Welcome. The project centres on six fictitious students who partake in an imaginary online university course. Each comes from a different background or has different skills and disabilities. We track their progress through the different stages of an entirely online and virtual university course, making notes as to their progress and setbacks along the way, in order to determine whether different types of students can be substantially disadvantaged in a course, both in avoidable (i.e. University error) and inavoidable (i.e. the internet is not suitable for this person's academic needs) ways.
From this page you have two options: firstly, follow the page of each student through the different stages of their course; or look at each stage individually, and find out how all the students responded. Both parts display the same information, organised in different ways.
This student has had bad experiences with the internet in the past, and is sceptical of virtual learning environments. However, to pursue the subject she was interested in, this virtual course was the only real option.
This student has difficulty reading medium to long pieces of text due to mild dyslexia. As a result, in the past she has shied away from literature and arts courses even though she is most interested in this field.
This student originates from Italy, and English is her second language. Her course doesn't have fluent English as a requirement, but she has difficulty with more complicated sentence structures and words.
This student is blind and uses a screen reader in conjunction with a braille display. This means everything on screen is read out to him by the computer, and he enters input by pressing on braille keys rather than a conventional keyboard.
This student applied for the course from the UK, but has moved to the United States due to family circumstances. Discussions with the University and the online nature of the course have allowed her to pursue the course internationally.
This student comes from a low-income family, and was attracted to University by the increase in widening access programmes. He performed above expectations at school but does not own a computer and as such has had little interaction with the internet and virtual environments. He has been accepted onto the online course but cannot afford to buy a computer.
Before the student has enrolled on a course, they must choose their university, and their course within that institution. At this stage the student is unknown to the institution unless the student makes contact.
This is typically the first interaction with the institution, although an intermediary such as UCAS may be the first line of support. It is assumed that applications can be made online and offline.
Fresher's week (though it may be possible to enter the environment long before this) and the first week of term, traditionally a time of meeting people and adjusting to the environment. While there is no physical moving into residences, there is a move into virtuality.
The course runs for one semester. It is critical that students do not fall too far behind one another due to technical or social difficulties as well as academic ability.
The student experience: their impression of the course, the medium, and the support mechanisms with respect to their individual situation.
An objective analysis of how far ahead/behind different students are in comparison to the rest of the class. Actual refers to completion of the course objectives, while relative shows how close this accomplishment is to the average of the class. Students were given a 'setback' level between 0 and -3 for each the three course related stages, and totalled to predict the impact that difficulties had on their progress through the course. As the students are ficticious, this was of course unscientific and not statistically valid, but it shows which types of students may require particular attention. (for each stage - not the total setback level - 0 = no disadvantage; 1 = slight disadvantage; severe disadvantage; 3 = course was effectively inaccessible)
An overview of the major problems and disparities, and what could be done to resolve them in future years.