Photo of Beck Pitt

Dr Beck Pitt

Research Associate

Beck is a researcher and member of the Open Education Research (OER) Hub. Beck is also the EdD programme Academic Coordinator for Technology Enhanced Learning (TEL) for cohorts prior to October 2019 and a Fellow of the Higher Education Authority (FHEA).

Since 2013 the OER Hub has worked collaboratively to investigate the impact of open education on learning and teaching. As at May 2019, Beck is currently working across a number of projects:

• Work package lead and responsible for the successful development and delivery of the ERASMUS+ funded European MOOC Consortium (EMC) Labour Market project’s quality assurance processes, guidance, templates and quality monitoring throughout the project’s duration.

• Leading IET’s contribution to the support and ICT staff strand of the SPHEIR programme Transformation by Innovation in Distance Education (TIDE), which is focused on improving the quality and perception of distance education in Myanmar and facilitating the co-development of 400+ hours of environmental science OER across 30+ participating Myanmar HEIs.

Beck is responsible for co-developing and delivering an online and in-country 2-year cycle of training on open education, distance learning and other key skills to three cohorts of staff across the project’s duration. Beck also contributes to a range of other TIDE project activity including Digital Strategy and ICT pilot work, representation of the project during on-site visits to potential collaborators/participating universities, delivery of other training workshops including course production and contributing to the project’s action research strand.

• Beck also works with colleagues in the OER Hub team to manage the Global OER Graduate Network (GO-GN), which supports postgraduate students around the world who are working on open education topics. GO-GN runs an annual conference, awards and provides ongoing support through monthly webinars and other activity.

Beck has acted as reviewer for numerous conferences and journals and was the lead author for the Open University's H819 module, week 13 on Open Research. Beck was the lead author of the OEPS project Becoming and Open Educator badged open course and was responsible for the delivery of both iterations of the OER Hub's award winning open course Open Research (Autumn 2014 and Autumn 2015) and the later delivery of an open textbook based around the course and participant contributions (released November 2016).

Previous projects Beck has collaborated on include:

• The ERASMUS+ funded bizMOOC project, which analysed the needs and awareness of MOOC in businesses across Europe and supported the use and collaborative development of MOOC by HEIs and Businesses;

• The Hewlett Foundation funded UK Open Textbooks project which evaluated the feasibility/transferability of US models of open textbook advocacy within the UK HE context;

• The Scottish Funding Council funded Opening Educational Practices in Scotland (OEPS) project, which promoted and co-developed OER and open practices across Scotland.

• During the first phase of the OER Hub, funded by the Hewlett Foundation, Beck focused particularly on informal learning and open textbooks. She was responsible for collaborative research with BCcampus, Siyavula, OpenStax, Bridge to Success, Co-PILOT and P2PU/School of Open.

Prior to her joining the OER Hub, Beck worked on the NGLC funded Open Learning: Bridge to Success project, providing research and project support. She also supported the JISC funded Track OER and OLDS-MOOC projects and the EC FP7 JuxtaLearn project.

Prior to joining the OU, Beck worked at the University of Essex supporting the EC FP7 Council of European Social Science Data Archives (CESSDA) Preparatory Phase Project (PPP) for its duration.

2019

2018

2017

2016

2015

2014

2013

Completed

GO-GN (Global OER Graduate Network) 2016 - 2019
BizMOOC (Knowledge Alliance to enable a European-wide exploitation of the potential of MOOCs for the world of business) 2016 - 2018
OER Research Hub 2012 - 2014

Past

Conference Presentation

8th March 2017

Researching Open Education: A systematic review of GO-GN theses

OE Global Conference 2017 Cape Town, South Africa

Workshop

23rd September 2016

"Thinking about Open" workshop

College Development Network

Workshop

22nd September 2016

"Thinking about Open" workshop

University of Highlands and Islands

Workshop

27th July 2016

"Thinking about Open" workshop

Glasgow Caledonian University, Glasgow

Conference Presentation

19th April 2016

Reflecting back on the diverse innovations and impacts prompted by an OER project.

OER16: Open Culture University of Edinburgh, UK

Conference Presentation

19th April 2016

Awareness of OER and OEP in Scotland: Survey Findings from the OEPS Project

OER16: Open Culture University of Edinburgh, UK

Conference Presentation

19th April 2016

Categories and strategies of OER usage

OER16: Open Culture University of Edinburgh, UK

Workshop

22nd January 2016

"Thinking about Open" workshop

The University of Glasgow, Glasgow

Workshop

30th October 2015

"Thinking about Open" workshop

University of the West of Scotland, Paisley

Workshop

27th October 2015

"Thinking about Open" workshop

University of Dundee

Workshop

30th April 2015

"Thinking about Open" workshop

Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh

Awards

Digital Educational Achievement Award in the Community College Digital Application Category: US Centre for Digital Education

Bridge to Success

Distance Learning Program of the Year by Maryland Distance Learning Association (MDLA)

Honorable Mention for Course/OCW/MOOC Category in Open Education Awards for Excellence 2017 (Open Education Consortium)

Becoming an Open Educator open course

Open Education Award for Excellence (Projects Category) for Open Research

OER Research Hub

RCUK/Open University Engaging Research Award 2015 for the project’s P2PU Open Research course

OER Research Hub