ABSTRACT A strategic priority for university educators is to ensure graduates have developed a range of transferable skills. An important skill required by employers is the development of digital capabilities. The COVID-19 pandemic necessitated the move of courses into blended formats which provided an opportunity for educators to redesign their modules to embed digital skills. During this challenging context, the Biological Sciences Department at Royal Holloway, University of London, in collaboration with the E- Learning and Careers Teams, capitalised on existing Microsoft technologies to launch an innovative online group project for a first-year module. This collaborative approach to curriculum design increased capacity to pivot quickly, and readily support students, as well as ensuring that learnings from the design process could be widely disseminated. The virtual collaborative assessment had high engagement and supported the development of transferable skills such as teamwork, digital literacy, and communication. The incorporation of a guided self-reflective exercise into the assessment allowed students to evidence the transferable skills they had acquired. By frontloading these foundational skills into an assessment early in their education, we increased capacity to build on these skills in future years across the wider programme. The design, which used asynchronous online technologies, also increased the capacity of staff to fit marking and student queries around their schedules. Our findings demonstrated that through online group work and guided self-reflective assessment, students developed transferable skills that would benefit them in their future careers. This transformative approach could be utilised across other departments, both in remote and hybrid environments.

ABSTRACT We describe findings from a study based upon a collaborative project carried out online as the end of module assessment activity of a multidisciplinary science module at the UK Open University. Our aim was to determine how well students dealt with working in a team of unfamiliar multidisciplinary scientists and to identify tools and processes that improved the team working experience. The principal source of data was in the form of reflective materials embedded in the module’s final assessment. A two-stage thematic analysis of student reflective narrative texts was performed to draw conclusions about student perceptions of the online team project. In the context of activity levels among the student teams, consistent differences in the way in which team members reflected upon their team working experience were apparent in three of the themes considered: participation, relationships and organisation. We provide a core checklist of actions that can be taken, by students and tutors, to enhance and improve the online collaborative experience.

ABSTRACT Mixed-methods research, which facilitates both the explanation and understanding of a phenomenon in a single study, is gaining popularity in many disciplines as a third methodological approach. The purpose of this article is to determine the prevalence of mixed methods research in distance education, and to demonstrate its potential contribution as a methodological approach in addressing distance education research questions. Investigating methodological practices in a cognitive field is a growing line of inquiry. A review of the literature yielded limited results on its use in open distance learning. A content analysis was conducted to identify articles that utilised mixed methods research in researching open distance learning. The findings show that mixed methods research is relevant and can be applied to conduct research. However, the adoption and use of mixed methods research in distance education is limited. Although this study has methodological limitations, it presents a methodological approach that can help reduce the gap that exists between positivist and interpretivist epistemologies in relation to distance education research. An investigation of the prevalence and use of the mixed methods approach in distance education raises awareness of its methodological characteristics and advantages.

ABSTRACT This research aims to reveal the reasons why students with visual impairments (VI) prefer distance education, their experiences in the distance education process, and their expectations after university graduation. For this purpose, a study was conducted with seven university students with VI. The research employed a case study method, with data collected through semi-structured interviews and analysed using content analysis techniques. This analysis determined that distance education posed both various difficulties and created a multitude of advantages for students with VI. Elements of accessibility and support services offered by universities played a vital role in both the positive and negative experiences of students with VI in distance education. Additionally, this study found that students with VI held a variety of expectations for themselves and society after university graduation. The study results are discussed in terms of future research and practice.

ABSTRACT This research explores the effect of implementing educational open microcredentials on student motivation, engagement, and completion in open access online courses. Our case study reviews the impact on the Community of Learning for African PhD Fellows, a capacity-building project supporting PhD fellows in Sub-Saharan Africa. It builds on an analysis of data from learning analytics, surveys, and semi-structured interviews. Our case study findings indicate that course completion was low, in course offering rounds with and without online certification. Main hurdles to completion are lack of time and lack of direct career benefits or academic value attached to the course completion. We found that, while open access online courses are appreciated by PhD fellows, the implementation of open microcredentials did not provide an incentive towards completion of online courses for this population. Hard and soft copy certificates at this point are more appreciated.

ABSTRACT Learning analytics promise significant benefit to online education providers through improved, better-targeted student services. Much has been written about the potential of analytics and how they might be technically implemented, and various ethical considerations are published highlighting the significant potential risk of gathering, manipulating and applying student data to education. Developing an ethical position provides institutions with an opportunity to critically appraise their assumptions and practice however how best to articulate one is far from clear. This case study outlines the development of an ethical framework at Open Polytechnic of New Zealand and demonstrates how international ethics guidelines for learning analytics have shaped practice and informed policy development. Four stages to developing an ethics position in education institutions were followed: 1) examining existing institutional policy, 2) categorising student data, 3) addressing ethics concerns in a structured way and 4) approving an ethics position and extending practice. The paper concludes with suggestions for those developing ethics positions for implementing learning analytics to help towards a successful outcome.

ABSTRACT Active learning in mathematics can lead to deeper understanding than passively listening to a lecture, yet recent studies indicate that didactic teaching dominates online tutorials. This study investigated student participation in three types of activity: solving mathematical problems via polling, on-screen activities on a shared whiteboard and text-chat, during online undergraduate mathematics tutorials. Data were collected from tutorial observations, student and tutor surveys, semi-structured student interviews and a tutor focus group. Results showed high student participation in all types of activity. Students also perceived them as enjoyable and aiding their learning, though with some differences between the types of activity such as those done by text-chat being slightly less well received. Perceived benefits to students’ learning included the ability to attempt similar activities, with suggested benefits such as correcting misconceptions receiving a more mixed response. By demonstrating the successful use of mathematical activities in synchronous online tuition, these results provide motivation for tutors to facilitate essential active learning online.

ABSTRACT Open educational resources (OERs) have increased in popularity and are becoming an important method of providing access to, and enhancing, the teaching and learning experience for both lecturers and students. Despite their popularity, approaches that may work best for sustaining OER initiatives in Nigerian universities are still evolving in Library and Information Science (LIS) literature. Considering the current budget climate for higher education in Nigeria, a framework that is tended towards the sustainability of OER needs to be developed. This article examines opportunities and threats surrounding OER, as well as highlighting major players in the OER landscape. A mixed method approach consisting of a survey and focus groups was used to gather both qualitative and quantitative information from academics and librarians at selected universities in Nigeria, who participated in the Nigerian Universities Commission’s (NUC) OER ranking exercise. Data was analysed using descriptive statistics and thematic analysis respectively. While this paper provides recommendations based on findings on one hand, it also proffers suggestions for other libraries interested in growing OER initiatives focusing on development, implementation and assessment for universities operating with limited resources.