It has been an absolute pleasure to mentor the three OTLA 7 projects over 2020-21.

Although the projects had a common theme – Feedback  and Target Setting in Diverse Contexts, their diverse backgrounds made for different interests and challenges.

Communication became a major challenge for each of the projects with the onset of Covid-19.

North Yorkshire County Council had to investigate different ways of communication with hard to reach learners that required creative thinking and methods of reaching their learners.  Novus/HMP Liverpool found successful ways to communicate through the use of in-cell telephones, and Newcastle College were pro-active in developing their technology and on-line communication, which in turn helped their teams to develop their own skills with gamification.

The enthusiasm and dedication of the Project Leads, Deputies, and their teams made for some outstanding conclusions and outcomes for action research.

Supporting hard to reach adult learners in the community: North Yorkshire County Council 

How do you reach learners who can no longer access classroom-based learning and lack digital solutions? Our project aimed to provide access to learning for these forgotten learners.

Do they want to learn what we are teaching? Learner feedback in prison education: Novus – HMP Liverpool 

While this project originally intended to link reflections on learning to improving target setting in English and maths, it also used surprising and unexpected responses from learners and tutors to develop a blended approach to classroom teaching.

Gamification and closing the feedback loop: Newcastle College 

This project intended to study and develop rich feedback within the classroom using the tool of gamification. The project set out to assess how gamification can develop the teachers’ activity toolkit and create fulfilling, deep and rich feedback which empowers the students.

Watch the group presentations at the final dissemination event by clicking play (to the right).

Access their full reports below.