The study investigated the impact on student engagement and achievement of a "formative thresholded" continuous assessment strategy in which students had to meet a modest threshold, but their continuous assessment marks did not contribute to their final grade. Students were free to choose their own blend of tutor-marked and…

The importance of making online and distance education successful has been dramatically prioritized due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Student retention is a key performance indicator in online higher education. Evidence suggests that within online distance education the key to retaining students is to encourage an engaging and supportive online…

In 2019, The Open University celebrated its 50th anniversary. For most of its fifty years it has been delivering statistics education to both specialists and non-specialists, simultaneously and at scale. A single module must deliver statistics teaching across multiple qualifications in many different disciplines which means it is not possible to…

Nowadays, blended learning represents a combination of both e-learning and Face-to-Face learning approaches, which has been considered as an emerging concept of modern education. It has been regarded as a prominent alternative learning approach compared to the conventional e-learning approach. The degree of satisfaction of students with blended…

This paper describes a work-in-progress action research project to investigate how technology-enabled learning networks may achieve practical organisational improvement outcomes in the author's own institution, a UK distance learning higher education (HE) context. Collaborative learning technology, typically used for academic learning or…

This article explores the impact of a science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) Access module on the progression of students to undergraduate Science. Drawing on the Widening Participation (WP) literature, this research investigated the experience of adult learners from disadvantaged backgrounds taking their first steps into higher…

Students from many different subject areas are required to study statistics as part of their qualification. The Open University developed a statistics module which could simultaneously be studied by students from a variety of different disciplines, by engaging them with topics which are of interest to everyone, namely money, education and health,…

Statistics pervades everyone's lives, whether it is through media coverage, reading reports, weighing up internal risks or evaluating decisions. Most managers are swamped by endless targets, dashboards and spreadsheets, but few organisations have enough employees with statistical skills to support the requirement for evidence based decision…

The high number of non-enrolment students had decreased the retention rates in the Indonesia Open University. Prior studies revealed that student support had a pivotal role in enhancing student persistence. Therefore, this study was aimed to explore contribution of student support in increasing student persistence by employing mixed methods…

The Open University (OU) makes a proportion of all its taught modules available to the public via OpenLearn each year. This process involves the modification, of module excerpts, showcasing subject matter and teaching approach. This activity serves both the University's social and business missions through the delivery of free courses to the…

Environmental Management (EM) is taught in many Higher Education Institutions in the UK. Most this provision is studied full-time on campuses by younger adults preparing themselves for subsequent employment, but not necessarily as environmental managers, and this experience can be very different from the complexities of real-life situations. This…

This research was aimed at developing printed teaching materials of Atomic Physics PEFI4421 Course using Research and Development (R & D) model; which consisted of three major set of activities. The first set consisted of seven stages, the second set consisted of one stage, and the third set consisted of seven stages. This research study was…

A key concern for most institutions and instructors is whether students are satisfied with their learning experience. However, relatively few studies have unpacked what the key drivers for learner satisfaction are in blended and online courses. Using logistical regression modelling, learner satisfaction data of 62,986 learners in 401 undergraduate…

In this article, the use of formative and summative online quizzes within a distance learning introductory mathematics module at the UK Open University is described. The rational for introducing such quizzes is outlined, together with how the quizzes are embedded within the module. The use of the quizzes by students is analysed, in terms of the…

This case study considers students who achieved "borderline" (40-45%) grades in their first assignment on a module, but went on to markedly improve their grades over the course of the module. The students were studying nursing and social work at the UK Open University, and they were all sponsored by employers. Semi-structured telephone…