How does recording affect Creative Writing tutorials: a first-year review

Since the introduction of the Group Tuition Policy (GTP) and then the tutorial recording policy around 2016, Creative Writing (CW) Module Teams (MTs) have requested an exemption from recording online tutorials on the assumption that:

• the subject matter of CW tutorials is inappropriate for recording as writing exercises can focus on personal experiences
• the interactive nature of CW tutorials makes them unsuitable for recording
• recording tutorials will adversely affect students’ ability to build trust and a sense of community within their tutor group, which is essential for the success of workshopping their creative writing in forums (an activity which is linked to assessment since 22J)
• students will avoid attending recorded tutorials due to feelings of vulnerability

In previous years, MTs have requested (and been granted) exemptions from the recording policy, and have provided pre-recorded Learning Event Summaries in place of recorded tutorials. However, A215 Creative Writing was relaunched in 22J using recorded tutorials. The aim of this project is to undertake a robust review of that decision to ascertain whether the above assumptions are wholly or partially correct. The project findings will feed into the review of the first year of the module and inform the tuition strategy for the remake of A363 Advanced Creative Writing, which is due to have its first presentation in 24J.

The research questions which will be explored in this project are:

• What are ALs’ experiences of tutorials which they are required to record (both tutor group and cluster tutorials)?
• What are students’ experiences of attending and accessing recorded tutorials?
• In terms of accessibility, will recorded tutorials allow some students to access tuition who would otherwise have found a barrier in their way or is the recording a barrier for some students?
• What is a good balance of recorded/ not recorded sessions to allow the most students to access tuition?
• How do the numbers of students registering for recorded versus non-recorded cluster tutorials compare?
• How many students access tutorial recordings as a percentage of the students on the module?
• How do the numbers of A215 students attending recorded tutorials, and accessing tutorial recordings, compare with other modules? Specifically, A111 and A112, which both have a CW element, but also comparable Level 2 English Literature modules, such as A230 and A233.
• How many students accessed the Learning Event Summaries from previous presentations of A215 and A363 (if data is available)?

The aims of this project are relevant within a wider OU context, which can be explored further in a literature review. Some brief examples include: Increased emphasis on online tutorials The number of Arts and Humanities online tutorials increased by 75% in the three years following the GTP implementation, between 17J and 19J (Mackie et. al., 2021, p.5). In addition, COVID-19 resulted in all face-to-face learning events being transferred online, and at peak times during 2020-2021, the OU had up to 7000 concurrent users in Online Rooms, making it a core learning environment for OU students.

Student anxiety and mental health - Janet Hunter’s research into student anxiety found that, within the group surveyed, half of those who declined to attend online tutorials did so because they felt uncomfortable. Of those who attended an online tutorial, 22% felt either significant or moderate anxiety in doing so. Amongst this group, anxiety stemmed from not knowing what to expect (43%) and not understanding the technical aspects of using Online Rooms (31%) (2021, pp.3-4). This project will explore whether recording tutorials contributes to this anxiety.

Accessibility and inclusivity - As stated on the OU’s Securing Greater Accessibility (SeGA) website, inclusivity is fundamental to the OU’s mission. As such, the OU is committed to making its teaching and learning accessible to disabled students. Specifically, in relation to principle 2 of the Student Charter, we aim to ‘take advantage of new technologies which enable people to learn in a way that meets their needs, from providing a flexible method of learning that fits with students’ lives and commitments to helping overcome barriers to study[…]’. This project will explore the extent to which the recording of CW tutorials acts as a barrier and/or an enabler for certain students. The project could have relevance across other OU Arts and Humanities disciplines given the intention to use student behaviour on Level 1 and Level 2 English Literature modules as a control group or point of comparison. Additionally, the project findings could have implications across the HE sector as, increasingly, other HE institutions and educational organisations (such as Scottish Union Learning) are providing online CW tuition.

The following FASSTEST funded projects will also be taken into consideration during a full literature review:

Katy Smith & Donna Smith(2021) Tuition attendance and students with mental health disability: does widening tuition options increase access?, Open Learning: The Journal of Open, Distance and e-Learning, DOI: 1080/02680513.2021.1999801

Trevor Fear, Naoko Yamagata, Cora Beth Fraser (2022) The Relaxed Tutorial Project

References:

Hunter, J. (2021) Understanding how anxiety affects participation in online tutorials.

Mackie, R., Padley, S., Sharman, M., Shepherd, J., Simmonds, L. and Voigt, A. (2021) Investigating tuition attendance in Arts & Humanities: stage 2. Securing Greater Accessibility (SeGA): https://openuniv.sharepoint.com/sites/units/iet/iet-sega/SitePages/OU.aspx