Enablingstaff@OU – Supporting Integration In The Workplace

EnablingStaff@OU is a new staff network at the Open University (OU) which was launched in July 2014. The remit of the new network is to improve integration of disabled staff within the institution. This will be achieved by working with all staff to improve knowledge and understanding of disability and reasonable adjustment, alongside promoting recognition of the value of every individual within the workplace. This article aims to guide you through why and how we set up the network, and to help you consider if it is something you might do within your own institution or organisation

Developing the developers – supporting development of online conference presentations

Delivering online tuition has become standard practice in most universities with many students receiving part of their tuition online. However, so far there appears to be a resistance to utilising online delivery for staff and academic development. An online academic development conference was delivered to 150 teaching staff delegates over the course of a week. The conference structure was to have a keynote presentation and eleven shorter discussion presentations, each with their own dedicated asynchronous discussion forum. Conference presenters were each asked to produce a video presentation of up to 7 minutes and run an associated online forum. This paper reports on the experience of the presenters in producing their video presentations and running the forums. It will highlight the valuable development opportunity for presenters as well as summarising their experiences. Finally it will outline the lessons we have learnt and propose some recommendations for others considering running online staff development conferences

National Association of Disabled Staff Networks (NADSN) – “Our Stories: Experiences from our Disabled Staff Networks across the UK”

The National Association of Disabled Staff Networks (NADSN) held a panel session at the National Association of Disability Practitioners (NAPD) 2015 annual conference to share experiences from Disabled Staff Networks across the UK. Interestingly, it was the only workshop at the event exploring disabled staff experiences and best practice, whilst all the others focused on services to and support for students (NADP, 2015). This article summarises and expands on the discussion, but is not intended to be a comprehensive guide to disabled staff networks

Part-Time Distance Learners’ Experiences Of Study Breaks

Part-time distance learners often have complex lives, and the challenge of fitting study around family and work commitments means many find their studies are disrupted by external events. At The Open University, UK, over 5000 students each year formally interrupt their study through 'assessment banking'. The Open University teaching model incorporates regular continuous assessment, so, assessment banking allows students to take a break mid-module, and return at the same point the following year, bringing with them any grades from assessment tasks already completed. Despite a clear intention to resume their studies, less than two thirds of assessment banking students recommence study in the following year. Of those who return, less than half go on to successfully complete their module. This raises the question of what brings about the discrepancy between intention and actuality? This paper reports on an initial study looking into the experiences of three students who did return to study after an assessment banking break, and what motivated them to do so. Semi-structured interviews were used to explore participant accounts of deciding to take a break, being on a break and subsequently returning to study. The key themes arising from this small scale study are around the difficulty of deciding to take a break, fluctuations in study motivation and issues of student identity in a part-time distance learning context. This research is part of a larger study looking to improve the university’s advice and guidance offered to students considering taking a formal interruption and develop a better understanding of how to support them to return to study

Student motivations and choices in a ‘pick and mix’ curriculum module at the Open University, UK

Making your Learning Count (YXM130) is an innovative new 30 credit undergraduate module at the Open University, UK. It allows students to tailor their own curriculum through selecting external learning resources for incorporation into a defined assessment framework. Students are supported to identify their interests and select appropriate external learning resources such as OERs and MOOCs to make up 150 hours of learning. This is complimented with 150 hours of generic skills-based module material and assessment which is common to all students regardless of their chosen discipline area. The ‘pick and mix’ module is designed to enable interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary study which supports students in developing cross-disciplinary thinking and approaches, as well as giving an opportunity to experience a range of discipline areas prior to committing to a specific degree pathway. This innovative module design allows every student to have a personalized learning experience tailored very precisely to their specific motivation and goals. This paper reports on an analysis of student declared study motivation and their planned choice of external content for inclusion in their individual learning. Consideration will be given to whether the students’ choice of learning resources is appropriate to support their stated aims, and if the intended promotion of interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary study has been achieved

The power of integrated spatial modelling: RailSmart Planning Wanneroo

The Planning and Transport Research Centre has just completed a major Smart Cities project entitled “RailSmart Planning Wanneroo”. The output was an interactive digital platform which tests optimal public transport patronage and employment creation potential of various railway station development options. The process of formulating the system was fascinating as this paper will argue that the concept of modelling intrinsic within the Smart Cities concept is a return to 1950’s procedural planning policies such as mixed method planning and a bounded rationality. The project highlighted the danger of entrenching existing patterns if systems are fully automated and argues that the power in the smart modelling should be limited to informing scenarios to best test alternatives. The power of the dashboard does not lie in the results it generates but rather in the patterns and trends it displays. The paper begins by describing the project and its outputs this is followed by a deeper reflection on how this was achieved procedurally. The process of creating this dashboard laid bare the dilemmas of planning where planners serve more than one client as they are working for a client in the public realm and within a political reality

‘Student on hold’: a poetic exploration into part-time distance learner experiences of deferral

At the Open University (UK) most students are part-time, fitting their studies around employment, family life and other commitments. Some students experience life events which prevent them from studying for a period of time. A deferral process allows students to pause studies and return on the following presentation of the module. Quantitative data shows fewer than two thirds of deferred students return by the end of the deferral period. This research is investigating why students do or do not resume their studies. This poster presents transcript poems (Faulkner, 2017) created from interviews with sixteen students who had taken a deferral from their undergraduate studies. Poetic inquiry gives authentic voice to the participants to create an emotionally rich portrayal of their lived experiences (Carr, 2003), and offers a new and different approach to visualisation of qualitative research data (Denzin, 2014). References Carr, J. M. (2003) Poetic expressions of vigilance, Qualitative Health Research, Vol 13, pp. 1324-1331. Denzin, N.K. (2014) Interpretive autoethnography. 2nd ed. Sage, Thousand Oaks, California. Faulkner, S. (2017) Poetic Inquiry. Craft, Method and Practice. 2nd ed. Routledge, Abingdon, UK

We want to be educated, but we have a life

This poster presents a collage produced whilst researching part-time distance students' experience of taking unplanned deferral from their undergraduate studies at The Open University. It has been argued the use of creative methods in analysis supports diverse questioning of data and promotes empathy with participants (Kara, 2020). I have found I am able to engage in greater critical analysis through applying creative techniques as it facilitates viewing the data in a variety of different ways. Creative methods support dissemination by can broadening audiences as outputs are often more accessible to non-academics than journal papers and research conferences (Leavy, 2020). Although presented here to an academic audience I plan to share the collage more widely as part of a collection of creative outputs

Poetic Insight into Student Motivation and Experience

Poetic inquiry is an approach which has been gaining popularity as a qualitative research method. This paper presents transcription poems (Miller, 2019) which have been generated using data from a project looking into student experiences of interrupted study. Sixteen mature undergraduate students studying part-time at a distance learning university were interviewed about their experiences of having a break from their studies. The resulting transcripts were indicative of emotional complexity around their attitudes to study, the situation which interrupted their studies and decisions to pause or resume. Such nuanced emotion can be lost when reporting the summaries of student situations whereas turning to poetry can (arguably) provide a more authentic representation. This paper seeks to demonstrate the power of poetic representation as an analytic means to portray student experiences. Using the exact words from interview transcripts gives authentic voice to the participants in portraying their lived experience allowing the reader or listener an embodied experience where they ‘feel with, rather than about a poem’ (Faulkner, 2020)