Ms Lorna Sibbett

Biography

Lorna is Chair of the Open Programme Board of Studies, responsible for ourthe OU's 'Open' Qualifications:

• Open Degree QD | BA/BSc (Hons) Open degree | Open University The Open University's multidisciplinary degree that offers students the opportunity to build their own degree based upon personnel motivations or professional aspirations. This popular offering is one of the UK's largest degrees.
• Combined Stem R28 | BSc (Hons) Combined STEM degree | Open University This flexible STEM degree allows students to build their qualification across traditional STEM disciplines.
• MA/MSc Open F81 | MA/MSc Open | Open University is a flexible postgraduate degree that allows students to create a qualification tailored to personal interests and self-development.

Lorna is active in students-as-partners scholarship and co-development of curriculum and pedagogy; student learning across transition; development of self-efficacy; and skills for learning and employability. Having significant experience in developing and delivering positive student transition into Higher Education, she is currently leading a scholarship project on the experiences of students who use Credit Transfer to join the Open University.

Her teaching career began within the barbed wire enclosure of a secondary school in Northern Ireland; the barbed wire being to keep out those who might pilfer useful chemicals from the science store cupboard. Since then, she has taught and developed courses/ curricula in Secondary, Further and Higher Education (Undergraduate and Postgraduate) in Northern Ireland, Scotland and now across nations with the OU.

Her previous roles include those held while a Senior Teaching Fellow at the University of St Andrews: Co-Director of the Centre for Higher Education Research; Co-Director of External Relations in the School of Biology; and responsibility for skills development across the undergraduate Biology programme.

Research interests

Transition into HE and employment; student skills development; student collaboration in curriculum development; and science communication. 

Projects

Credit Transfer in Learning: Our Students' Perspectives

with Mary Keys, Clare Dunn, Heather Montgomery, Fi Moorman and Eleanor Crabb

At the OU, we have an important sectoral role in provision of Credit Transfer and a responsibility to maximise the success of students joining us with Credit Transfer (CT). The purpose of this project is to richly engage with student voice to better understand diverse experiences of CT students, their challenges faced and how we might better support their transition to the Open University and maximise their success.

BUD:Belonging, United, Diverse 

with Renu Bhandari, Sarah Ferdinand, Nadiah Saliah, Sarah McKernan and Andrew Webster.

In the Belong, United Diverse (BUD) project, two student interns were appointed to act as a student ‘buddies’ within Access student online discussion forums (ODFs) and to collaborate with academic staff in the development of recommendations for more inclusive practice in distance education.  The slide deck "How can we maximise equity and diversity in student partnerships?" provides further information on this.

My current work aligns mainly with UN Sustainable Development Goal 4