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The FASSTEST blog includes posts from practitioners and researchers exploring a wide range of issues and research findings relevant to teaching and learning in the Arts and Social Sciences in higher education.

Here at The Open University we can draw on particular expertise in online and distance education, and we are especially inspired by The Open University’s mission to be open to people, places, methods and ideas. We are committed to placing innovation at the heart of teaching and learning and to discovering new and better ways to inspire and enable learning, opening up higher education to all, regardless of background or circumstances.

We welcome blog posts from anyone with an interest in the scholarship of teaching and learning, particularly in the Arts and Social Sciences. If you are interested in contributing please get in touch with FASS-Scholarship@open.ac.uk with a title and brief description of what you would like to write about.


Two people standing and smiling. Thy are standing either side of a DARTP conference poster

Attending the DART-P conference at Newcastle University

Re FASSTEST project:Implementing module team-led research skills-focused workshop events into a final year project module: An evaluation of student attitudes and outcomes.

23rd July 2024
Online meeting with green mug on the foreground

Using a writing partnership with a peer to support your HEA Fellowship submission

Can you explain briefly what your project is/was about?

3rd June 2024
Records pink neon sign

Recording tutorials: including student voices in the decision-making process.

Can you explain briefly what your project is/was about? 

Prior to the 2022/23 academic year, undergraduate Creative Writing modules had opted out of the university’s recording of online tutorials policy. This decision was made to protect students from potential feelings of vulnerability and inhibition in tutorials that involve sharing personal work. 

24th May 2024

Q and A for Does peer interaction in online tutorials impact the student experience?

Can you explain briefly what your project is/was about?
We are interested in peer engagement in online tutorials, specifically the impact of peer behaviours on student experience. We purposely targeted Level 2 and Level 3 students as most of these students have experienced online tutorials at Level 1 and will have formed preferences regarding interactive activities, peer behaviours and tutorial management. 

 

 

30th April 2024
laptop with white mug and black smartphone on table

What are the chances? Tuition attendance, completion and attainment correlations.

As meetings to plan tuition delivery for the next academic year start to populate my diary, I find myself revisiting the report from a longitudinal scholarship project on attendance, attainment and completion I and several colleagues within the English and Creative Writing department at The Open University (OU) completed last March. Although the project focused very specifically on our current undergraduate English Literature students, some of the findings are likely to be transferable, perhaps even beyond our online, distance learning model.

15th April 2024
A large, studded sofa is shown, with the backdrop of a black circle and the words the relaxed tutorial project

The Relaxed Tutorial Project: a new way of looking at accessibility in distance learning

by Cora Beth Fraser, Associate Lecturer in Classical Studies

The objective of the Relaxed Tutorial Project was to see what would happen if common sources of social anxiety were removed from the online teaching environment. What would a ‘relaxed’ learning experience look like?

19th January 2024

SMART Feedback: Exploring the impact of action-focused student feedback on the student experience of learning

Can you explain briefly what your project is/was about?

The project was focused on giving Associate Lecturers guidance on how to help students to work with their feedback more effectively. Specifically, the project was picking up a format of feedback used in many different fields, from personal training to performance reviews at work – SMART goals. These are really clear ‘action steps’ that are Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic; Timely – many people have heard of them but they are not often used in classrooms of in higher education (so far!).

9th October 2023
Three people standing close together, smiling. They are standing in front of posters for the Advance HE Conference

Attending the Advance HE Teaching & Learning Conference

Two FASSTEST scholarship projects presented papers at the Advance HE Teaching & Learning Conference, held at Keele University from the 4th – 6th July 2023. Both papers were presented in the first parallel session, so there was good attendance and interaction.

4th October 2023
Welcome banner for Eden Conference

FASSTEST at the EDEN Digital Learning Europe Annual Conference 2023

The Annual Conference of EDEN Digital Learning Europe was held at Dublin City University 18-20 June 2023.

29th June 2023
Two people sitting at a desk together, studying information on a computer screen. Two further people out of focus in the background

The B.A.M.E. student study experience: Are universities helping or hindering?

It’s mind-boggling that, while 82% of White students obtained a first or a second upper class degree in 2019/20, only 64-79% of Black, and Minority Ethnic (B.A.M.E.) students, depending on their ethnic grouping, did so (Higher Education Statistics Agency [HESA], 2021).

13th December 2022

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