{"id":1405,"date":"2024-05-01T09:00:03","date_gmt":"2024-05-01T09:00:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/english\/?p=1405"},"modified":"2025-01-23T11:16:04","modified_gmt":"2025-01-23T11:16:04","slug":"can-an-online-safe-space-also-be-an-accessible-one","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/english\/can-an-online-safe-space-also-be-an-accessible-one\/","title":{"rendered":"Can an online \u2018safe space\u2019 also be an accessible one?"},"content":{"rendered":"
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English and Creative Writing Staff Tutor Natalie Lewis<\/a> has been working with colleagues Lania Knight<\/a>, D\u00f3nall Mac Cathmhaoill<\/a> and Emma Claire Sweeney<\/a> to explore staff and student attitudes towards the recording of online Creative Writing tutorials. They wanted to determine whether recordings can increase access to tuition without harming the safe spaces students need to develop their creativity. <\/span><\/strong><\/em><\/h3>\n

We caught up with them to discover what they\u2019ve learnt.\u00a0<\/span><\/strong><\/em><\/h3>\n

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Tell us a bit more about your project.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Prior to the 2022\/23 academic year, undergraduate Creative Writing modules had opted out of the university\u2019s recording of online tutorials policy<\/a>. We\u2019d made this decision because we wanted to protect students from potential feelings of vulnerability and inhibition in tutorials that involve sharing personal work.<\/p>\n

However, the OU student body<\/a> includes 70% of students working full or part-time and over 37,000 students with a declared disability. Attending live-streamed tutorials can for many, therefore, be a challenge in itself. We began to ask whether there might be benefits to providing recordings of tutorials, which could be accessed both by those students who\u2019d attended the live-stream and those who\u2019d not been able to make it.<\/p>\n

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What was your motivation for doing this project? <\/strong><\/p>\n

Creative Writing Lecturers and Staff Tutors had the OU\u2019s strong commitment to accessibility<\/a> in mind when designing the project. There are many ways in which tutorial recordings can enhance accessibility for those with disabilities, such as providing opportunities to stop and start recordings, to watch at a faster or slower speed, and to remove the need for notetaking in a live setting. Similarly, for those studying alongside work, family, and caring commitments, recordings can mean the difference between accessing tuition and missing out altogether. As Jilly MacKay says in her 2020 article You should record your teaching<\/strong>, the practice of \u2018mainstreaming accessibility\u2019 can benefit everyone.<\/p>\n

On the other hand, there is a concern that student anxiety could be heightened by being in a recorded environment. This could lead to reduced participation or, worse, non-attendance.<\/p>\n

In a practice-based discipline such as Creative Writing, students can benefit from a low-stakes environment where they can experiment with voice, style, structure, and character development. And there\u2019s strong evidence to suggest that anxiety (including social<\/a>\u00a0and creativity anxiety<\/a>) affects a significant proportion of the population.\u00a0 The Mental Health Foundation report on anxiety<\/a> in the UK in 2023, for example, found that one in five people (20%) are anxious most or all of the time. So, making evidence-based decisions about tutorial recordings is crucial to the student experience.<\/p>\n

What were the key things you learnt from it? <\/strong><\/p>\n