The Law School Belonging Project

The introduction of the Belonging Project was a direct response to student feedback from a previous wellbeing project where students highlighted issues of isolation in distance-learning and wanted more opportunities to meet peers and staff.

The project organises programme-wide online events for students to meet their peers and members of staff. The programme includes guest lectures, student-led coffee events and academic-led coffee events, as well as running a Law School blog open to both staff and students. Available to all students registered on law modules, the project has so far delivered 60+ online events and more than 70 staff and student blogs. The project also delivers a first-year undergraduate peer-mentoring project and an annual competition where students can present their ideas on improvements to teaching and learning to staff.

Scholarship to evaluate the project has evidenced the positive impact the programme has on both staff and students, with many feeling encouraged to feel part of the Law School and wider University by attending events. For example, participation in the project has increased Law Student uptake of extra-curricular activities such as involvement with the OU Students Association and Faculty and university consultations.

The project was highly commended in the OU’s Teaching Awards 2024, with the project’s findings having led to changes within the Law School curriculum and the establishment of a similar Belonging Project in the Business School. The team have disseminated their experience nationally and internationally with more plans in place for 2024, including outputs of a collaboration with Nottingham Trent University and a book chapter due for publication in 2025.

Recent outputs

In Press

Hardie, E. and Edwards, C. (2025d) ‘How to develop a sense of belonging in online distance learning?’ in Palgrave McMillan (eds) Creativity and critique in digital learning and teaching: Insights for learning design in business and law. Publication Spring 2025

Journal articles

Hardie, E. and Edwards, C. (2024c) ‘Fostering a sense of belonging through online qualification events’ Distance Education pp. 1–19.

Conferences

Hardie, E., Edwards, C. Ogbuokiri, A. and Gamble, R. (2024a) ‘Valuing marginalised voices: a co-creation approach to improving student experience’, poster presented at Advance HE EDI conference, Manchester, March 2024.

Hardie, E., Edwards, C. Ogbuokiri, A. and Gamble, R. (2024b) ‘Valuing marginalised voices: a co-creation approach to improving student experience’, paper presented at TILT Annual Learning and Teaching conference, Nottingham, June 2024.

Other

Edwards, C. and Hardie, E. (2024) ‘Enhancing distance learning student experience by creating a feeling of belonging’ Advance HE July 2024 [Blog]. Available at https://advance-he.ac.uk/news-and-views/enhancing-distance-learning-student-experience-creating-feeling-belonging

Edwards, C. (2024) ‘The Belonging Project in the Law School at The Open University’ Presentation at Advance HE’s Fit for the Future: Enhancing and adapting practice for new paradigms of higher education workshop, May 2024

Meet the team

Carol Edwards is a Senior Lecturer within the Law School. She joined the OU as an Associate Lecturer in 2015 and became a Student Experience Manager in 2018. She is a Senior Fellow of the HEA. Carol’s research interests include online teaching pedagogy with a particular focus on tackling student and staff isolation in the distance learning environment via such programmes as online student peer mentoring, The Belonging Project and Tutor CPD and social programmes. She has published and presented at conferences on this area.

Liz Hardie is Director of SCiLAB and a Senior Lecturer-in-Law. She has been part of the Open Justice Centre since 2016, supporting law students to carry out pro bono projects both as part of their law degree and on an extra-curricular basis. She is particularly interested in researching online learning and the use of technology in legal education, including the support of students and the moving of clinical legal education online.

Kate Ritchie is a Lecturer-in-Law. Much of her research focuses on the theme of ‘belonging.’ She has been a project lead on the level one peer mentoring project for new Law students over the last 3 years. This project aims to reduce isolation for new law students and increase their sense of belonging to the Law School. Kate’s research has focused on how online platforms, such as WhatsApp, can facilitate peer mentoring and ‘belonging’ more broadly. She is also interested in exploring the scope for game-based learning to facilitate the development of online communities.