WELS news

Professor Felicity Astin joins the OU’s School of Health, Wellbeing and Social Care as Professor of Nursing. She looks forward to providing research mentorship, strengthening OU links to partners and contributing to OU nursing programs.

Every year the Faculty of Wellbeing, Education and Language Studies (WELS) recognises students and projects that have gone above and beyond what is expected of them.  The WELS Tutor Awards provided students with the opportunity to recognise the dedication and skill of their tutors. Overall, ten tutors received a WELS Tutor award, and a further eleven were highly commended.

Every year, the OU’s Faculty of Wellbeing, Education and Language Studies (WELS) recognises students for their achievements through the WELS Student Awards. This year another nine talented students received awards in two categories, in a recent virtual ceremony.

The winners of this year’s WELS Student, Tutor and Teaching Excellence Awards were announced at the virtual WELS Teaching Excellence Day. In total, 33 awards were made across the three categories.

Continuing Professional Development (CPD) plays an important part in staff retention and development. This article explains how flexible learning with The Open University can help retain, develop and empower school and Multi-Academy Trust staff.

Anna Pritchard is an Open University Practice Tutor on the social work module K315: Critical social work practice. Anna started tutoring her Practice Tutor role with the OU in February 2020, during the Covid-19 pandemic. In her below blog, ‘Same Ocean, different boats: A return to face-to-face teaching’, Anna shares her first face-to-face tutorial experience.

A new report from The Open University explores how the use of enquiry-based learning (EBL) is supporting learners on their journey to becoming registered nurses. Created in partnership with the National Health Executive (NHE), the Enquiry-based learning: Transforming nurse education report is relevant to employers and educators who are supporting nursing students.

Learning disability nursing is one of four fields of nursing practice in the UK. It’s an area for which there is a short supply and increasing demand for registered practitioners. As a result, more individuals are entering this rewarding profession. “The learning disability nursing workforce is growing,” says Erica Goddard, Staff Tutor, Nursing at The Open University (OU).

A free online Ukrainian culture and language course has been launched, aimed at those working with Ukrainians in the UK. Alongside the new course, the OU has also translated into Ukrainian its package of free online resources for Ukrainian refugees. The course and the translated resources form the next stage in the package of support the OU is providing for Ukraine.

Dr Elizabeth Tilley was the academic advisor for Panorama: Will the NHS Care for Me?, a new OU/BBC programme that investigates why people with a learning disability are more likely to die from avoidable causes than the rest of the population.