The Open University is celebrating after discovering it has won two prestigious teaching awards run by Advance HE – one being an individual award and the other a team success.
Advance HE is a member-led charity that works in collaboration with partners across the globe to improve higher education for staff, students and society.
It has announced the two accolades for the OU: a National Teaching Fellowship (NTF) for Dr Cora Beth Fraser, Associate Lecturer in Classics, who is also an Honorary Research Associate, and the Fieldcast Team in STEM, which has won a Collaborative Award for Teaching Excellence (CATE).
Annually, there are just 55 winners picked by Advance HE and only 15 CATE winners – a significant achievement for all colleagues involved in a highly competitive scheme.
Cora Beth, who is autistic and has an autistic child, said:
“Becoming a National Teaching Fellow means a great deal to me because it signifies acceptance into a community – and autistic people don’t take either acceptance or community for granted.
“Even the process of applying was positive and affirming, although it was scary to step out of my comfort zone.”
Professor Ian Pickup, Pro-Vice-Chancellor, Students, said:
“I am delighted that Cora Beth’s outstanding impact on student outcomes and teaching practice across the OU, her chosen discipline and the wider higher education teaching profession, has been recognised by this prestigious award.”
He added:
“Cora Beth is an inspiration to all OU colleagues, demonstrating the importance of embedding equity and inclusion in all our individual, collective and institutional achievements.”
The OU’s Fieldcast team won a Collaborative Award for Teaching Excellence. Since fieldwork is a core part of environmental sciences, a group of academics and technicians collaborated to develop a way to bring fieldwork into the homes of students.
Audiovisual technology and internet livestreaming are just some of the methods employed to help make fieldwork a live, interactive experience for students using real outdoor environments.
One student said of their experience: “It felt like you were part of things rather than just witnessing it.”
A delighted Professor Nick Braithwaite, Executive Dean for the Faculty of STEM and OU Sustainability Lead, said of the Fieldcast team’s win:
“I have witnessed ‘on location’ the Fieldcast Team’s professionalism and enthusiasm, which together ensure high levels of student engagement with field-based learning.
“I am also excited by their shared passion for incorporating authentic fieldwork in our curriculum in a manner which is a credible alternative to requiring large numbers of students to travel large distances to study practical aspects of environmental science and ecology.”
Fieldcasts are delivered through the Open University’s OpenSTEM Labs.
Header image: An action shot of the fieldcasts being broadcast, with presenters Phil Wheeler, Julia Cooke, both Senior Lecturers in Ecology, and Sarah Davies at the back, Kadmiel Maseyk on his computer (both Senior Lecturers in Environmental Science), and Kate Bradshaw, Media Producer behind the camera. Trevor Collins, Director of The OpenSTEM Labs took the photo, and Ben Hawkridge, Project Officer was nearby mixing audiovisuals.
Inset picture: Dr Cora Beth Fraser, Associate Lecturer in Classics who won a National Teaching Fellowship award
