From the margins to the mainstream: The online learning rethink and its implications for enhancing student equity

From being largely at the margins of higher education for many years, online learning now finds itself in the mainstream. This paper offers a critique of the online learning literature both pre- and post-2020, looking at changes in response to this shift. Evidence tells us that online learning plays a significant role in enhancing student equity, widening higher education access and participation for many students who would have found it difficult, if not impossible, to attend university on campus. This includes students from government-identified equity backgrounds, as well as other student cohorts underrepresented at university, such as older working students, parents, and others with caring responsibilities, and those from families with no previous experience of university. The mainstreaming and normalising of online learning now presents an opportunity for universities to learn from both past and emerging evidence, to evaluate past practice and offer a more flexible learning experience that better meets the needs of an even wider range of students. Keeping online learning firmly in the mainstream, while taking an evidence-based approach to ensuring the quality of its design and delivery, has the potential to enhance student equity on a much broader scale.

Children's engagement in self-learning modules (SLMs) amid the pandemic: a predictive analysis on the role of internet access, household food security, and parental involvement to modular classes

This study examines essential factors that affect children' quality of response towards a non-traditional learning platform specifically, self-learning modules (SLMs) as Philippine public school's mode of service-learning delivery. Our objective is to determine the predictive power of access to internet, household food security, and parental involvement on the level of students' engagement in these modular classes amid the health crisis. Drawing online responses from parents of public-school students (n=359), our regression analysis confirms the viability of our model F(3,355) = 19.2, p<.001. While we found that food security and parental involvement are predictors of students' satisfactory engagement in their SLMs, internet access is not. Therefore, our model suggests that children with parents who take time to be involved in their studies and who reside in households with enough food are more likely to engage positively in their modular classes, whether or not the household has access to the internet.

From the margins to the mainstream: The online learning rethink and its implications for enhancing student equity

From being largely at the margins of higher education for many years, online learning now finds itself in the mainstream. This paper offers a critique of the online learning literature both pre-and post-2020, looking at changes in response to this shift. Evidence tells us that online learning plays a significant role in enhancing student equity, widening higher education access and participation for many students who would have found it difficult, if not impossible, to attend university on campus. This includes students from government -identified equity backgrounds, as well as other student cohorts underrepresented at university, such as older working students, parents, and others with caring responsibilities, and those from families with no previous experience of university. The mainstreaming and normalising of online learning now presents an opportunity for universities to learn from both past and emerging evidence, to evaluate past practice and offer a more flexible learning experience that better meets the needs of an even wider range of students. Keeping online learning firmly in the mainstream, while taking an evidence-based approach to ensuring the quality of its design and delivery, has the potential to enhance student equity on a much broader scale.Implications for practice or policy:center dot Improving the quality of online learning, using evidence-based research to design and deliver it more effectively, will enable more students to stay and succeed at university.center dot Continuing to offer online study options for all students, that is, keeping it in the mainstream, will further enhance student equity.center dot Mainstreaming online learning options as part of standard university practice will enable more students to benefit from the greater flexibility of both fully online and hybrid models.

Taking University to the Students: Forging Connections and Inclusion Through Regional University Centres (RUCs). A Practice Report

For regional students, going to university frequently involves moving away from important home, family and community connections to forge new connections in unfamiliar environments. This is a daunting prospect discouraging many from considering university as an option. But what if university could come to them, allowing them to stay where they feel most connected, whilst also becoming connected with other students and developing a sense of inclusion within university culture? Recent research with high school students in regional South Australia indicates that the combination of online delivery (increasingly mainstreamed due to COVID-19) and the growing presence of Regional University Centres (RUCs) may provide the opportunity for this to happen. This paper discusses these findings within the context of the challenges for regional students in moving away from their connections. It argues that, instead, important learning connections may be offered within their local communities through the collaboration between universities and RUCs. © The Author/s 2022.

A sense of belonging in Australian higher education: the significance of self-efficacy and the student-educator relationship

With recent massification policies and reforms, Australia’s widening participation agenda has been instrumental in increasing participation of marginalised students in higher education. This paper considers how a sense of belonging can be instilled in marginalised students, improving retention and success and ultimately widening participation in higher education. It is recognised that one of the most important contributors to student engagement is the educator. Unfortunately, in academia today, educators are increasingly time-poor for several reasons including the neo-liberal nature of higher education, the COVID-19 pandemic and an emergency move to remote teaching. This article applies Bandura’s concept of self-efficacy to highlight how, when nurtured effectively, the student-educator relationship can contribute to improving students’ self-efficacy and their sense of belonging. Self-efficacy has been shown to affect aspirations, behavioural choices, maintenance of effort and affective reactions (Bandura, 1997), all of which can contribute to, or inhibit, students’ academic success. Self-efficacy can be increased via four sources: mastery experiences, verbal persuasion, vicarious experiences, and emotional and physiological states (Bandura, 1997). Central to this discussion is the value of vicarious experiences as a conduit between the educator and student in developing a student’s self-efficacy. This article provides practical advice for educators so they may focus their efforts and build strong student relationships in the most effective manner. © 2022, University of Wollongong. All rights reserved.

Libraries, learning, and porous boundaries: Reimagining the library landscape and its inhabitants

Learning landscapes have experienced a seismic shift in the who, how, and what of their delivery. Typically this focusses on how academic colleagues deliver their subject content, but now more than ever it is critical for students to be confident and skilled in information literacy in its broadest sense, managing, sharing, and redeveloping current knowledge for a smaller, yet local world. Libraries and librarians must respond with renewed agility and reposition themselves as educators and enablers within porous learning environments. The move to digital library collections is now matched by a need for digital library spaces, services, and librarians. This chapter will explore how librarians need to reconsider their professional identities, relocate from physical to digital library environments, and reshape knowledge creation and exchange within and through porous boundaries. © 2021 David Baker and Lucy Ellis Published by Elsevier Ltd.

Kindness as a practice of Kittay's 'doulia' in higher education: caring for student carers during COVID-19 and beyond

Recognising dependency as a fundamental aspect of existence and activating Kittay's reciprocity principle, 'doulia', we investigate the impacts of COVID-19 on student carers at an Australian university, to what extent teaching staff care for student carers and which pedagogies and teaching practices aid student carers. Analysing the experiences of social science students shortly after the lockdown in 2020, we find that pedagogies of kindness and flexibility support student carers. We call on teaching staff to recognise students' inevitable dependencies and commit to pedagogies of kindness.

Voices from Southwark: Reflections on a collaborative music teaching project in London in the age of COVID-19

Situated in the context of current examinations of inequality and underrepresentation in music education in the United Kingdom, this article offers perspectives on a community music school and outreach initiative based in Southwark, London, where King's College London music students, mentored by an experienced local teacher, facilitate small group music-making for primary school children who would not otherwise have opportunities for collaborative performance. Due to COVID-19, the project shifted to fully online delivery, and later to a hybrid model, combining virtual and in-person interaction. Based on ethnographic research amongst pupils, parents, teaching assistants and coordinators, we invoke the collaborative ethos of the project and explore its social and affective impact on participants at a time of great challenge and change.

Creating Diversity in Tomorrow's Doctors: A Student Led, Widening Participation Outreach Programme.

Since its founding in 2017, InsideMed, an entirely voluntary medical student led innovation, has offered local London state school students a unique perspective exploring the application process and realities of a career in medicine. Our aim of promoting diversity and widening participation (WP) amongst future medical school applicants is reflected in the fact 80.2% of the students enrolled are from Black Asian and Minority Ethnic groups (BAME). Over an 18 month period, our students are invited to monthly seminars hosted at King's College London (KCL), where all things "medical school" are explored. Students are paired with current KCL medical student ambassadors and are grouped into 'Families'. Between sessions, students and ambassadors are facilitated to communicate freely, but safely through the online platform Brightside. Early establishment of our key stakeholders allowed us to anticipate how InsideMed would impact each in turn and, therefore, design our scheme to ensure maximal mutual benefit. Continual feedback and review ensures that we are constantly improving to meet the needs of our students. Feedback also allows us to identify how closely we have served our aims for each cohort; common themes which consistently arise include the creation of community, learning more about specifics of the medical application process, and building self-confidence and student independence. InsideMed has the unique quality of being designed by WP students and constantly updated to ensure the support provided best meets WP needs. This has fed into our tangible and impressive impact, whereby 7 out of 18 respondents from our 2017 cohort of students have been accepted into medical school. Going forward, we hope to expand our scope to include a wider catchment area and will continue online in the COVID era. We aim to create an expansive alumni community to inspire other students from comparable socioeconomic backgrounds that they too can have a career in medicine.

Widening the divide: the impact of school closures on primary science learning.

Prolonged Covid-19-related school closures in the UK raised concerns that science teaching and learning at primary level would be negatively impacted. This paper reports the findings of phase 1 of a study that the authors are conducting with teachers and parents to explore this issue. We found that a significant proportion of teachers were providing less science during lockdown than in the normal school week. Teachers, particularly those working in more deprived areas, reported that translating the science curriculum for home learning had been difficult, with concerns around resources, internet access and parental ability to help. Some areas of the curriculum posed particular difficulties, leading to a narrowing of topics being taught. Both teachers and parents felt that schools prioritised English and maths above science. Meanwhile some parents reported that their children had engaged in sophisticated extracurricular activities, bolstered by resources available at home and knowledgeable adult help, but others said that their children had done no science at all. Parents who had studied science at post-compulsory level were much more comfortable in helping their children with science home learning. These factors combine to create conditions which may exacerbate existing inequalities as to who can access science education and careers.

Are summer schools a way to improve recruitment in psychiatry?

Summer schools are traditionally used to encourage sixth form students to consider a career in medicine. Is it worth attracting students earlier in their school career, concentrating on psychiatry? Wyke et al describe an innovative project attempting to do just that.

Drastic times need drastic measures: COVID-19 and widening access to medicine.

In response to COVID-19, schools, colleges and universities across the world have closed or shifted to online/remote or blended teaching, learning and assessment. These changed ways of working pose challenges to students and will likely exacerbate existing educational attainment gaps between different societal groups. Our focus is the potential impact of COVID-19 on widening access to medicine. We provide an account of the process, in the form of comparative cases, of applying for medical school for two applicants from differing backgrounds. Three challenges were identified: family circumstances and support (financial security and parental educational support); staying connected (access to educational material, technology and Wifi); getting the grades and meeting other entry criteria (predicting grades and work experience). We propose that medical schools adopt drastic measures to protect widening access including increasing the use of aptitude tests, contextualised admissions, online multiple mini interviews (MMIs), creative outreach and promotion of alternative means of gaining relevant experience.