One of the most pressing issues in higher education is how the diversity within student cohorts impacts individual experiences and academic performance. This is especially evident in STEM disciplines, where students arrive at university with varying levels of prior experience, knowledge, and confidence in key areas like laboratory work and mathematical skills. Students from under-resourced backgrounds, for instance, often have to work harder to achieve comparable results, and a lack of prior experience can lead to lower performance on summative assessments. There is therefore a need for differentiated support and inclusive pedagogy in order to address these disparities.
As part of our most recent Teaching Innovation Awards, there were a number of educators implementing innovative digital solutions to address accessibility and equality in their universities. Although their specific circumstances may be different to yours, their approaches of best practice in action could be applied across your own courses, with similar valuable impact.
Closing the awarding gap with digital learning tools at London Metropolitan University
London Metropolitan University’s ‘Education for Social Justice’ framework was introduced in 2021 to eliminate awarding gaps and transform the university experience for black and ethnic minority students. In the Department of Chemical and Pharmaceutical Sciences, Dr Bhaven Patel and colleagues have adopted approaches and solutions that aim to improve student experiences and increase engagement, with a particular focus on inclusive and authentic assessment.
Across their physical and analytical chemistry modules, Dr Patel and his team introduced Smart Worksheets in order to tackle the awarding gap that was present between white students and black and ethnic minority students. At LMU, the average awarding gap stands at around 19%. Over a number of years they partnered with students, as well as the team at LearnSci, to create assessments that worked for them, gathering feedback and improving the assessments accordingly.
The impact has been monumental; the awarding gap for modules in which the Smart Worksheets have been introduced has seen a significant decrease, maintaining below 10%, and in some cases the gap has been completely eradicated. As well as this, student performance has increased, and students feel more confident and prepared when going into the assessments.
Widening participation at the University of the Western Cape
The University of the Western Cape’s vision is to provide higher education access to talented young South Africans from the poorest communities, the vast majority of whom have limited access to technologies. Many students entering UWC have never been in a lab, or even witnessed the demonstration of a science experiment in their school career. To address this, the university needs to equip students with the core skills to succeed in a lab environment.
UWC’s Faculty of Natural Sciences partnered with LearnSci in 2020, aiming to prepare students for lab sessions by introducing LabSims and Smart Worksheets across their curriculum. The digital, flexible nature of the resources aligned with the faculty’s widening participation goals, allowing all students gain practical experience and familiarise themselves with lab equipment and safety protocols, effectively levelling the playing field before lab sessions.
Dr Juliet Stoltenkamp and colleagues at UWC’s Centre for Innovative Education and Communication Technologies (CIECT) led the integration of the LearnSci resources, and were passionate about fully embedding each resource into the learning environment without increasing the burden on educators. Since 2020, they’ve adopted an awareness and engagement campaign, with content and case studies highlighting successful use of the resources. Working closely with educators to ensure they’re making the best use of LabSims and Smart Worksheets has been continually successful; resource usage is consistently high, and the Centre’s ongoing support has maintained the effective use of the resources.
Supporting diverse learners at the University of Exeter
One area that often divides cohorts in terms of skill level and previous experience is mathematics. Maths skills are a vital part of a STEM degree, but in lots of cases this is where abilities vary the most, and students with less experience often lack confidence.
At the University of Exeter, Dr Sally Rogers and colleagues found that each year, roughly half of their students hadn’t taken A-Level maths. To support these students in developing the skills they need, they introduced a statistics-focused genetics Smart Worksheet that uses unique datasets and immediate, personalised feedback to give each student an individualised experience.
Implementing digital resources in this way had a considerable impact; feedback from students highlighted how the Smart Worksheet helped overcome ‘mathematical hesitancy’ and improved their confidence in statistical skills. The Smart Worksheet has since been adapted for their biological sciences masters program, where a large proportion of international students have historically struggled with statistical assessments. Since introducing this solution, the awarding gap between international and UK students has reduced, and attainment has improved overall for all students on the course. It’s also been instrumental in identifying students who were especially struggling, enabling staff to give targeted support to those that need it.
So, digital resources can have a significant impact on equity and inclusion in STEM, whether that’s in levelling the playing field and improving skills, providing authentic and equitable assessment, or working towards removing barriers for disadvantaged students. If you’re considering how to implement technology to promote accessibility in your department, you might want to consider the following:
- Is the structure or content of assessments biased towards certain groups of students? Do you notice trends in which students under-perform?
- Are there any areas in which students struggle the most? Implementing skills-focused digital resources that allow for repeated practice can help level the playing field in these areas.
- Success in introducing digital technologies is as much about how you introduce them, as the content of the resources themselves. Strategic thinking when introducing new resources pays off in the long-term!
When harnessed strategically and with student experiences in mind, digital solutions are able to contribute to wider institutional initiatives for accessibility and inclusion, promoting inclusive pedagogy. There’s huge potential for innovative digital solutions contributing to a more equitable and inclusive learning environment- and it’s inspiring to see examples like those from LMU, UWC and Exeter have such an impact on student success.
To find more innovative examples of the impact of digital technology, head to the Teaching Innovation Awards pages to learn about other projects.
