Research news

Dr Natalie Canning, Co-Director of The Open University’s Children’s Research Centre, launches the Empowerment Framework, a new tool for childhood practitioners to analyse children’s play and activities. Based on Dr Canning’s research into Early Childhood contexts, the tool supports the understanding of child development through an empowerment focus.

The OU has secured funding of £5.8m from the Office for Students (OfS) to develop extended reality studios, Open XR Studios, to expand its teaching and learning with augmented and virtual reality.

Dr Lina Adinolfi joins researchers at the OU and across Europe to develop skills in integrating augmented reality into language learning.

A student wellbeing group that sees staff and students work in partnership has been named one of the winners at the 2022 WELS Teaching Excellence Awards.

A team of researchers including academics at WELS and Professor Louise Wallace are behind a project which has received £141,000 in extra funding from The National Institute for Health Research (NIHR).

The winner of the OU’s People’s Choice Award is a research project led by Dr Margaret Ebubedike from the Faculty of WELS, co-investigated by Dr Saraswati Dawadi from the Institute of Education Technology, looking at improving the lives of human trafficking survivors in Nepal and Nigeria.

Dr Philippa Waterhouse has won the award for Postgraduate Research (PGR) Supervisor at The Open University’s third annual Research Excellence Awards held last week in London. Philippa has been recognised for the outstanding support and leadership she has provided.

Now in its third year, the Research Excellence Awards celebrates and recognises the achievement of research at The Open University. Among the winners was Dr Erica Seruset Borgstrom, winner of the Early Career Researcher award for her research into death and dying. 

Now in its third year, researchers at the Faculty of WELS walked away as winners and runner ups at The Open University’s annual Research Excellence Awards. The awards celebrate and recognise the outstanding achievement of the university’s research environment and WELS were no exception.

In an OU Research Excellence Awards first, one winner will be decided externally. The People’s Choice Award asks the public to choose the person or project they feel has made the most significant difference when addressing societal challenges. WELS Senior Lecturer Dr Jitka Vseteckova runs one of four nominated projects, and tells us how it feels.