Evaluation and improvement of print packs use for Environmental Science students

Project leader(s): Fiona AikenChris Hutton
Theme: Access, Participation and Success
Faculty: STEM
Status: Archived
Dates: October 2021 to August 2024

There is a legal requirement to provide students who have declared disabilities with reasonable adjustments which address their learning needs. An Advance HE report on this (Falsinger & Bryford, 2010) includes ‘resources available’ as a reasonable adjustment to address. However, even when following accessible design principles, Virtual Learning Environments are not necessarily accessible to students with certain disabilities e.g., students with specific learning challenges such as dyslexia can struggle to study on screen. Also, reading on a screen can lead to difficulties focusing especially if the text is interspersed with images and links (Habib et al., 2012). This can result in studying taking longer, which itself can be a barrier due to the impact on workloads which can negatively affect quality of life and lead to stress and anxiety (Lambert & Dryer, 2018). Books and print resources can be preferential to on-screen text; having the ‘whole text in front’ helps with comprehension and identifying important sections (Habib et al., 2012). One way that accessibility can be improved for students with barriers to studying on screen-only materials is through producing printed versions of the materials, so-called “print packs” in the Open University.

The aim of this research is to evaluate the efficacy of print packs as a way of providing reasonable adjustments to some disabled students and those in secure environments on Earth and Environmental Science modules. Initially we investigated (in the academic year 21/22) how students used print packs and the problems and benefits associated with them, through a student survey (43 invitations, 13 responses, 30% response rate) and scrutiny of institutional data. The survey highlighted that most students use print packs for over half of their study time with comments revealing that students blended study of the printed materials with shorter periods of access to interactive online content and synchronous (tutorials) and asynchronous (forums) tuition. Only 23% reported having received any advice on how to make best use of print packs. Focus groups were conducted with Associate Lecturers (ALs) and student support team staff, the results triangulated with the student survey. Based on the analysis of our results and the emerging themes, we designed an intervention for the academic year 22/23. This involved recruiting and training two Associate Lecturer champions, one on each of our large year 1 and year 2 modules S112 (Science: concepts and practice) and S(XF)206 (Environmental Science). They provided support and advice to fellow Associate Lecturers through an asynchronous tutor forum and carried out their own evaluation of the effectiveness of the print pack materials on the two modules. Following this intervention, we re-surveyed the students using print packs and expanded the Associate Lecturer champions roles to cover most of the modules in Earth and Environmental Sciences for the academic year 23/24.

Recomendations

From our student surveys and focus groups we established that students need advice on how to use print packs effectively, we would recommend the appointment of AL print pack champions across qualifications. They can provide advice to students and ALs and run effective staff development sessions for ALs and module teams. We would also recommend that module teams make print packs easily available to ALs so that they can see what students are receiving in print packs and therefore better support the students using them.