Final Report - Creating harmony from Discord ™: Using innovative technology to create a sense of community in distance education

The proposed project is designed to explore an alternative method of engaging students in creating class communities in order to present the OU with a viable option alongside existing tools. The OU has been struggling to achieve consistent engagement amongst students through the current means of tutor group forums. While for some students the forum is a lifeline proving access to a distance learning community; for others, it is an antiquated system that does not feel naturalistic or encourage them to engage. The Discord chat platform is of increasing interest to wider Higher Education sector as it is where a growing number of university age students spend a lot of their leisure and study time outside of scheduled classes.  In order to effectively work with students to create a sense of community and enhance the teaching and learning goals, it is suggested that the OU needs to be considering innovative methods of student engagement. The project will enable the researcher to better understand the nature of the platform and how it can fit in to the unique structure of the OU so the university can better consider its inclusion as external open educational tool.