Day 1: Tuesday 15 June 2021, 11.15 – 13.20

1. How COVID- 19 Impacted Learning Experiences and the Development of Further Research: Meaningful Student Engagement in an Online Environment
2. Student support networks during lockdown
3. The use of an online emotion awareness and regulation instrument in two university courses during the COVID-19 pandemic
4. OpenTEL: what are the lessons learnt from the pandemic?

 

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How COVID- 19 Impacted Learning Experiences and the Development of Further Research: Meaningful Student Engagement in an Online Environment 

Emily Coughlan 

As part of the Open and Inclusive Special Interest Group (O&I SIG) at the Open University (OU), the team held the first online student voice event. Attended by over 40 participants, it was extremely successful with insightful and enriching discussions amongst staff and students. The event included three interactive workshops. The main findings from the workshop: How COVID-19 Impacted Learning Experiences Students explained the difficulties they experienced during the pandemic including: trying to fit in study and looking after their family. Students described that they were shielding, that had a huge impact on them, students missed interaction with staff and students on a face-to-face basis. Significant issues noted by students were the cancellation of EMA’s and the protocol for standardisation of marks and grades. Some felt this may have had a negative impact on their results and felt frustrated with this decision by the OU. Students explained that they had been told to defer as a go to option when asking for support, which for some, was less than satisfying and not the response they were hoping for.
Students discussed the nature of the everchanging environment, although it was frustrating, applauded the OU for its management of the situation. The online support pages were described as extremely useful and easily navigable. Overall, students expressed great satisfaction in student support including support put in place by the Student’s Association, Tutor Support, and the Ethics Committee. Students expressed how useful the event was and how inclusive the online approach was, with further suggestions on making it even more inclusive which will be explored for future events.
It is of paramount importance to nurture this community and develop further opportunities for such engagement, perhaps looking for links between nations and engaging the community with specific interests with the aim of continuing the discussions. Further research is now in scoping stages to explore and identify phenomena in online student voice activities across different departments in the OU. It will explore staff and students’ perceptions of online student voice activities. The quality, accessibility, engagement, and impact of the online student voice activity will be investigated.

 

Student support networks during lockdown

Victoria Murphy, Jo Buxton and Natalie Tegama

This project explores how OU students used their networks for emotional and academic support during the COVID-19 related lockdown, focusing on what role the OU played in those networks. The project used mixed-methods social network analysis to compare the experiences of students. Initially, students were asked to complete a network map of both their academic and emotional support during lockdown. The students were then interviewed, using their network map as a prompt to discuss their experiences. Network analysis was used to visualise the networks of students and calculate descriptive statistics. Thematic analysis was used to highlight themes that spanned multiple students’ experiences. In addition to gathering data on the student perspective, the project held focus groups with STEM ALs and OUSA.
Results show that students drew on OU contacts for academic support in several ways during lockdown. While the way that lockdown affected students varied greatly, ALs were mentioned by many participants as key forms of support. The student support team and discussion forums were also mentioned as ways in which students reached out when they had questions. During the focus group, OUSA members noted how proactive they had needed to be on discussion forums as students searched for information on the OU’s current policies. Conversely, the OU initially appeared to play a minimal role in emotional support. However, the AL and OUSA focus groups highlighted the closely interrelated nature of academic and emotional support.
The results of this project show the important role that ALs played in providing both academic and emotional support. A common theme across interviews and focus groups was the need for clear, consistent, and transparent communications from the university to all parties. Discussion forums and social media are increasingly becoming avenues that students turn to for information during times of turmoil. The Open University benefited during lockdown from having a large group of dedicated ALs, but also from having active members of the community clarifying questions, such as OUSA. Higher educational institutes should create communication plans in preparation for future unexpected events.

 

The use of an online emotion awareness and regulation instrument in two university courses during the COVID-19 pandemic

Jake Hilliard, Felicity Sedgewick, Antonia Lythgoe, Charlotte Flothmann and Trang Tran

This study aimed to explore the use of an online emotion awareness and regulation instrument in two university courses that had transitioned to online learning during the COVID-19 pandemic. In addition to collecting data about students’ emotions and emotion regulation whilst studying online, this study also investigated the value and usefulness of the instrument for both students and academic teaching staff. Undergraduate students from the University of Bristol’s School of Education completed a weekly emotion awareness and regulation instrument on five occasions. Data from the instrument was also summarised and provided to academic teaching staff at three separate time points (after week 1, 3, and 5). After the 5-week period, an online survey was completed by both students and academic teaching staff to assess their perspectives of either: completing the instrument (students); or receiving the summarised data about students emotions and emotion regulation (academic teaching staff). Findings revealed that: a) students experienced a range of pleasant and unpleasant emotions whilst studying online (feeling anxious, overwhelmed, and supported were most reported emotions); b) the course itself and the teaching staff were prominent sources of pleasant emotions, whilst the course and learning context were the main causes of unpleasant emotions; c) students planned to use a range of strategies to regulate their emotions, with ‘thinking positively’, ‘talking to other students on the course’, and ‘creating a good plan’ being most selected; and d) students’ awareness of their own emotions and tutors’ awareness of students’ emotions was enhanced by completing the instrument or viewing the summarised data, respectively. This presentation will discuss these key findings and highlight important implications for educators.

 

OpenTEL: what are the lessons learnt from the pandemic?

Victoria Murphy, Eileen Scanlon, Francisco Iniesto and Shi Min Chua

The move to introduce technology enhanced learning (TEL) is a trend that has been observed for decades. Following the disruption arising from Covid-19 pandemic, there has been a move to remote teaching in universities across the world. This move has generated put the transformation or digital revolution in the limelight in the media.TEL is of strategic importance to the conduct of teaching, learning and research in education internationally. TEL when combined with the growing benefits of open approaches to education leads to a potentially transformational means of learning. In this paper the authors introduce some examples of research projects from the Open University’s OpenTEL research grouping. These examples highlight some of the work conducted relating to lifelong learning, open education, and science education supported by TEL during the pandemic. OpenTEL research has identified that Covid-19 has exposed the need to better provide institutional support for students who are facing stress and disruption in their studies; experiences of collaboration among higher educational institutions to share knowledge and experiences to better engage in the online pivot, and the possibilities (and limitations) for online tools to maintain existing research communities.