Understanding the impact of COVID-19 on ethnic minority students’ study experience and awarding gap (A case study of Level 1 C&C Open University Modules)

Project leader(s): Dhouha KbaierSoraya Kouadri MostéfaouiAnnemarie Kane
Theme: Access, Participation and Success
Faculty: STEMFASS
Status: Archived
Dates: October 2021 to September 2023

The aim of this project is to study, analyse and evaluate the impact of COVID-19 on ethnic minority students’ study experience and awarding gap at level 1 on the core modules in C&C. It is expected that the results of this study will inform module delivery and study support as well as tuition in order to provide a better study experience and help improve study experience and awarding gap post COVID-19. The project’s objectives are as follows:

Gain a better understanding of the reasons behind the awarding gap of ethnic minority students compared to the other students in the core level 1 computing modules TM111 and 112.
Assess the impact of COVID-19 on ethnic minority students’ awarding gap as well as their overall study experience at level 1 for TM111 and TM112
Share any lessons learnt and good practices in C&C and beyond.
Disseminate the project’s outcomes such as our findings and the developed analytical methods both inside and outside The Open University.

Dhouha had the opportunity to present this research at the HETL 2023 conference in Aberdeen and at ICTLE 2023 conference in Copenhagen. The presentations slides and abstracts are available under ‘Related Resources’ below.