Open Research Online (The Open University)

This paper introduces the First TMA Intervention Framework, a practice-informed model for supporting students during their first tutor-marked assignment (TMA) in distance higher education. Developed through a narrative institutional review of 93 documented interventions and practices, the framework maps institutional and tutor-led support to 12 critical checkpoints across the first assignment lif…

The emergence of agentic artificial intelligence (AI) marks a shift from reactive educational technologies towards systems capable of autonomous multi-step planning, tool orchestration, and adaptive decision-making. As these systems contribute to structuring study pathways, generating feedback, and monitoring learner progression, elements of cognitive and metacognitive regulation become distribut…

This paper provides a fresh analysis of data from a recent faculty-based pilot study of an AI Digital Assistant (AIDA). It reveals insights into student attitudes towards AI as they commence their university study, showing that whilst a third of new undergraduate students at The Open University (UK) come with no experience of using GenAI, they do, like others, bring expectations and understanding…

Bug fixing is a complex and time-consuming task in software development. Bug localization research tends to focus on the accuracy of automated tools that suggest source code files for developers to look at. However, little is known about how developers use these tools in practice. This paper reports on an ongoing qualitative user study. Eleven participants worked through four realistic bug locali…

This chapter argues that the prospects and potential of theories for thinking outside dominant paradigms of knowledge are limited so long as they are not considered in the context of such theories’ production, consumption and utilisation. As such, one of the issues facing radical efforts to think outside of dominant academic discourses is that they often remain wedded to traditional models of wha…

This chapter analyzes social identity in relation to work and organizations from a critical theoretical perspective. It focuses on social identity theory (SIT), which has become one of the most dominant perspectives in the study of organizational behavior. Despite its obvious utility, social identity theory’s roots in experimental and survey-based methods and the prominence of social cognition pr…

The perceived universality of death can obscure the variability in how the processes of becoming dead – such as dying – are culturally understood and constructed. This chapter will discuss how a particular way of dying, framed as ‘end of life care’, shapes expectations and practices in the last year, months and days of life. Based on ethnographic research in England, this chapter will outline how…

Little is known about the political and sociocultural marketplace aspects of collective fear and how policymakers and other market actors contribute to its development. To better understand this undertheorized area, we draw on archival data to show how UK politicians, journalists, and retailers constructed three racially stigmatizing fear narratives targeting Romanian immigrant consumers. Buildin…

This chapter brings together research into later-life language learners and research into learning through vicarious participation, with a focus on learning in blended environments. This is relevant in view of the increasing interest in language learning across the lifespan and discussions around the distinctive qualities of language learning in older adults (Pfenninger, Festman and Singleton, 20…

In this presentation we will present our evolving response to students' use of Generative AI in assessed work, outlining the strategies, challenges, and lessons learned along the way. While initial efforts in the school were modest in scope, with attempts made across a small number of modules, yielding varying levels of success. These early interventions reflected the broader uncertainty of the m…

The concluding chapter pulls together the various forms of loss outlined throughout the book and the key themes emerging from the different authors’ interpretations of their significance and symbolism. Split into four thematic sections – loss as a motivator; loss as an obligatory component of the research process; loss as symbolic; and loss as legacy – it considers how loss is integral to crimino…

This introductory chapter sets the scene for the book by exploring how life, loss and legacy are central to criminology and indeed to criminological research. Yet these are concepts that remain on the periphery of debate and discussions, with academics seldom reflecting (openly at least) on the losses they experience. This chapter therefore argues the need to consider loss – and indeed the storie…

Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) systems are increasingly deployed in web-based educational environments, yet transparency can be seen as a primarily ethical, and, too often, optional, concern, rather than foundational. This paper presents design patterns for building transparent RAG systems, derived from developing and deploying SAGE-RAI, an advanced multi-purpose RAG system, in an education…

Whilst current UK government skills offerings were initially focused on options for young people, lifelong learning policies are now emerging through a framework of individuals learning ‘at a time that is right for them’ (Gov.uk, 2025). However, whilst there is a rich literature on traditional student development, less is known about the benefits that ‘upskilling’ brings to learners already situa…

Although the Langshan Formation has been widely regarded as spanning the Aptian to the lower Cenomanian (upper Lower to lower Upper Cretaceous), previous records of rudist bivalves from this formation were limited to the <i>Auroradiolites biconvexus–Magallanesia rutogensis</i> assemblage, which is restricted to upper Aptian to Albian (upper Lower Cretaceous). The discovery of <i>Agriopleura liban…

In this chapter, we will weave a history of marketing theory and practice that permits us to juxtapose mainstream and Critical Marketing scholarship. From this, we unpack core assumptions underwriting Critical Marketing Studies, including ontological denaturalisation, defatalisation, epistemological reflexivity, critical performativity and solidarity building. Our narrative then introduces each c…