Preparing for success: understanding the impact of Y032 on WELS students
Currently presented three times per year, Y032 is a 30-week Level 0 Access module registering, since 2013, around 25K students. It is a voluntary preparatory module attracting the highest proportion of students with backgrounds associated with Widening Participation characteristics in the OU, particularly those with low prior entry qualifications and with low socio-economic status (IMD quintile 1). Successful Y032 students have progressed onto a range of WELS modules including in ECYS: E109; E100; E102; E119; E103; E117; K102; in HSWC: K113; K118. (Students from Y031, which contains some languages content, have progressed in smaller numbers to LAL UG modules including: LXT191; L185; L101; L161; LB170).
Scholarship has previously been undertaken on the impact of the STEM Access module (Y033) on learners progressing to S111 (Butcher et al, 2020, 2018, 2017) and on the impact of the Arts and languages Access module on learners progressing to A111 (Butcher & Clarke, 2022, 2021). As Y032 has by far the highest student numbers, and is presented for the last time in 23E, we are keen to understand the elements of Y032 which contribute most to progression and subsequent success.
We will explore perceptions and experiences of past Y032 students through their reflections on the impact of the Access module on their learning journey through WELS qualifications. We intend to align/validate those perspectives with perceptions of Y032 tutors experienced in teaching WELS modules at Levels 1, 2 & 3.
Findings will inform current University priorities around student outcomes and Principle 4 in the Teaching and Learning Plan, as well as providing insights to help WELS recruit more students from disadvantaged backgrounds into Level 1.
Externally, the OfS are exerting pressure on the OU with a heightened focus on student outcomes, especially in relation to attrition/withdrawal, continuation and success on qualifications. Strategically, recent WELS PQR action plans have focused on retention so findings from this proposal will be highly relevant to UG qualifications in ECYS, HSCW and, to a lesser extent LAL. At a Programme level, the recent Access PQR identified scholarship as a strength in developing Level 0 modules and recommended we disseminate our findings more thoroughly around the University to enhance the learning of students from disadvantaged backgrounds at Level 1 and beyond.
Y032 attracts the ‘most-disadvantaged’ cohort of learners across the Access Programme, and a significantly more disadvantaged cohort than WELS UG qualifications. This scholarship proposal is designed to align with Institutional (Student Outcomes/B3), Faculty (retention, progression and success), Programme (Progression and success) and nations (funded Y032 projects in Ireland and Wales with the most disadvantaged learners) contexts and is positioned to provide insights and better understanding of successful student journeys into WELS.
Cite items from this project
Funding
Praxis
Project lead(s)
John Butcher
Team members
Karen Foley ; Mick McCormick ; Renu Bhandari ; George Curry
Authorship group
- Academic - Central
Project reference number
PRAXIS 2022/23 17 JB
Project start date
Project end date
Project status
Completed
Institutional priority category
- Equality, Diversity and Inclusion
Subject discipline
- Education, Childhood, Youth, and Sport
- Health and Wellbeing
- Health and Social Care
Project findings and recommendations
Recent scrutiny from the Office for Students (OfS, 2022) in relation to student outcomes in England has highlighted a critical level of attrition affecting the continuation and progression of students across the sector. This particularly affects learners from the most disadvantaged backgrounds, threatening sector interest in widening HE participation to a more diverse, under-represented student population. The UK Open University (OU) has provided flexible higher education at scale and at a distance for (mainly) adult learners for over half a century. As part of its social justice mission to be ‘open to all’, the OU retains its original commitment to open access – no undergraduate qualifications have entry criteria (unless required by a professional body). This poses particular challenges for the institution when responding to Office for Students thresholds in comparison with the sector norm of entry requirements. The openness of the OU’s entry policies is central to its social justice and educational mission, however, with open access comes a responsibility to prepare students to succeed. A crucial impact recognised by former Access students and their tutors was a clear sense of preparedness for UG study, a sense in which they felt culturally ‘ready’ for the challenges of HE. This is vitally important for the success of students from disadvantaged backgrounds, particularly those older students returning to education after a length of time. ‘Y032 definitely gave me an edge when I started my degree. I could tell in the group forums which other students had studied an access course’ This is not about the institution, but rather the growth of a student to overcome dispositional barriers around confidence as a learner and a new understanding of learning how to learn. ‘I believe I wouldn’t have been prepared to study at UG level without having studied Y032 first’ The impact extends to performance and achievement: ‘Without Y032 I don’t think I would be achieving the marks I have on my first and current UG modules’. The ‘Access effect’ appears to be demonstrable and effectively sustained, and is a result of three elements:- first, a structured transition into HE supported by regular feedback on progress, resulting in a step-by step iterative confidence-building process which overcomes dispositional barriers; second pro-active and empathetic tutor support to help students manage their (limited) study time and take a more strategic approach to assessment tasks (situational barriers; third, embedded infrastructure elements around accessible information, advice and guidance support which mitigate institutional barriers. As a result, students from disadvantaged backgrounds are prepared to succeed in UG study. Impacts from Project: 1.Praxis Festival of Scholarship 13th May, 2024 2. Preparing to succeed: the impact of an Access module at The Open University, 13th June, 2024 NEON Summer Symposium 2024 presentation 3. Preparing to Succeed: The Impact of an Access Module at the Open University, 15th July, 2024 The European Conference On Education (ECE2024). presentation 4. Preparing to Succeed : The impact of an Access module at the Open University, 27th October, 2024 , Internataional Society for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (ISSOTL, 2024), Poster accepted.
Keyword(s)
study goals ; access module ; student journey based on level and intensity of needs
