 Hello everybody and welcome to this session. My name is Matt Lagarde and I'm the chair for the next 25 minutes and the session is 25 minutes. We'll be inviting Jess shortly to talk for 20 minutes and then there'll be an opportunity to take your questions for five minutes at the end. Just to check you're in the right place the title of the session is on the screen there now and as I say please make use of the comments not just for questions but to say hello give us a wave and share your thoughts as Jess is speaking to us. So I won't waste any more time and I will hand over to Jess Humphries for this session. Okay thank you so much Matt. Hello everyone thanks for joining me today. I'm just going to talk through some of our experiences with the work we've been doing around accessible and inclusive learning online and the challenges and opportunities that are happening here. I just wanted to say hello. As in I'm Jess Humphries, I'm a senior teaching fellow at the University of Warwick working academic development and I'm also work as a lead for the Learning Design Consultancy Unit which I'll tell you more about shortly. Also unfortunately we can't be joined today by my colleague Kerry Penny but she's been heavily involved in all the work that I'm going to be talking about today so hopefully I can do her it's some justice. She's the head of digital learning and environment support at the University of Warwick and I'll be sharing some of the work we've been doing. So just to give you an overview of what we're doing where we're at and I'll be saying a bit about the Learning Design Consultancy itself how it's set up and what we're trying to do with it particularly around the area of accessible and inclusive practice, student experience, opportunities and challenges that we've come across when we're talking about accessibility and inclusive practice here and I'll also be talking about when next the conversations don't stop, the work doesn't stop. Feel free to share any questions as Matt said in the chat. We're also always really keen to hear your experiences and share where you're at as well and there's so much to learn in this space and there's still so much more work to be done so that's basically what I'm going to be talking through today. So just to talk a bit about where we're coming from the idea that inclusive practice isn't the deficit model that we're trying to reach out and change our practice so that we are more accessible to everyone and the new regulations that came into being in 2018 and the laws that already existed prior to them have been a catalyst but as we've had a small thing called COVID take place we've all been moving online and we've had to rethink how we are delivering, what we're delivering and there's been a lot of anxiety around accessible and inclusive practice. So we've tried to work with this in various ways. We've got a MOOC, a Moodle, sorry, four staff on teaching online, the ADC Academic Development and Academic Technology setup. As I said we've already set up the Learning Design Consultancy Unit, that was set up initially for six months back in June 2020. The idea was it brought the technologists at University of Warwick together with the developers and other experts from across the university and that we share our practice and we also provide a safe space to support colleagues in the development of their pivot to online. We're really reactive so the first six months were very much about getting the material online but it became really evident through conversations with colleagues that there was a lot of anxiety around inclusive and accessible practice and so there was a lot of work that we needed to do in that area and so from going from a reactive stance for the first six months to more of a proactive stance from the beginning of this year we started to focus heavily on accessible and inclusive practice in the design and development of teaching and learning and we worked with students bringing in the student voice into the LDCU to get a view from their perspective of what was going on around us. At the same sort of time Kerry set up the Digital Accessibility Network which is a team space where colleagues, academics, staff and professional service staff can share ideas, concerns, technologies, tips and work together in that space and that's quite an active community there as well and so some of the concerns that were raised there we can also feed into the work we're doing in the LDCU. So what did we do? Well with the LDCU in February 2021 we knew that the conversations around inclusive practice and accessibility were very much evident. We wanted to create a safe space to continue those conversations. We had a colleague from Services who wanted to share the technical tips as well and so we developed a workshop, a session, a couple of hours where we invited staff and students to come along and hear and share what they were up to. We did want to, we've already had, we host a series of Technology Enhance Active Learning forums where we talk about and share practice amongst each other at Warwick and we've had a session where students had come along and shared their experiences of the first year. They also brought up concerns around accessibility and inclusion and so we felt that this was coming both from staff and students and we needed to react and we wanted to bring the students into the space with the staff so that we could talk together about some of these issues. It was a really successful session and as a result Kerry went away and worked at Magic and developed a number of practical workshops on how to use digital to be more accessible. So things like making PowerPoint more accessible, making Word more accessible, they're obviously the issues around transcripts and captions. They were really, really popular as well with colleagues. We followed up the February workshop a month later with one around unseen disability and teaching and this was something that we worked with the library on and the library had a colleague who was very much involved in assistive technologies and wanted to see more the student voice that we'd already seen and developed that. So again we invited students back, these students came from societies such as enabler, disability societies, autism societies and they came and shared their thoughts. It was, we wanted it to be student led so the students chaired it, they ran it, they led it and it was an opportunity for staff to hear the raw, honest, open voice of the students and again it was really well received. It was quite comforting because some of what they were raising we felt as practitioners as well and it also it raised some, we had some tangible outputs which I'll go on to share around tips that students wanted to share with staff to help make the world more inclusive and accessible and I'll share some insight into that as well. And then in May 2021 we wanted to continue the conversation. Carrie and I also lead on the Teal Fest at Warwick which some of you may have come across and we led a really short session but we wanted to go beyond the bubble and with this first Teal Fest where we invited colleagues from outside of Warwick to hear what their opportunities are, the challenges and what they've experienced to learn from each other. So again we're really keen to hear from you any thoughts you have around these issues and to keep the conversation going. One of the great things has been that the conversation has started and it needs to continue and we need to do things with it. So what I'm going to do is just give you an overview of some of the thoughts that we've had from those sessions, the opportunities and the challenges and the tips the students developed for staff and then it would be great to have an opportunity to hear your thoughts and questions too. So the positive is the headline the students were keen to tell us whether learning online removes physical barriers of learning environments so it was more accessible, able to adapt, it was less stressful for many and more relaxing and again there are caveats with all these positives, there is always a counter but on the whole conversations from colleagues and from students were that it was a positive experience in the main and that there were some real opportunities to be had learning in an environment that they were comfortable with. So just breaking it down a little bit with regards to lectures specifically from the student perspective they absolutely loved having opportunity in most instances to repeat, rewind and revisit recorded lectures to be able to control the pace and a way that worked with them and to be flexible in how they learn. Some found it much more relaxing, they got quite anxious when they went into the physical environment for a lecture and they found they were much more relaxed when they were in an environment that they were comfortable with and some found with so for example with audio processing skills it was good to be able to rewind and revisit something that they weren't sure of. Again there were counter arguments to this but they appreciated the chunking down of the lectures so in some instances this is the hour you've got 20 minutes interaction 20 minutes so it made it a bit more engaging with regards to online seminars the opportunity to engage and interact was really appreciated. Some students really found talking to a screen less intimidating than if they were actually sitting there with their colleagues again there were always counter arguments there and the breakout activities as teams have been involved as well over the past year they've been really beneficial and appreciated the opportunity to engage with personal response systems like VVocs. The flexibility for some meant that they were more likely to attend so it was interesting to hear their conversations around how they engage and then the way that they feel they have more access in that respect. Continuing on the positives with regards to teaching materials their online resources are more likely to be compatible with the assistive technologies. I found in my own teaching I started using Moodle checklists at the beginning of the pandemic more for me to make sure that I was not overloading my students and my course with work and I was making it manageable but it was well received and what has come across by students and staff is how beneficial Moodle something so simple as Moodle checklists have been to help manage and structure learning. Also the fact that they can study in an environment that's more accessible for them there's been something that's come out in some of the conversations with students specifically. Moving online arguably but this is a quote from one of our participants in the workshop on unseen disabilities said that they had more access to their courses than before which is quite interesting to see so there's some real benefits and real positives but there are also some challenges and one challenge being that a bad experience can be enough for students not to return but that could apply for online and in-person sessions and so again I'm going to break down these challenges a little bit more and then we'll get to the top tips. So here's the challenges inconsistent presentation and structure across modules so the way that we use Moodle can differ and I know from my own experience as a teacher the infrastructure in my head that makes perfect sense in reality can be a bit confusing I've learned a lot over the course of this year and especially from having conversations with colleagues being inspired by them and being inspired by students and that's impacted on my own practice too. The challenges in managing workloads sometimes students aren't sure how deep to delve online and they can spend more time and equally though that could apply for us as well putting things online has a massive impact on timings. It's sometimes unclear where they should be going, whether they should be in Moodle, whether they should be in teams so again a lot of this is around we need to address this in around communication and certain expectation. There's been lots of debates out and the wider world but also in these sessions that we've run around cameras they can be a positive they really help with blip reading for example but it can be really anxiety inducing as well and so there's been some it is still split quite black and white debates about that. Environments aren't always perfect we said in the positives that you can be relaxed it's an environment that you're used to but not everyone has the ideal environment for study and that's been acknowledged and also quality of audio recordings linking to how they've been recorded but also a lot of the conversation around bandwidth and accessing the technology that is needed to ensure that they can download some of these or watch some of these resources. Further challenges the joys of transcripts and captions has been a big challenge for everyone for staff and students. I have sometimes a tendency to mumble some of my transcripts and captions can be a bit random and so it does take time to go through that and that can be frustrating for staff and for students. Materia has not been consistently compatible with assistive technologies despite the saying that they are. Paddling has been something that's really been loved and there have been some issues around that side of things there as well but it is it's still something that the students really love. Personal connection and interaction lost that is something that everyone's experienced and it's really affected as all in the past year the social learning side of things the ability to ask questions seek clarification in an informal way not having to actually make it go out and make an effort to do that. So that has been a real challenge in that respect. So we've also from the unseen disability session the students then went away and worked with their colleague from the library but and based on some notes that we'd taken in the session captured the session was really private and we didn't record it we wanted to speak freely but they came up with the list they feel quite strongly about the tips they want to share with staff about how to make think about inclusive and accessible practice and and just one one student was saying that emphasising the point that we made earlier with the quote from Hawkins but just because you don't know that you've got a disabled student doesn't mean that you haven't got one and so we need to make it accessible for all and as we already know we by making it accessible it benefits everyone. So the tips that they provided again breaking down into seminars lectures and just general tips and some of them are pretty self-explanatory and straightforward but the idea about communication side of things setting clear expectations providing clear instructions the idea as well about there was some debate around not picking students to answer questions and some appreciated that some were really anti that and again they're age-old debates that they don't just apply to the online world. They do feel that there are some real benefits of cameras being online but are recognised the tension with this for some for some colleagues students and so they would like us to encourage it more and having sure to breakout sessions where we meet meet up and and clarify again being really clear around instructions. They also really appreciated the use of interactive tools that's come across through the conversations and in the other sessions as well but Padlet and V-vox went down really really well and it gives them a voice if they don't necessarily want to be known and the anonymous participation has been really appreciated. With regards to lectures they're allowing not everyone has lectures recorded it's an opt-in at Warwick and those students that haven't had it before really really really valued it the idea that it helps them as I've said already to repeat and review in their own time I'm not going to go over some of these points we've already mentioned but interactive tools have been really really beneficial and they want that to continue and for the lecturer they really appreciate it when they can see someone on the screen and they can lip read and yeah I need to stop mumbling and when I do my my talks speaking clearly for the captions because yeah as I've mentioned already that can be interesting. With regards to the VLE itself this idea of consistent formats and templates is an interesting one and when we have students working across disciplines it can be confusing so that they've raised that quite clearly the checklist is a quick fix that they really really appreciate for those that have had them and again it goes back to communications as well making sure that links are working making sure content's up to date telling students when a new resource is added or changed and using reminders for tasks and deadlines. Also being clear about how long we expect students to spend on things you can get carried away go off on a tangent so being clear they they appreciate that side of the communication as well and they provided some feedback on the walls of text and the they've really valued the the effort that's gone into breaking information down not just from the text but also from lectures as well having chunk sizes has been really beneficial to everyone so these are tips that are from students to staff but they also provided some interesting supportive tips overall as well so around disability being an individual experience so asking students what they need they really are keen to keep these conversations going. I've mentioned already about expectations and communication but the idea as well about nothing about us without us was a quote from one student they want to be involved in these conversations and I think the LDC we really are keen to involve them further in co-design and in how we support going forward. There was a lot of conversation around as I've mentioned previously around not being there in person can be problematic so trying to be more available for students being able to reach out and support students in that space and providing opportunities to seek clarification as well there's something that they want more of so they were all really sensible tips that they provided but what is really clear from all of this is we need to continue conversations so I know we haven't got much time left and I really am interested in what your top tips are what your experiences are so I'd be really interested to hear that we've got a short padlet if you want to add any thoughts or comments in that padlet really value that and appreciate that but I'm just going to move on really quickly before I need to wrap up for next steps we're going to continue as I've mentioned alluded to conversations with staff and students and the power that has has been really beneficial but we need to do more is not just going to stop here developing resources to support colleagues we need to I'm running the series of ABC mini sprints but we're embedding UDL in that process so that it's there from the outset also having opportunities to share examples of practice and I'm really keen to learn from outside of work to what's going on elsewhere I know that the digital insight survey this year is touching on a lot of these topics and I'm going to go right after this presentation and then look at that in more detail too okay I think I'm at time so any questions and obviously pop them in chat if you want to contact us informally at any other time then there's just their emails just in case and yeah so that's that's that really thank you thank you Jess it's great to see your overall approach and lots of positive comments in the chat and I think the people really welcome the practical tips that you've got from the students that you can now share with us and we can take away I've had a couple of questions which I'm just going to take in the order they came in so one from Jim Turner first of all I won't read it out just to avoid cognitive overload for you yeah yeah um I was really conscious of that I didn't um but we we have already got relationships with our student societies and they're really really proactive so we just put a call out um also because they're students we did we did offer us some vouchers for their time as well um but they were they were more than willing to be involved the chair of the Enable Society at work was um really proactive and really really um keen to to have these conversations because they saw the benefit for for our future students as well so um it was in a way in the end we had too many in a way um wanting to share their thoughts um so um we limited it to a certain number just because of timings but but they were really keen and we're just lucky to have that engagement um with the societies there thanks thanks Jess and the the next question is rather a big one um a big ask rather from Pete um so um perhaps if you give it a start oh gosh yeah um yeah that is a massive question um I think that we we we've got more to do in this space having these conversations is a starting point um I yeah I'm I'm frightened of nostalgia I'm frightened of I'm thinking yeah well let's roll back to 2019 the world was a better place let's all go back to face to face I'm not taking away there are definitely benefits in some respects to being seeing people in real life um but I think it's um hearing from the students and having their voice embedded in this is really helping some of these conversations drive forward um and um and and seeing how things have worked I think we've got a lot to learn still and there's lots of data being collected and various services and things that will help with that but being open and honest about these experiences recognizing the challenges I think I'm hope I'm I'm an optimist I hope that the last year it means that people have seen that we shouldn't be the work that we've invested in online blended and hybrid shouldn't be seen as second tier um but I am I am worried um but I yeah we're making a start and I think there's more work to be done in this area too I'm not sure if that answers your question Pete I wish I had the answer if you had the answer we'd all be super pleased I think it is such a it is such a challenge for us all to um make sure we don't kind of lose this moment if you like and then take things forward um just one quick practical question Jess uh from Tim who you missed it earlier in the talk but what's the number of people again who have been involved in this respondents and contributors on the students okay yeah no um we've um we've so the ldcu the people that have been involved it's been quite varied um we've had about 150 people come along to the different sessions from different areas of the university numbers of students I think we're probably a dozen students have been involved in conversations roughly um from from the different various societies and we've also had we're here student fellows who are uh linked to the work International Higher Education Academy um and so there's about six seven eight of them so yeah we're very it isn't it isn't a general consensus but we're getting real qualitative uh feedback from those college those students and then we've also had colleagues from across the institution from professional services and academic colleagues who've shared what they've been up to so um yeah the numbers have been um variable and as I said before there's still more to do in this space so much more brilliant thank you Jess um I'm going to start to draw things to a close now um there's been really a lot of positive comments um in the chat Jess and I know you'll have time to review them um after after we leave so um I'm sure everybody would like to join me in thanking you for the presentation um and you know I really do appreciate this because so much work goes into these I know so many thanks for doing that today and many thanks to everybody who attended as well it's a really really busy session I can see so that's that's fantastic news um so I'll just say goodbye and for those of you who are live enjoy the rest of your day um and well to those who are watching the recording too okay thanks very much Jess thank you