STEMinar Series: eSTEeM Scholarship Showcase - 18th February 2025

Location: Via MS Teams
Contact

Barriers and enablers to higher education: the experiences of disabled students from minority cultural backgrounds – an overview

Chris Corcoran

The aim of this project was to look at processes and experiences that were either a barrier to students to joining the University or an enabler – another way of looking at this is what helped and what stopped students registering and the joining their course. This project took an intersectional approach to examine the student experience from the combined perspectives of social and cultural background and disability giving a broader overview of the student experience. With the agreement of course chairs, data were collected through on-line semi-structured interview questionnaires that were sent to students on U116 2022B and T192 2022D.

The responses were very positive about the treatment they had received at the registration process from the OU particularly from the Student Support Team and their tutors. Students found the presentation of the courses suitable for their needs identifying the accessibility of on-line material. Negative responses around tutorials focused mainly on navigating the web pages and booking onto the tutorial system.

Findings have been shared with colleagues and have also been used to inform a successful pan-university project focussing on barriers and enablers experienced by students with a mental health issue at the OU.

Innovations in Online Support: Support for students taking remote exams

Sue Pawley and Cath Brown

Within the University, where examinations take place, they are in the form of open book remote examinations. However, students have limited experience with this examination format and are often unsure of how to best prepare. To address this challenge, we offered students the opportunity to take a timed, unseen remote mock examination that was fully marked, partially replicating the conditions of the actual exam. In addition we provided a range of other support around sitting remote examinations.

Beyond improving student performance, our goal is to enhance students’ understanding of examination demands, promoting more effective preparation for future modules and ultimately leading to better degree outcomes.

This presentation will discuss the rationale behind offering marked mock examinations, the relationship between taking the mock examination and student performance in the real exam and feedback from a post examination questionnaire.

Registration

This event is open to OU staff, please visit the registration form to sign-up. Registration will close at midday on the 18th February. If you would like to attend, but have not regsitered by then, please contact esteem@open.ac.uk.

Keep up to date on the STEMinar Series by visiting the STEMinar Series intranet site.