How digital and physical spaces can聽affect digital accessibility for learners
The Covid-19 pandemic has highlighted gaps in student accessibility, warn experts from the to the . But the forced re-evaluation of university spaces can provide new opportunities for inclusivity, too.
At a roundtable discussion held in partnership between聽探花视频聽and Adobe, university representatives from across the UK and Ireland met to discuss these challenges and the solutions they had found.
Opening the session, Mark Andrews, a pedagogical evangelist at Adobe, noted that having a digitally literate workforce has become dramatically more important to organisations. Digital literacy, Andrews said, is 鈥渁bout mastering ideas, utilising technology to create something new鈥. The ability to think creatively will be increasingly valuable for graduates entering the workplace in the future.
Having the right digital tools in place to encourage creativity was crucial for 鈥渞esilient pedagogy鈥, Andrews said. Adobe鈥檚 Creative Cloud, for example, allows students to 鈥渃reate artefacts that help to communicate their learning鈥, as well as helping 鈥渇uture-proof their learning behaviours鈥 by encouraging students to develop as independent, active learners.
Emily Mcintosh, director of learning, teaching and student experience at Middlesex University, said that despite the challenges presented by Covid-19, the emergency shift to remote learning provided a unique learning opportunity: 鈥淚've been really inspired by some of the creativity I've seen over the last 12 months 鈥 our students are starting to use tools that perhaps they wouldn't have done before.鈥
Julie McLeod, pro vice-chancellor (learning and teaching) at Birmingham City University, agreed that placing all learning content online 鈥渕assively increased the ability of our learners to engage鈥.
A new challenge her institution had been working to address, she added, was building students鈥 employability skills remotely. A 鈥360-degree CV鈥 workshop programme helped prepare students to gain employment in today鈥檚 climate, teaching them, for example, how to succeed in video-based interviews and to avoid common mistakes, for instance, 鈥渒eeping eyes to the cameras and not to your own box鈥.
Middlesex University, meanwhile, established a 鈥渄igital buddy scheme鈥 whereby current students were trained on digital platforms by experts and then partnered with teaching staff. Seeing students and academics learning alongside each other was 鈥渁 triumph鈥, said Mcintosh. It helped 鈥渆stablish a sense of belonging and confidence [among] students鈥, she added.
The changing purpose of physical spaces was another major thread of conversation during the session. A number of institutions have used the pandemic to re-evaluate the requirements of their libraries. At Liverpool John Moores University, a new, book-free library building was completed this year. It was designed to 鈥渟upport the digital agenda鈥 first, said Heather Thrift, director of library services at the university.
Analysis of which students used library spaces during the months they were open last year found that more than half came under the umbrella of widening participation needs, highlighting a different kind of accessibility gap, Thrift said: 鈥淲hen we talk about digital poverty, we are not necessarily talking about access to technology鈥iving students a laptop is the easy thing to resolve, but access to decent broadband or to a space to learn in鈥hat [addresses] real digital poverty.鈥
David FitzPatrick, president of Technological University Dublin, agreed that 鈥渢he majority of library users are people coming from socio-economic difficulties and who typically would have been under the radar鈥.聽
Additionally, Covid 鈥渞eally exposed the digital deficit鈥 among academic staff, FitzPatrick said, which 鈥渃reates huge demands in our training and development and the availability of appropriate technologies鈥. New spaces, therefore, 鈥渉ave to be configurable for the learning community but also for academics to put in place their pedagogical approaches as effectively as possible鈥, he said.
Wyn Morgan, former vice-president for education at the University of Sheffield, noted the way staff have adapted to new technologies: 鈥淲e鈥檝e seen a remarkable shift in use of tools 鈥 enterprise tools and more bespoke tools that were always available but were just somehow not part of the armoury for many of my colleagues.鈥
Encouraging 鈥渄igital curiosity鈥 was key to creating a positive remote learning environment, Thrift suggested. 鈥淔or too long we have assumed students are tech-savvy鈥ut they need the space to be curious about how technology can impact their learning, and how that enhancement of their learning can then translate into the workplace,鈥 she said.
Moving beyond the pandemic, the panel concluded that strategic thinking and planning will be required in order to ensure physical learning spaces are not only used effectively but are also made inclusive and accessible to all. Incorporating the right digital tools within teaching and learning practices can keep learning practices flexible on and away from campus 鈥 and ultimately build up confidence among graduates as they enter the workplace.
The panel:
- Mark Andrews, pedagogical evangelist, Adobe
- David FitzPatrick, president, Technological University Dublin
- Anastasia Konstantopoulou, dean of teaching and learning, Edge Hill University
- Nona McDuff, pro vice-chancellor of students and teaching, Solent University, Southampton
- Emily Mcintosh, director of learning, teaching and student experience, Middlesex University
- Julie Mcleod, pro vice-chancellor聽for learning and teaching, Birmingham City University
- Wyn Morgan, former vice-president for education, the University of Sheffield聽
- Nick Petford, vice-chancellor, the University of Northampton
- Heather Thrift, director of library services, Liverpool John Moores University
- Andrew Turner,聽associate pro vice-chancellor for teaching and learning, Coventry University
- Ashton Wenborn, special projects deputy editor,聽探花视频聽(肠丑补颈谤)听
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