Supporting students

A personal tutor scheme to enhance student retention and improve success

Student retention and continuation are key drivers for this project.

Innovation in online student support

Due to the increasing popularity of the Data Science degree, MST224, Mathematical methods, student numbers have increased significantly. This has resulted in the employment of significant numbers of Associate Lecturers (ALs), and we would like to use the resultant increase in tutorial ti

Assessment and Feedback on Introduction of Group Work on M140

The aim of this project is to assess the impact on M140 of introducing group work, gain feedback from students and tutors and learn from this experience before rolling this out to all students.

Team Based Learning tutorials in S248

This project seeks to improve student engagement in tutorials in S248 Chemistry in life: food, water and medicines.

Ecoanxiety and environmental education: stories, conversations, actions

Ecoanxiety – the distress related to climate and ecological crises – is increasingly recognised in learners by educators (Hickman et al, 2021), in the media (e.g., BBC Ideas 2021, Rannard, 2022) as well as through programmes of advice and education (e.g., Wright, 2022).

Improving retention through small interventions: The U101 postcard project

This project aims to improve student retention on U101, Design thinking. U101 is a gateway Level 1 design module and part of Q61 in Engineering and Innovation (E&I).

Building a sense of community in a core 2nd level Physics module (S217) and investigating qualitatively its effect on retention

The OU has a broad intake of students from a very wide breadth of educational backgrounds. Most students study part time, mostly up to 60 credits per year while at the same time working full time, looking after a family and/or caring for someone.

Enrichment workshops to enhance student engagement and employability

The aim of this project was to evaluate the programme of enrichment workshops which had been offered to biology and health sciences students in the School of Life, Health and Chemical sciences at the Open University during the summer months in 2022 and 2023.  The aims of the enrichment workshops

What is known about how to write online exams and how to prepare students for them?

When the Covid pandemic affected education, universities around the globe had to move not only their content delivery online, but also their assessments.

Can we reduce anxiety of students sitting remote exams? Sharing best practice between SPS and LHCS

Winner of the 8th eSTEeM Scholarship Projects of the Year Award 2025.

Our project was a cross school collaboration between the School of Physical Sciences (SPS) and the Life, Health and Chemical Sciences (LHCS).