. Examples of this are the introduction of new specialist modules TM256: Cyber Security and TM359: Systems Penetration Testing, both of which have been introduced as part of the new R60 BSc (Hons) Cyber Security qualification¹ both of which have proved hard to recruit to.

The school has sought to address this by offering training in specialist areas in a bid to increase the expertise of the tutor community. This training has taken place through offering specialist cyber security training courses available from Cisco and The International Council of E-Commerce Consultants (EC-Council).

This has allowed tutors to upskill into areas of cyber security and to develop confidence in applying for cyber security related modules, whilst gaining industry recognised professional certification. It has also allowed the school to meet (and extend) the quotas for high demand modules. 

An investigation took place into how recruitment of tutors on specialised modules could be assisted by the provision of focused staff training. The objectives for the project were to determine:

• To what extent is focused staff training effective in the recruitment of tutors?
• What approaches and resources are required to upskill tutors?

A survey was distributed to 110 tutors who had enrolled on CPD training. There was a 40% return rate. 

The majority of the tutors surveyed would have been willing to do the CPD training in their own time and would not have applied to tutor on the specialist module without completing the CPD. The strong mapping between the information taught and the content on the module helped the tutor to feel confident to apply for a position. The fact that the CPD on offer was supplied by a vendor was also important for the tutors in going on to apply to teach on the module and may also have been influential in the tutors agreeing to do the CPD. The training increased confidence regarding the subject matter.

Having to pay for training oneself would have been a barrier for the vast majority (94%) of the tutors. Tutors found working to a deadline to complete the training off-putting, but it is hard to see how this could be avoided.

Tutors who started the training in Spring or Autumn were nearly twice as likely to complete the training than those who started in July and this should be considered in the timing of any future CPD.

Future work included the development of multiple packages of CPD for different curriculum areas within the School and the approach of offering CPD to existing tutors in specialist areas such as AI and machine learning is now a high priority.

Recommendations

It would be useful for other faculties to create ‘specialist’ resources within the MyLearning Centre space to support their own curriculum areas.

There are resources already available within the C&C MyLearning Centre space that other curriculum areas my find useful (e.g. programming resources).

Consideration should be given to the timing of future CPD events.

Related Resources: 

Attachment	Size
Hackett, Johnston and McDade, Recruitment on specialised modules. eSTEeM Final Report.pdf	558.72 KB

eSTEeM final report.

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David-McDade-Phil-Hackett-Anthony-Johnston.pptx	231.42 KB

Project poster.

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2024-04-Day-2-Session-J-David-McDade-et-al.pptx	2.51 MB

Project presentation.