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Refugees and asylum seekers across the UK to benefit from OU project

The range of free online educational resources available and of use to refugees and asylum seekers in the UK was explored at a workshop in Glasgow in September 2018. 

The ‘Refugees Open Educational Resources' (RefER) project is part of the OU's institution-wide 'Year of Mygration', funded by the Higher Education Innovation Fund.

The OU's Year of Mygration 2018 emphasises that we are all affected by migration, whether or not we ourselves or immediate families are migrants. The issues of migration are vital to understanding not just current UK politics but also the world’s economies and communities.

The RefER project was designed to evaluate the breadth of free online learning provision available to organisations engaging with refugees and asylum seekers, and to identify how we can address any gaps.

The project's research and workshop explored and showcased what is available from the OU, such as on OpenLearn and OpenLearn Create, as well as including what is available from all other known providers across the UK. The 'Resources audit' contains links to over 500 free, online resources (around 200 aimed at refugees, and around 300 aimed at staff and volunteers). 

The evaluation looked at how the resources are being used and discovered their limitations, for example, courses only available in English. 

The organisations who had participated in the evaluation - such as The Bridges Programmes, which helps refugees and asylum seekers to find work experience in Glasgow - were invited to the event, where the main researcher, Gabi Witthaus, shared the findings. The session also gave the participating organisations the opportunity to contribute to the final evaluation.

The workshop took place in Glasgow, as more than half of the research survey responses were from Scotland. It also provided an opportunity to build on our relationships with Scottish refugee organisations and secure our reputation as leaders in online learning provision.

The event reflected our work in widening participation in higher education to under-represented groups. It was led by the Open University's Strategic Research Area in International Development and Inclusive Innovation, directed by Professor Giles Mohan, and was co-hosted by the OU in Scotland.

The next stage is to submit a funding bid to rework existing content and develop new content, to make free online learning opportunities as relevant and comprehensive as possible to refugees and those who provide them with support.

Further information is available in two recent blogs about the project findings and the workshop.

The project's final report is expected to be published on the OU's Research News webpage by the end of this year.  

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