Kingston University London

1
Kingston University London

• Mature students, e-learning ande-mentoringoutco
  mes from an FE-HE partnership
• Palitha Edirisingha, Mike Hill, Celayne
  Heaton-Shrestha
• ALT Conference Sept 2005

2
The research question

• How could a VLE-based course support and
  mentoring system help mature students to prepare
  for learning at HE?
• awareness of HE and its culture
• HE application process
• development as effective and confident learners

3
Rationale and theoretical background

• Widening participation in HE
• Progression to HE from a background without HE
  experience
• - forms of cultural and social capital
• - information required - more complex
• Retention and completion issues
• - institutional habitus vs persons habitus

4
The collaborative initiative

• Access programmes from 7 FE Colleges (Nursing,
  IT, Teacher training and Humanities)
• 326 students, 11 staff and 16 KU undergraduates
  (e-mentors)
• Encouraged the Access staff to introduce a VLE
  presence within their Access programme
• Supported the staff in introducing the VLE
  presence to students
• Encouraged the use of e-mentors (KU
  undergraduates) within the VLE presence
• Research

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Access to the context Colleges VLE modules

• - Meeting students
• Background Q.
• Mentors

Monitoring the VLE, VLE usage statistics, visits
to Colleges
Interviewing College staff
Students group interviews developingEvaluation
Q.
Evaluation Questionnaire
Students individual interviews
FocusGroups
6
Data analysis
Quantitative data descriptive analysis
Qualitative data transcribed, Nvivo VLE
content and tools contextual descriptions
VLE usage weekly statistics trends and
patterns,charts
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Learner profile age n269
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Learner profile family HE backgroundn269
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HE awareness (initial)
. I just thought Id come back to College and
see where that leads me. When I first started the
course I didnt actually think Id go on to
university, I just didnt think Id get that far.
I just thought I come back and see yeah, I
think a lot of people were surprised you know, a
lot of people didnt even think theyd finish the
Access course let alone be applying for
university places (Frankie).

• Im just getting nervous now, very nervous. . I
  just want to know whats going to be expected
  what your average day will be, you know, all of
  that . (Cathy).

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HE awareness

• Levels of workload
• Now tell me how hard or easy is it at
  university, how much studying do you do , what
  hospital did you go to for your first placement?
  (College A student posting)
• Nature of coursework, assignments and assessment
• It did actually put my mind at rest yeah,
  cause when I heard that the first assignment was
  only a thousand words I thought that weve done
  that, weve done like three-thousand words, .
  It didnt feel so bad. (Frankie).
• Coping with demands of work, family and study
• They (the e mentors) have put us in the picture
  of how the university operates and how you can
  arrange organise yourself while you are a student
  as well as a parent (Delia).
• Fitting in with younger students
• Im a mature student too, and would like to
  know what its like being a wee bit older at
  university. (College A student posting)

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HE application process

• what I found really really difficult about
  the whole thing about choosing universities was
  you were at college, say, at the end of September
  then come December the 15th your UCAS form has to
  be in and its like, well, you have to make a
  decision in about six weeks thats going to
  affect the rest of your life. that I found
  really, really difficult. Its really hard to
  sort of get your head around . I found a bit
  daunting. . Yeah, I was really surprised
  actually when I found out that you start and then
  next thing, you are doing personal statements.
  (Jane).

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HE application process

• Information about different university entry
  requirements and admissions criteria
• I am a little concerned that I dont have any
  relevant experience yet (as I am still waiting
  for a youth work job to start). Do you have any
  ideas of ways round this at interview?
• Advice on the interview process
• They really helped us a lot in that because so
  many of us asked them how are we going to
  approach the interviews because it was really
  worrying us
• By the time the interviews came we were
  confident that we are going to do it, we were
  prepared

13
HE application process

• Student-specific issues
• Tom had quite a lot of dialogue with the
  mentor, and that helped him so much, because
  Tom is quite severely dyslexic, and he had a lot
  of issues he asked the mentor, How can I tell
  my intended university that I need dyslexia
  support? And hes done that, and the university
  that hes going to has given him lots of support
  already for that, so thats quite good, so by him
  taking the bull by the horns and asking, thats
  helped for next year. (College D tutor).

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Becoming effective and confident learners

• Individual cases
• There is one particular person who I felt might
  have difficulty fitting into the group, he
  loves Blackboard, and through that he is now
  talking, and he will come and say havent you
  seen it? or Didnt you know it is on
  Blackboard... It is under this, it is under
  that. So for him, it has made him feel a lot
  less anxious, and he is achieving his levels, so
  therefore, the rest of the class are now looking
  up to him, he knows what is going on, he is
  tuned in, he gets all the messages. (College A
  tutor).

There was one particular student I remember ,
who didnt say much in the classroom, but had
quite forthright views, erm, through the
discussion board, which I think is good.
(College D tutor).
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Becoming effective and confident learners

• Improvement in tackling academic tasks
• The people using Blackboard, it shows in their
  assignments and the informations there. . you
  can tell somebody who hasnt even looked at it
  . So yeah I think it is working. A bit of impact
  on lots of students. (College B tutor).
• Increased confidence in using VLE
• They are feeling more confident, they are more
  able to communicate, they do feel more able to
  use it as a tool, they do think it will be
  advantageous when they get to university, .
  (College B tutor).
• The more I go about it the more confidence I get
  from it because I have been there about four
  times now. I now know where to go and where to
  start from. Its not like I am blind anymore. It
  has been very helpful. (Delia).

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VLE as a means of creating/fostering social
capital

• Learners- disadvantaged in terms of family
  cultural capital, limited social capital
• University undergraduates- sources of knowledge
  experience on HE- uncodified /
  uninstitutionalised form of cultural capital-
  hot knowledge
• VLE-based approaches- as means of creating a
  form of social capital to compensate for the
  limited family cultural capital- can it address
  the issue of the gap between persons habitus and
  institutional habitus?

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Outcomes for the teaching-learning environment
Communication new interactions
Extra resourcesfor learning andstudying
Organisationaltools
FE-HEprogressionpartnerships
Staff developmentin relation to ICT
New pedagogicalapproaches
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Contrasting approaches
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Engaging with a VLE - issues, barriers success
factors
Access tonetworkedcomputers Technical
issuesand abilities
Students characteristics Coursecharacteristics
Existingcurriculumarrangements Staff
perception of and approach to using VLE Staff
approach tointroducing VLE
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How each college structured the use of the VLE
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Contact information
Palitha Edirisingha Senior Research Fellow Tel
44 (0) 20 8547 7790 Fax [phone]
7789 Email p.edirisingha_at_kingston.ac.uk
Mike Hill Associate Head ADC (Widening
Participation) Tel [phone] Fax 44
(0) 20 8547 7789 Email m.hill_at_kingston.ac.uk
Academic Development Centre Kingston
University Millennium House, 21 Eden
Street Kingston Upon Thames KT1 1BL