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STEM Faculty

Meet the people who make up STEM Faculty.

John Woodthorpe

John Woodthorpe

Head Of School, C&C

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computing-and-communications

Professional biography

John is a senior lecturer who is Head of School for the School of Computing and Communications. He first worked for the Open University on residential Summer Schools in 1984 before becoming a part-time tutor on a range of Engineering, Technology, Computing and Arts modules. One of those modules regularly attracted 10-15,000 students per year and was the largest wholly-online module in the University. He took on a variety of consultancy roles with the OU's commercial and licensing activities, and supported groups of part-time tutors as the number of online modules and students increased. Most of this was while working as a materials scientist for the R&D centre of a multinational automotive and aerospace component manufacture.

In 2004 he took up a full-time lectureship with the OU, working on the production and presentation of a range of new modules. From 2014 to 2019 he provided the link between the School's student support team and its curriculum, while the University made two major reorganisations of its student support activities. In that role, he increased the integration between the curriculum and student support areas, and improved that even further as Director of Teaching. He is no longer a part-time tutor for the OU, and so has a bit more time to spend with his ever-expanding collection of Raspberry Pi projects and grandchildren, and in listening to music, and playing bass guitar.

Latest publications

Displaying 9 of 9 publications

  • Gooch, D., Waugh, K., Richards, M., Slaymaker, M. and Woodthorpe, J., 2024, ‘Exploring the Profile of University Assessments Flagged as Containing AI-Generated Material’, ACM Inroads, 15(2), pp. 39–47., https://oro.open.ac.uk/97585/.
  • Richards, M., Waugh, K., Slaymaker, M., Petre, M., Woodthorpe, J. and Gooch, D., 2024, ‘Bob or Bot: Exploring ChatGPT’s answers to University Computer Science Assessment’, ACM Transactions on Computing Education, 24(1), pp. 1–32., https://oro.open.ac.uk/89325/.
  • Rienties, B., Boroowa, A., Cross, S., Farrington-Flint, L., Herodotou, C., Prescott, L., Mayles, K., Olney, T., Toetenel, L. and Woodthorpe, J., 2016, ‘Reviewing three case-studies of learning analytics interventions at the open university UK’, in Sixth International Conference on Learning Analytics & Knowledge (LAK '16 ), 25-29 Apr 2016, Edinburgh., https://oro.open.ac.uk/57262/.
  • Kear, K., Woodthorpe, J., Robertson, S. and Hutchison, M., 2010, ‘From forums to wikis: perspectives on tools for collaboration’, The Internet and Higher Education, 13(4), pp. 218–225., https://oro.open.ac.uk/23200/.
  • Richards, M. and Woodthorpe, J., 2009, ‘Introducing TU100 ‘My Digital Life’: Ubiquitous computing in a distance learning environment’, in Ubicomp 2009, 30 Sep - 3 Oct 2009, Orlando, Florida, USA., https://oro.open.ac.uk/26821/.
  • Shaw, J. and Woodthorpe, J., 2009, ‘fOUndIt? Sharing online resources to support subject communities’, in 7th International Conference on Education and Information Systems, Technologies and Applications: EISTA 2009, 10-13 Jul 2009, Orlando, Florida, USA., https://oro.open.ac.uk/17844/.
  • Kear, K. and Woodthorpe, J., 2009, ‘Using wikis for collaborative learning of technology’, in 7th International Conference on Education and Information Systems, Technologies and Applications: EISTA 2009, 10-13 Jul 2009, Orlando, Florida, USA., https://oro.open.ac.uk/17842/.
  • Woodthorpe, J., Shaw, J., Hauck, M. and Beaven, T., 2009, ‘What’s in it for me? The stick and the carrot as tools for developing academic communities’, in 7th International Conference on Education and Information Systems, Technologies and Applications: EISTA 2009, 10-13 Jul 2009, Orlando, Florida, USA., https://oro.open.ac.uk/17843/.
  • Kear, K., Woodthorpe, J. and Moss, N., 2006, ‘E-learning for Networked Living’, in EADTU (European Association of Distance Teaching Universities) Annual Conference 2006, 23-24 Nov 2006, Tallin, Estonia., https://oro.open.ac.uk/6309/.
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