Dr Beck Pitt

Beck is currently a researcher on the award winning Open Education Research (OER) Hub. She is also the EdD Academic Coordinator for Technology Enhanced Learning (TEL) and was the lead author for the Open University's H819 module, week 13 on Open Research. 

The OER Hub works collaboratively to investigate the impact of open education on learning and teaching. Beck currently works across a range of projects:

• Lead researcher for the Scottish Funding Council funded Opening Educational Practices in Scotland (OEPS) project;
• Monitoring the delivery and development of three MOOC for Business being developed by the ERASMUS+ funded bizMOOC project;
• Responsible for developing, recording and editing a range of assets for the Hewlett funded Global OER Graduate Network (GO-GN) in addition to contributing to the annual workshop;
• Team lead for the development of the OER Hub led Open University training courses Twitter 101 and Open Research and June 2017's Year of Open event;
• Leads WP3 work with partners OpenStax and contributes to a range of other work for the Hewlett Foundation funded UK Open Textbooks for Higher Education (HE) project which will assess the viability of North American models of open textbook adoption in a UK HE setting.

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. Beck 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).

Beck previously 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. 

2018

• Coughlan, Tim; Pitt, Beck and Farrow, Rob. (2018). Forms of Innovation Inspired by Open Educational Resources: A Post-Project Analysis. Open Learning: The Journal of Open, Distance and e-learning (In Press).

• Rolfe, Vivien and Pitt, Beck. (2018). Open textbooks - an untapped opportunity for universities, schools and colleges. Insights, 31 (30) pp. 1-6.

2017

• Pitt, Rebecca; Friedl, Christian; Jansen, Darco and Driha, Oana. (2017). The MOOC potential to address European challenges in CPD and continuous education. In: Higher Education for the Future: Accelerating and Strengthening Innovation. EADTU Conference Proceedings, EADTU, 369-380.

• Weller, Martin; de los Arcos, Beatriz; Farrow, Robert; Pitt, Rebecca and McAndrew, Patrick (2017). What Can OER Do for Me? Evaluating the Claims for OER. In: Jhangiani, R. S. and Biswas-Diener, R. eds. Open: The Philosophy and Practices that are Revolutionizing Education and Science London, UK: Ubiquity Press, pp. 67-78.

2016

• Farrow, Rob; Perryman, Leigh-Anne; de los Arcos, Beatriz; Weller, Martin and Pitt, Rebecca (2016). OER Hub Researcher Pack. Milton Keynes, UK: OER Hub.

• Pitt, Rebecca; de los Arcos, Beatriz; Farrow, Rob and Weller, Martin (2016). Open Research. Milton Keynes, UK: OER Hub.

• Jhangiani, Rajiv; Pitt, Rebecca; Hendricks, Christina; Key, Jessie and Lalonde, Clint (2016). Exploring Faculty Use of Open Educational Resources at British Columbia Post-Secondary Institutions. BCcampus, Victoria, British Columbia.

• de los Arcos, Beatriz; Farrow, Robert; Pitt, Rebecca; Weller, Martin and McAndrew, Patrick. (2016). Adapting the Curriculum: How K-12 Teachers Perceive the Role of Open Educational Resources. Journal of Online Learning Research, 2 (1) pp. 23-40.

• Weller, Martin; de los Arcos, Beatriz; Farrow, Rob; Pitt, Rebecca and McAndrew, Patrick (2016). Identifying Categories of Open Educational Resource Users. In: Blessinger, Patrick and Bliss, TJ eds. Open Education: International Perspectives in Higher Education Open Book Publishers, pp. 73-92.

2015

• Farrow, Robert; de los Arcos, Beatriz; Pitt, Rebecca and Weller, Martin. (2015). Who are the Open Learners? A Comparative Study Profiling non-Formal Users of Open Educational Resources. EURODL (European Journal of Open, Distance and E-Learning), 18 (2) pp. 50-74.

• Pitt, Rebecca. (2015). What does it mean to transform the world: Ron Aronson, Hope and Revolution. Sartre Studies International, 21 (2) pp. 33-58.

• Pitt, Rebecca. (2015). Mainstreaming Open Textbooks: Educator Perspectives on the Impact of OpenStax College open textbooks. International Review of Research in Open and Distance Learning, 16 (4) pp. 133-155.

• Farrow, Robert; Pitt, Rebecca; de los Arcos, Beatriz; Perryman, Leigh-Anne; Weller, Martin and McAndrew, Patrick. (2015). Impact of OER use on teaching and learning: data from OER Research Hub (2013–2014). British Journal of Educational Technology, 46 (5) pp. 972-976.

• de los Arcos, Beatriz; Farrow, Robert; Pitt, Rebecca; Perryman, Leigh-Anne; Weller, Martin and McAndrew, Patrick (2015). OER Research Hub Data 2013-2015: Educators. Open Education Research Hub.

• de los Arcos, Beatriz; Farrow, Robert; Pitt, Rebecca; Perryman, Leigh-Anne; Weller, Martin and McAndrew, Patrick (2015). OER Research Hub Data 2013-2015: Formal Learners. Open Education Research Hub.

• de los Arcos, Beatriz; Farrow, Robert; Pitt, Rebecca; Perryman, Leigh-Anne; Weller, Martin and McAndrew, Patrick (2015). OER Research Hub Data 2013-2015: Informal Learners. Open Education Research Hub.

• Weller, Martin; de los Arcos, Bea; Farrow, Rob; Pitt, Beck and McAndrew, Patrick. (2015). The Impact of OER on Teaching and Learning Practice. Open Praxis, 7 (4) pp. 351-361.

2014

• de los Arcos, B.; Farrow, R.; Perryman, L.-A.; Pitt, R. and Weller, M. (2014). OER Evidence Report 2013-2014. OER Research Hub.

2013

• Pitt, Rebecca (2013). Who is the revolutionary in Being and Nothingness?. In: O'Donohoe, Benedict eds. Severally Seeking Sartre Newcastle-upon-Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, pp. 154-170.

• Pitt, Rebecca (2013). Play and being in Jean-Paul Sartre's Being and Nothingness. In: Ryall, Emily; Russell, Wendy and MacLean, Malcolm eds. The Philosophy of Play Abingdon: Routledge, pp. 109-119.

• Pitt, Rebecca; Ebrahimi, Nassim; McAndrew, Patrick and Coughlan, Tim. (2013). Assessing OER impact across organisations and learners: experiences from the Bridge to Success project. Journal of Interactive Media in Education.

• Coughlan, Tim; Ebrahimi, Nassim; McAndrew, Patrick and Pitt, Rebecca. (2013). Assessing OER impact across varied organisations and learners: experiences from the "Bridge to Success" initiative. In: OER13: Creating a Virtuous Circle, 26-27 Mar 2013, Nottingham, UK.

• Coughlan, Tim; Pitt, Rebecca and McAndrew, Patrick. (2013). Building open bridges: collaborative remixing and reuse of open educational resources across organisations. In: 2013 ACM SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems ‘changing perspectives’ (CHI 2013), 29 Apr - 02 May 2013, Paris, France.

Current

GO-GN (Global OER Graduate Network)

2016 - 2019

Completed

	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

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)

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

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