This article was written by Liz Hardie from SCiLAB (the Scholarship Centre for Innovation in online Legal and Business Education) at The Open University.
You already give feedback that shapes your courses, but what if you could actually get paid to help the OU discover the best ways to teach? That's what our Scholarship Centre is all about, and we’d love you to be involved.
Scholarship is the research the University undertakes to make your learning experience better. It's the evidence base that answers questions like: 'What's the best way to design a module?' 'Does audio feedback or written comments help students more?' and 'How can we use technology to support students to develop skills?” This research is what ensures your module materials, assessments, and tuition are excellent and help you to succeed in your degree.
Each Faculty has a scholarship centre which supports academics to carry out high quality research into our teaching. In SCiLAB (the Faculty of Business and Law’s Scholarship Centre) our 'students as partners' programme employs students to co-research alongside academics on specific projects. This is a chance to get paid and gain valuable, transferable employability skills, such as empirical research and collaboration skills. Those who work for more than 8 hours on a scholarship project will also earn a digital badge to add to their professional profile.
A recent project exploring legal research skills led to staff and students co-authoring a blog. One student researcher said “the ability to work alongside other students outside of the module format is a fantastic opportunity and I feel each of us has something different to bring to the team.… I am sure this experience will provide learning beyond that which is possible in module formats.” That team went on to exhibit a student-designed poster, and to jointly present on the project at two separate conferences.
The involvement of student co-researchers (for example, to review student surveys or interview questions, or run focus groups) also means projects benefit from the students’ perspective and gain deeper, richer data. This directly benefits all of the students studying on programmes and modules improved through our scholarship. Another project involved students in setting up and evaluating a peer mentoring programme, and they were interviewed for a video about their experiences. One student mentor stated that she now has “a better understanding of the way in which they [the OU] strive to improve the learning experience for students.”
Ready to get involved? All scholarship centres have a ‘students as partners’ programme. Opportunities to get involved are advertised on module homepages or you may receive a dedicated email. However if you are a student on an FBL module, there’s no need to wait. Email SCiLAB to register your interest. We’ll add you to our list and contact you directly as opportunities are launched throughout the year.
Many of our projects also depend on students sharing their experiences and views through surveys, focus groups and interviews, and the information you provide enables the project teams to make evidence-based recommendations to improve teaching. To thank you for your involvement, projects usually offer vouchers to participants. Do look out for emails about our scholarship projects and make time to respond, as we can only improve the teaching and support we offer with your help.
You can read more about SCiLAB on our website and via LinkedIn.