TY - GEN
T1 - FINDING SOLUTIONS TO DIGITAL INEQUALITY IN A BLENDED LEARNING ENVIRONMENT
AU - Leslie, Laura J.
AU - Campbell, Darren
AU - Broadbent, Rebecca
PY - 2022
Y1 - 2022
N2 - The move to off campus learning and teaching in Higher Education (HE) in the UK due to the Covid-19 pandemic resulted in innovative and exciting opportunities for students to study in a more flexible, bespoke way from home using a Personal Computer (PC) or equivalent device. However, for an Engineering student to benefit from these opportunities they would require regular and prolonged access to a working, up-to-date PC, which they can use to download and access software and applications, join group discussions, access learning materials etc. This access is perhaps less likely for students from lower income backgrounds or areas of higher deprivation, and there is a risk of digital inequality widening the attainment gap. At Aston University (AU), a Virtual Desktop Interface (VDI) was implemented in order to provide students with a way to access high performance PCs remotely using their own device from home in order to use software and applications. To evaluate the VDI as a solution to digital inequality, a questionnaire (QNR) was developed and sent to AU students studying across a range of engineering programmes, and across a range of year groups. Results from the QNR (n=53) showed that almost three quarters (73.6 %) of respondents accessed the VDI during their study, with students being able to rate the usefulness of this for different activities. Of those students that did not access the VDI, the most commonly chosen reason was that they did not need to use it (50.0 %). The VDI system implemented at AU was well used by respondents, and comments were positive overall. Administering an online QNR presented some limitations to this study. Therefore, a paper-based QNR will be used for future research, which will be conducted at the end of this academic year. This will also allow a comparison of results between those in fully online learning environments, and the current blended delivery modes used at AU.
AB - The move to off campus learning and teaching in Higher Education (HE) in the UK due to the Covid-19 pandemic resulted in innovative and exciting opportunities for students to study in a more flexible, bespoke way from home using a Personal Computer (PC) or equivalent device. However, for an Engineering student to benefit from these opportunities they would require regular and prolonged access to a working, up-to-date PC, which they can use to download and access software and applications, join group discussions, access learning materials etc. This access is perhaps less likely for students from lower income backgrounds or areas of higher deprivation, and there is a risk of digital inequality widening the attainment gap. At Aston University (AU), a Virtual Desktop Interface (VDI) was implemented in order to provide students with a way to access high performance PCs remotely using their own device from home in order to use software and applications. To evaluate the VDI as a solution to digital inequality, a questionnaire (QNR) was developed and sent to AU students studying across a range of engineering programmes, and across a range of year groups. Results from the QNR (n=53) showed that almost three quarters (73.6 %) of respondents accessed the VDI during their study, with students being able to rate the usefulness of this for different activities. Of those students that did not access the VDI, the most commonly chosen reason was that they did not need to use it (50.0 %). The VDI system implemented at AU was well used by respondents, and comments were positive overall. Administering an online QNR presented some limitations to this study. Therefore, a paper-based QNR will be used for future research, which will be conducted at the end of this academic year. This will also allow a comparison of results between those in fully online learning environments, and the current blended delivery modes used at AU.
KW - blended delivery
KW - Digital inequality
KW - digital infrastructure
KW - online learning
KW - Standard 7
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85145944888&partnerID=8YFLogxK
M3 - Conference publication
AN - SCOPUS:85145944888
T3 - Proceedings of the International CDIO Conference
SP - 751
EP - 759
BT - 18th CDIO International Conference, CDIO 2022 - Proceedings
A2 - Gudjonsdottir, Maria Sigridur
A2 - Audunsson, Haraldur
A2 - Donoso, Arkaitz Manterola
A2 - Kristjansson, Gudmundur
A2 - Saemundsdottir, Ingunn
A2 - Foley, Joseph Timothy
A2 - Kyas, Marcel
A2 - Sripakagorn, Angkee
A2 - Roslof, Janne
A2 - Bennedsen, Jens
A2 - Edstrom, Kristina
A2 - Kuptasthien, Natha
A2 - Lyng, Reidar
T2 - 18th International CDIO Conference, CDIO 2022
Y2 - 13 June 2022 through 15 June 2022
ER -