Widening participation for non-traditional students: can using alternative assessment methods level the playing field in higher education?

2019 ◽  
Vol 21 (3) ◽  
pp. 162-173
Author(s):  
Iona Burnell
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Alternative Assessment ◽  
Assessment Methods ◽  
Widening Participation ◽  
Pedagogical Practice ◽  
Barriers To Learning ◽  
Playing Field ◽  
Alternative Assessments ◽  
Mature Students ◽  
Non Traditional Students

This paper will explore and examine the notion and practice of using alternative assessments as a means to overcoming barriers to learning and success for under-represented groups, such as mature students returning to learning. Since widening participation initiatives began, many universities have begun to engage in practices that are conducive to their learners successfully accessing and achieving in higher education. The pedagogical practice of using alternative assessments for students who are considered to be at a disadvantage, not because of disability, but because of their background and affiliation with under-represented groups in higher education, may go some way to levelling the playing field.

Assignments

2019 ◽  
pp. 167-188
Author(s):  
Bethanie L. Hansen
Keyword(s):  
Alternative Assessment ◽  
Essential Elements ◽  
Assessment Methods ◽  
Learning Activities ◽  
Music Appreciation ◽  
Applied Learning ◽  
Alternative Assessments ◽  
Online Music ◽  
Online Assignments

The chapter presents alternative assessment methods that could be used as assignments in online music appreciation classes. Alternative assessments, often called applied learning activities, give students a means through which they can extend or document their learning and express what they’ve learned in their own “voice.” Guidelines for effective online assignments and essential elements for clear assignment descriptions are included. Readers will come away with plagiarism guidance and example assignments that can be immediately used. The chapter ends with a brief summary of important points and an infographic designed to visually highlight guidelines and essential elements of effective online music appreciation assignments, with four powerful questions to help instructors determine whether the assignment description is sufficiently clear and detailed.

scholarly journals Widening Participation in Ghana and Tanzania

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Louise Morley
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Private University ◽  
Sub Saharan Africa ◽  
Widening Participation ◽  
Research Teams ◽  
Mature Students ◽  
Education In Ghana ◽  
Sub Saharan ◽  
Participation In Higher Education ◽  
Key Questions

?An interrogation under way is whether policies for widening participation in sub-Saharan Africa are working. That was one of the key questions addressed by the research project Widening Participation in Higher Education in Ghana and Tanzania: Developing an Equity Scorecard. Research teams found that the policies were working in the sense of increasing the overall number of students, especially women, participating in higher education. However, they found that poorer and mature students were still absent from many of the programs investigated in one public and one private university, in both Ghana and Tanzania. The universities included in the study did have quotas for students from disadvantaged backgrounds, but failed to fill them or monitor how many poorer students were participating and completing their studies. Students who did succeed, in entering university, shared helpful insights into their lived experiences.

Tactics and strategies to survive ‘student engagement’, or joining the Soil Society and other stories

2018 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 109-130
Author(s):  
Jacqui Close
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Student Engagement ◽  
Social Class ◽  
Performance Indicators ◽  
Student Experience ◽  
Traditional Students ◽  
Identity Work ◽  
Widening Participation ◽  
University Life ◽  
Non Traditional Students

In the U.K., ‘student engagement’, and the related ‘student experience’, are increasingly measured, interpreted and then marketed to students as a basis on which to choose the ‘best’ place for their higher education. This article summarises and reflects on presentations from five panel members at a conference on their experience of university life after that choice had been made. The panel included non-traditional students who embodied some of the characteristics (such as age, social class and ethnicity) that have become performance indicators in relation to widening participation and engagement in higher education. This article captures how students themselves understand a concept that occupies such a prominent, if contested, position in contemporary higher education. This analysis invites one to take a closer look at the identity work necessary for students to thrive (and for some just to survive) at university against a backdrop that tends to homogenise both ‘experience’ and ‘student’.

scholarly journals Individualization in the widening participation debate

2006 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sally Baker ◽  
B. Brown ◽  
J A Fazey
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Higher Education Institutions ◽  
Traditional Students ◽  
Widening Participation ◽  
Systematic Analysis ◽  
Non Traditional Students ◽  
Opening Up ◽  
As If

We provide an analysis of some recent widening participation literature concerning the barriers preventing non-traditional students accessing higher education. This literature criticizes higher education institutions and staff, opening up the academics' attitudes and skills to inquiry. We follow the genesis of four themes in the literature and these are visited in turn to provide substantive arguments. Students' accounts of their experiences are taken as if they were a systematic analysis of higher education institutions and result in an individualistic analysis of the problems related to access and progression. Beck described such assumptions and devices as individualization. We question the use of such pervasive individualism in the widening participation debate.

scholarly journals To What Extent can ‘Bring Your Own Device’ be an Enabler to Widening Participation in Higher Education for the Socially Disadvantaged?

2018 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 3-11 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Bass ◽  
Siavosh Haghighi Movahed
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Academic Staff ◽  
Bring Your Own Device ◽  
Widening Participation ◽  
Barriers To Learning ◽  
Traditional Lecture ◽  
Socially Disadvantaged ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Participation In Higher Education ◽  
Government Legislation

Certain elements of higher education are historically regarded as being elitist and steeped in so much history and tradition that many institutions are unwilling to change to cater for the populations that they serve. Despite reams of government legislation and continued pressure from social groups the proportion of university students from socially disadvantaged backgrounds remains stubbornly low. This research aims to look beyond the financial and psychological support given to these groups and instead see what can be done to overcome the barriers to learning they face by utilising a Bring Your Own Device strategy. This research has focused on socially disadvantaged individuals from the UK and the findings have led to the conclusion that BYOD can be an enabler to widening participation. However, it is not an overarching solution for all and there is a distinct need for the technology to be properly integrated into teaching activities as some academic staff remain resolute to delivering in the traditional lecture format that does not facilitate engagement or interaction.

Students' Independent Professional Activity in Pedagogical Practice

2010 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 38-58
Author(s):  
Aina Strode
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Comparative Analysis ◽  
Empirical Study ◽  
Qualitative Data ◽  
Academic Staff ◽  
Professional Activity ◽  
Pedagogical Practice ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Criteria And Indicators ◽  
Study Process

Students' Independent Professional Activity in Pedagogical PracticeThe topicality of the research is determined by the need for changes in higher education concerned with implementing the principles of sustainable education. The article focuses on teacher training, highlighting the teacher's profession as an attractive choice of one's career that permits to ensure the development of general and professional skills and an opportunity for new specialists to align with the labour market. The empirical study of students' understanding of their professional activity and of the conditions for its formation is conducted by applying structured interviews (of practice supervisors, students, academic staff); students and experts' questionnaire. Comparative analysis of quantitative and qualitative data and triangulation were used in case studies. As a result, a framework of pedagogical practice organisation has been created in order to form students' independent professional activity. The criteria and indicators of independent professional activity have been formulated and suggestions for designers of study programmes and organisers of the study process have been provided.

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