What Students Want? Exploring the Role of the Institution in Supporting Success Learning Journeys

1. What Students Want? Exploring the Role of the Institution in Supporting Success Learning Journeys Dawn Mannay – Cardiff University Ceri Wilcock – Open University Project – Open University Funding Body – HEA

2. Overview • Connected Wales • Contemporary Wales - a divided nation? • Anatomy of Educational Inequality • The Project • Context, Aims, Methods and Findings • Outcomes • Summary

3. Millennium Stadium

4. Wales’s Beautiful Game • Symbolic, internal source of unified Welsh expression • Powerfully unites a nation • Engenders a sense of national identity

5. Complex and Divided Land • Mackay (2010) argues, the distinctiveness of Wales, in terms of its political life and culture, has grown considerably over the last decade. Nevertheless, beneath the imagery of the definitive nation, Wales remains a complex and divided land

6. Divided Britain • National Equality Panels • An Anatomy of Economic Inequality in the UK (Hills et al 2010) • Demonstrated how inequalities in income and earnings in Britain are high; both temporally in relation to the position 30 years ago and geographically compared with other industrialised nations

7. Divided Wales • Between 1945 and 1980 the income differential between individuals in Wales narrowed- since 1980 the gap between rich and poor has widened (Evans 2010) • Increase in social and spatial polarisation • Divide through geographical distribution • ‘Los Angelization’ of socio-economic terrain demonstrated in the creation of new ghettos of prosperity and poverty

8. Anatomy of Economic Inequality in Wales 2011 • Applying educational lens illustrates significant gaps in attainment related to residence in and other indicators of relative poverty • Almost 40% of both males and females have no qualifications, compared to around 35% in Outer UK • GCSE attainment - pupils entitled to free school meals were found to be 2.5 times less likely to attain grades A-C • Those living in social housing were 10 times less likely to be a graduate compared to those in other types of accommodation

9. Aimhigher • Initiative set up in England to develop the educational progression and attainment of young people from disadvantaged backgrounds • Reaching Wider Initiative Partnerships – Wales • Evaluations of the programme have demonstrated some success in widening participation to higher education for young people from marginalised communities (Moore and Dunworth 2011)

10. Aimhigher? • The concept of ‘aiming higher’ can also be seen as problematic because the action of perceiving possibility places a responsibility on the individual to succeed; masking the structural constraints of class status, geography and the distribution of wealth • Entrance in itself does not expel the financial, cultural, social and psychological barriers (Reay et al 2010; Mannay 2013; Mannay and Morgan 2013)

11. What works? • ‘What works? Student retention and success’ offer strategies emphasising the importance of collaborative, student centred learning and teaching, which facilitates staff - student interaction and enables staff to have a better understanding of their students (Crosling et al 2008) • This approach can be seen as a move away from discourses of individual failure and a step towards an acknowledgement for the need for structural change within institutions

12. Project Context • Open University undergraduate, 30 credit module • ‘DD131 Introduction to the Social Sciences’ • Blended form of learning in that it supplies hard copy materials, written, visual and audio, and face-to-face tutorials alongside online activities, a discussion forum and Elluminate tutorials

13. Project Aims • As Kemmis (2006) contends, action research must be capable of ‘telling unwelcome truths’ • ‘What works approach’ • Working collaboratively • An appraisal of strengths and areas for improvement in current practice • Way of eliminating barriers to participation

14. Project Participants and Methods • Students from Communities First areas who had taken ‘DD131 Introduction to the Social Sciences’ • Problematic nature of access in distance learning – focus groups and visual methods proved impossible • Interviewed students about their subjective experience, face-to-face and on the telephone

15. Project Findings • The interviews raised a number of themes but in this presentation we specifically focus on forms on interactive online provision; as these have been presented as a way of eliminating barriers to participation

16. Student Home • ‘Studenthome was really easy to navigate’

17. The Forum – Virtual Support • ‘I made friend through the Open University buddy system by talking to people on the Forum’ • ‘If you have a Forum you can say ‘what does that word mean?’ and your tutor or other students will post up an answer and you are not so isolated’

18. The Forum – Access Denied • ‘it was really difficult and I couldn’t get on. I phoned the computer helpline and still couldn’t get on’

19. Facebook – Friend or Foe • Facebook presents some difficulties for the Open University • Cannot be moderated in the same way as the Forum • Misinformation • Competiveness • Associate Lecturer resistance

20. Facebook – a source of support? • ‘Facebook groups really helped me to get through the assignments, I felt as though I was struggling and I was the only one; but the Facebook group reassured me that I wasn’t the only one and other people were having the same problems. Facebook helped me to get through the course’

21. Elluminate • Elluminate presented the greatest difficulties to students • Sometimes overcome with technical support but in other cases students were unable to access this provision • As Elluminate was developed to make tutorials accessible to all students and overcome barriers such as transport, child care and disability, this is problematic

22. Project Outcomes • Before you start’ leaflet for students that tutors can send as part of their initial welcome message • Offers advice to negate the particular problems reported with online forums and Elluminate • Offers a balanced overview of Facebook social networking opportunities • Project has been instrumental in informing and delivering staff development sessions for tutors and findings have been disseminated to the Open University Students’ Association and key internal stakeholders, such as the Open University in Wales’ Teaching and Learning Group and the Open University in Wales’ Directorate Team

23. Summary • Overall, this research has drawn directly from the experiences of students and highlighted a number of difficulties that need to be addressed not at the level of the individual but by the delivering institution • A number of initiatives are in development with Student Support in the Open University in Wales; which will assist not only students residing in Communities First areas but all future students entering the social sciences

24. References • Davies, R., Drinkwater, S., Joll, C., Jones, M., Lloyd-Williams, H., Makepeace, J., Parhi, M., Parken, A., Robinson, C., Taylor, C. and Wass, V. (2011) Anatomy of Economic Inequality in Wales, Wales Institute of Social and Economic Research Data and Methods, Research Report Series WISERD/RSS/002. • Evans, N. (2010) ‘Class’in Mackay, H. (ed) Understanding Contemporary Wales, Milton Keynes, The Open University, pp. 125-158. • Hills, J., Brewer, M., Jenkins, S., Lister, R., Lupton, R., Machin, S., Mills, C., Modood,T., Reese, T. and Riddell, S. (2010) An anatomy of economic inequality in the UK: Report of the National Equality Panel, London: Government Equalities Office. • Kemmis, S. (2006) Participatory action research and the public sphere, Educational Action Research, 14 (4):459–76. • Mannay, D. (2013) ‘Keeping close and spoiling’ revisited: exploring the significance of ‘home’ for family relationships and educational trajectories in a marginalised estate in urban south Wales. Gender and Education, 25 (1): 91-107. • Mannay, D. and Morgan, M. (2013) Anatomies of inequality: Considering the emotional cost of aiming higher for marginalised, mature mothers re-entering education. Journal of Adult and Continuing Education, 19 (1):57-75. • Mannay, D. and O’Connell, C. (2013) Accessing the academy: developing strategies to engage and retain marginalised young people on successful educational pathways. Socialinė Teorija, Empirija, Politika ir Praktika - Social Theory, Empirics, Policy and Practice, 7: 133-140 • Mackay, H. (2010) ‘Rugby – an introduction to contemporary Wales’ in Mackay, H. (ed) Understanding Contemporary Wales, Milton Keynes, The Open University, pp.1-24. • Moore, J. and Dunworth, F. 2011. Review of evidence from Aimhigher Area Partnerships of the impact of Aimhigher. Manchester: Aim Higher Research Network. • Reay, D, Crozier, G and Clayton, J. 2010. "Fitting in" or "standing out': working-class students in UK higher education. British Educational Research Journal 32 (1), pp. 1-19. • Thomas, L. and Jamieson-Ball, C. 2011. Engaging students to improve student retention and success in higher education in Wales. York: Higher Education Academy.