Ms Jude Wilson-Hughes

Professional biography

Jude Wilson-Hughes is a Senior Lecturer in Sociology at the Open University, joining in 2000 as an Associate Lecturer. She possesses a broad academic background, holding degrees in English Literature, Community Psychology, and Media/Cultural studies. Prior to the Open University, she taught Media and Cultural studies at West London University.

Her professional practice and research scholarship centre on developing inclusive learning environments and fostering a sense of community. She maintains a strong commitment to education as a right for all, adopting a student-centred approach that recognises individual diversity and empowers students to articulate their needs, advocating against a ‘one size fits all approach’.

As a qualified coach, she utilises this professional understanding in her teaching, management, and academic practice. She supports students in building the study skills, resilience, and confidence necessary to achieve long-term goals, and assists Associate Lecturers in developing a coaching approach to support teaching and learning. She is also a mentor for colleagues applying for SFHEA.

Research interests

In recent years, her primary focus has shifted towards pedagogical innovation, specifically concentrating on developing effective remote learning environments to foster student engagement. This work is considered crucial for improving retention, academic progress, and developing connection, mattering, and belonging.

She has applied this expertise by leading several key projects focused on improving teaching, learning, and retention. These projects include:

• Developing and piloting a peer coaching project for Associate Lecturers (ALs) to collaborate and share good practice through reciprocal tutorial visits, aimed at developing excellent online teaching.

• Developing an online tutorial visit strategy for Staff Tutors to provide supportive tutorial observations complementing the peer coaching model.

• Creating a targeted skills resource for L2 tutors and students to ensure parity of access to appropriate skills teaching and learning.

• The Personal Tutor pilot project, aimed at enhancing student engagement and success through proactive targeted,  year-round online 1:1 pastoral support, advice, and guidance from a designated personal tutor.

• The ‘How can I help’ success and progression retention project, which involves a proactive, personalised ‘in-module’ approach where students who haven’t submitted an assignment (TMA) are asked, ‘how can I help you?’, strengthening retention strategies by increasing understanding of student barriers to learning.

Teaching interests

Jude has taught on and contributed to a number of Open University Modules, including DD100, DD131/DD132, DD101, DE141, Y034, DA204, DD201, and DD206.

She previously chaired DD206 and currently chairs DD218, where she is also leading the module’s mid-life re-write. On DD218, she has taken an innovative approach to teaching and learning to acknowledge and meet diverse student needs, and increase student success and retention. This includes offering a broad-based online tutorial programme designed to develop a range of student learning spaces and foster an inclusive community of learners, alongside targeted student support. The programme includes: a suite of short skills sessions, student coaching, writing groups, 'study together' (body doubling) tutorials, and a moderated WhatsApp group, alongside module content and research/topical interest tutorials.