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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.

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

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. 

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. 

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.

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?

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!).

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

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

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).