Understanding the influence of demographics on attendance and access of synchronous and asynchronous online tuition

• Project Team: Lindsay CrispMelissa BaileyHannah LaveryDonna SmithKaty SmithJoanna Robson
• Subject Discipline: Arts and Humanities
• Theme: Equality, diversity and inclusionOnline and blended tuition
• Project Aim: Improves and enhance the learning experience of studentsPromotes equality diversity and inclusion including reduction of degree awarding gap
• Status: Complete
• Date: July 2018 to August 2019

This project draws together a team of colleagues from across the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences to explore participation in ‘live’ online learning events and summary recordings with no students present known as ‘Learning Event Summaries’ (LES). It explores barriers to participation by disabled students and students from BAME (Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic) and/or Widening Participation backgrounds. It asks how our current practice can be improved to better enable student engagement with live online learning events and LES. The project incorporates two strands of investigation: a statistical analysis of students’ use of LES, and a qualitative exploration of students’ experiences of engaging with live, online learning events and LES.

We conclude that students would benefit from greater clarity on the purpose and pedagogy of ‘live’, online learning events, LES, and the practice of recording ‘live’ events. To enhance the impact of LES, it is necessary to be explicit about who the main target audience is and to set clear success criteria about attendance and access, to enable a proper assessment of its success. A number of practical steps may improve the quality and accessibility of ‘live’, online tutorials as experienced by students. These include enhanced training for both students and tutors; observation of live online teaching by line managers in order to develop practice in this area; improvements to technical elements (for example in terms of sound quality); the provision of a mixture of daytime, evening, weekday and weekend timings; and clear labelling of learning events to enable students to plan their attendance.

On this basis of this project, the team has published the following findings: 

Smith, D., and Smith, K., 2019. Understanding barriers to participation in online tuition. Advance HE Teaching and Learning Conference: ‘Teaching in the spotlight: Innovation for Teaching Excellence’ [poster, published]; Tuition attendance and students with mental health disability: does widening tuition options increase access? https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/02680513.2021.1999801