Teaching and Learning Challenges

The QEI group is leading a set of pan-university projects sponsored by the OU's Pro-Vice Chancellor for Students (PVC-S) within the framework of addressing key challenges for teaching, learning and assessment.

These challenges aim to identify the benefits of using Artificial Intelligence, including Generative AI (GenAI) and Large Language Models in the production of new curriculum at the University and how to support personalised learning for OU students. In terms of the former, a bespoke GenAI solution for producing curriculum material has been developed, called Scribe. Scribe aims to assist module teams experiment with GenAI in curriculum production in a safe environment. It is currently used by curriculum teams across the OU and feedback is used to further refine it. In terms of the latter, IET has led the pedagogical development and evaluation of an AI digital assistant, AIDA, that aims to help students receive personalised support while interacting with OU material. Initial insights from a series of studies with university students showcase a preference for using an institutional AI solution (as opposed to a commercial one like ChatGPT) to support learning and engagement.

The second challenge aims to understand how the university should provide personalised support to new students, to enhance their student experience, including experience of assessment and feedback, and achieve positive student outcomes (submission, performance, retention). The QEI team has implemented a number of research activities to meet this objective, including a review of interventions to support submission of tutor-marked assignments (TMAs), a review of how we structure and manage assessment to support learning, assessed the impact of scaling up a Student-Facing Dashboard to help students stay on track with their studies, and the assessment of students’ levels of readiness when joining the university and its impact on their performance.