Enhancement Project - Project Information & FAQ

This project gathered evidence from undergraduate students of their perceptions of the quality of learning and teaching in the current context of the Covid-19 pandemic, with a focus on how these perceptions differ by ethnicity.

Survey : 10 - 31 May 2021 | Focus groups: 7 - 18 June 2021

Project: March - October 2021

Project Summary

This project was concerned with gathering evidence from students of their perceptions of the quality of learning and teaching in the current context of the Covid-19 pandemic, with a focus on how these perceptions differ by ethnicity. This is necessary, as we need to ensure that approaches taken to the delivery of blended learning do not adversely affect any group(s) of students. The focus was on Black, Asian and Minority Ethnicity (BAME) students, and the study has helped to add evidence to the sector regarding tackling the attainment gap and strengthening the voice of BAME students. It has added to evidence being collected by partners in their existing institutional projects. Participation in the research required participants to complete a survey questionnaire (approximately 20 minutes to complete) and/or attend an online focus group (approximately 1 hour).

This was a collaborative project, and the project team involved members from four universities (the University of Portsmouth, Manchester Metropolitan University, Solent University, and the University of Nottingham). The University of Portsmouth was the lead partner and was responsible for the analysis of the survey and focus group data.

What was the purpose of the study?

The 2020/21 academic year was not a typical one, and we wanted to understand to what extent students had been able to have the university experience they may have expected or wanted. Research carried out before the Covid-19 pandemic shows us that the student experience at university can vary significantly. We know, for example, that certain student groups disproportionately miss out on being awarded certain degree classifications, and that there are students who never feel as though they 'belong' to their university community. We wanted to understand more about this through a survey and focus groups, which were part of the project: ‘Differing Perceptions of Quality of Learning’; it was funded by the Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education in the UK. This survey, which was run across four universities, asked questions to help us identify how students with different characteristics (e.g., ethnicity) felt differently about how they had been taught during 2020/21. In addition to demographic questions, participants were asked questions from across the following sections: Learning and Teaching, Accessibility, Engagement and Expectations, and Assessment and Feedback.

Objectives

Primary Objective

To understand differing student perceptions of the quality of learning and teaching in the current context (blended learning during the Covid-19 pandemic), with a focus on how these perceptions differ by ethnicity.

Secondary Objectives

To help add evidence to the sector regarding tackling the awarding gap and strengthening the voice of BAME students.
To add to evidence being collected by partners in their existing institutional projects, which draw on BAME student networks and will be a valuable channel for student engagement.
To enable staff to adjust mechanisms for engaging and teaching for the 2021/22 academic year.
To identify staff development needs.
To inform curriculum development for the academic year 2022/23.
To inform policy, notably institutional work related to Access and Participation Plans (APPs).

Who was invited to participate?

We were looking for L4 and L5 students enrolled on the following courses (which were/are intended to be campus-based) to participate in the survey and the focus groups:

University of Portsmouth

BA (Hons) Accounting with Finance

BA (Hons) Business and Management

BEng (Hons) Civil Engineering

BEng (Hons) Mechanical Engineering

BN (Hons) Nursing (Adult)

BSc (Hons) Computer Science

MPharm (Hons) Pharmacy

Manchester Metropolitan University

BEng (Hons) Mechanical Engineering

BSc (Hons) Computer Science

BA (Hons) Business Management

BSc (Hons) Accounting with Finance

BSc (Hons) Adult Nursing

Solent University

BEng (Hons) Mechanical Engineering

BSc (Hons) Adult Nursing

BA (Hons) Business Management

University of Nottingham

BSc (Hons) Management

BSc (Hons) Finance, Accounting and Management

BSc (Hons) Industrial Economics

BSc (Hons) Computer Science

BSc (Hons) Nursing (Adult)

The rationale behind choosing these courses was that they are courses with high percentages of BAME students, and they are also courses provided by all participating collaborative partners (this factor was necessary for data comparability purposes).

Was participation mandatory?

No, taking part in this research was entirely voluntary. It was up to the student to decide if they wanted to volunteer for the study. If they agreed to take part, we then asked them to give their consent before they started completing the survey. They also needed to sign a consent form, dated 23/04/2021, just before the focus group (if applicable).

Incentives

As well as getting the chance to have their voice heard, if students provided their email address when they completed the survey, they were automatically put into a prize draw. The prizes were Amazon vouchers. If a student won a prize, we sent them an email with information about how to receive their voucher.

The following Amazon voucher prizes were offered in the survey prize draw:

Manchester Metropolitan University: 35 x £20.
Southampton Solent University: 3 x £50, 2 x £100, and a top prize of £350.
University of Nottingham: 3 x £50, 2 x £100, and a top prize of £350.
University of Portsmouth: 3 x £50, 2 x £100, and a top prize of £350.

All focus group participants received one £10 or £15 Amazon voucher.

What were the possible disadvantages, burdens and risks of taking part?

We did not anticipate any disadvantages, burdens or risk associated with taking part in this research. As explained above, the information discussed in the focus groups was made anonymous. For students, participation was not linked in any way with their grades or programme progress.

Furthermore, the objective of the survey and focus groups was not to gather information about any distressing experiences of the participant; the objective was to learn about their perceptions of quality of learning.

What were the possible advantages or benefits of taking part?

If a student decided to take part, they would be contributing to the study. The results of the study:

helped add evidence to the sector regarding tackling the awarding gap and strengthening the voice of BAME students.
added to evidence being collected by partners in their existing institutional projects, which draw on BAME student networks and will be a valuable channel for student engagement.
enabled staff to adjust mechanisms for engaging and teaching for the 2021/22 academic year.
identified staff development needs.
informed curriculum development for the academic year 2022/23.
informed policy, notably institutional work related to Access and Participation Plans (APPs).

Furthermore, students had an opportunity to have their voice heard. Additionally, if they provided their email address when they completed the survey, they were automatically put into a prize draw with Amazon voucher prizes. All focus group participants received one £10 or £15 amazon voucher.

What data was collected?

SURVEY QUESTIONNAIRE:

The survey comprised 32 questions covering the following themes: demographic information; teaching and learning; accessibility; engagement and expectations; assessment and feedback; and overall questions about learning. The survey questionnaire can be found here

Different links were generated for different partners and different courses to help with the analysis of the data. Despite the differing nature and modules of several of the programmes, the questionnaire was the same. It took approximately 20 minutes to complete the survey, and the respondents could withdraw from the project during or after completion (10 May 2021 - 31 May 2021 for the survey). If they chose to withdraw, their responses would not be stored or analysed. At the beginning of the students’ involvement, they were made fully aware of any ethical and data protection policies, and they were provided with information related to the project. The data was anonymous. Incentives for survey participants were offered and if a student decided to include their email address in order to participate in the prize draw, then their responses to the questionnaire would still remain anonymised. Following the completion of the questionnaires, the questionnaire data were analysed on SPSS (or similar software) by the RA for all partners.

FOCUS GROUPS: Follow-up focus groups were conducted to gain a deeper understanding of the survey results.

The survey questionnaire asked students if they would like to participate in the focus groups. We randomly chose students to participate in the focus groups. However, the process was not entirely random; we hoped the final distribution would be representative of the different courses and ethnicities/backgrounds, so that we would have good diversity. We then randomly chose BAME and White students from the focus group volunteers, with numbers according to their corresponding percentage representation on the courses. Therefore the main criterion was a good representation of BAME students, reflecting the percentages on the whole course. Further invitations were planned to be sent if insufficient numbers of participants opted-in during the questionnaire. Initially the invitation was open to those who had already completed the survey, but who didn't opt-in to the focus groups the first time. If numbers were still too low, the invitation was opened up to all first- and second-year students. The focus groups were semi-structured, with a minimum of two and a maximum of six people.

There were some initial questions regarding assessment and feedback that the facilitator/researcher asked, but the direction of the discussion was permitted to change, depending on what issues were raised by the students during the session.

Before each focus group, students signed a consent form. Each focus group lasted 45-60 minutes. The collected data were: a) transcribed by someone who was external to the project and professionally unrelated to the people involved, unless an automated transcription was available, b) fully anonymised, and c) then analysed on NVivo with thematic content analysis. The focus groups were recorded via audio (not video) to safeguard participants’ anonymity.

Participants could withdraw from the project at any time when completing the survey or during the focus groups (or before any focus group data was transcribed) by emailing Melita Sidiropoulou (melita.sidiropoulou@port.ac.uk) or uopsurveys@port.ac.uk (10 May 2021 - 31 May 2021 for the survey; 7 - 18 June 2021 for the focus groups). Participants did not have to give a reason to withdraw from the study if they did not wish to. Once the data transcription and analysis process had begun (21st June), it was not possible for participants to withdraw their anonymised data from the study.

Would data be kept confidential? [for research participants]

Extra care was taken to ensure anonymity of participant data. Pseudonyms or participant codes (‘Student A’, etc.) were used in written accounts. Before consenting, participants had the opportunity to ask questions to check their understanding of the confidentiality arrangements detailed on the information sheets.

The focus group consent forms were not linked to the data and were not shared with the programme leaders and teams. The raw data was not shared with programme leaders and teaching staff. The focus groups were recorded via audio (not video) to safeguard participants’ anonymity.

The raw data, which could identify participants, was kept securely by the researcher and/or their supervisor. The anonymised data could be presented to others at academic conferences, published as a project report, academic dissertation or in academic journals or books. It could also be made available to any commissioner or funder of the research.

Anonymous data, which could not identify participants, will be publicly shared at the end of the project and made open-access. A licence will be applied to this publicly shared data. This will allow anyone else (including researchers, businesses, governments, charities, and the general public) to use the anonymised data for any purpose they wish, providing they credit the research team and university as the original creators. No restrictions will be placed on this shared anonymised data; its reuse is not limited to only non-commercial ventures.

The raw data will be retained for a minimum of 10 years. When it is no longer required, the data (e.g., electronic media and paper records/images) will be disposed of securely and destroyed.

This research is compliant with the following legal documents:

Requirements of The UK Research Integrity Office Code of Practice for Research: https://ukrio.org/publications/code-of-practice-for-research/
The University of Portsmouth’s Ethics Policy: http://policies.docstore.port.ac.uk/policy-028.pdf
The Data Protection Act (DPA) and General Data Protection Requirement (GDPR) 2018 (Information Commissioner’s Office, 2018) as applicable to the United Kingdom: https://ico.org.uk/for-organisations/guide-to-data-protection/guide-to-the-general-data-protection-regulation-gdpr/
The Universities UK Concordat to Support Research Integrity: https://www.universitiesuk.ac.uk/policy-and-analysis/reports/Pages/research-concordat.aspx
British Educational Research Association (BERA) Ethical Guidelines for Educational Research: https://www.bera.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/BERA-Ethical-Guidelines-for-Educational-Research_4thEdn_2018.pdf

The Department for Curriculum and Quality Enhancement of the University of Portsmouth wanted to process participants personal/demographic data (that is, collect, use, store and destroy data that could identify participants) as part of this project. If participants have any queries about this project please contact Dr Melita Panagiota Sidiropoulou (melita.sidiropoulou@port.ac.uk) or uopsurveys@port.ac.uk, or if participants have any general queries about how their data will/has been processed, please contact the University’s Data Protection Officer, Samantha Hill, using any of the following contact details:

Samantha Hill, 023 9284 3642 or information-matters@port.ac.uk

University House, Winston Churchill Avenue, Portsmouth, Hampshire, PO1 2UP, UK

Before completing the survey or participating in an online focus group, we asked for participants' consent to process the data we asked for in this project, so that we could conduct the research as described in the participant information sheet. We only shared personalised (demographic) data with Melita Sidiropoulou, the main research assistant for this project.

Personal data will be held securely on a password-protected Google folder (University of Portsmouth servers) and on JISC online surveys (the platform for the survey). We will not store your data outside the EU. The raw data will be retained for a minimum of 10 years. When it is no longer required, the data will be disposed of securely and destroyed.

Although you have the right to request a copy of the personal data we hold about you, to restrict the use of your personal data, to be forgotten, to data portability, and to withdraw your consent for the use of your data, it is possible that we may not be able to fully comply with those rights once your data has already been used for the research and/or has been anonymised. For more information on your rights in general, please see the information in the following links:

https://www.port.ac.uk/about-us/structure-and-governance/legal/data-protection-and-gdpr/requesting-your-data

You also have the right to lodge a complaint about the use of your personal data, initially to the University of Portsmouth (email information-matters@port.ac.uk) and then, if you are unhappy with our response, to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) – for more information please see https://ico.org.uk/your-data-matters/raising-concerns/ .

What would happen if a participant wanted to withdraw from the study? [for research participants]

As a volunteer, a participant could stop any participation in this project at any time, or withdraw from the study at any time before the analysis process (1st of June for the survey data and 21st June for the focus groups data). They did not need to give a reason. If participants withdrew from the study after some of their data had been collected, they would be asked if they were content for the data collected up to that point to be retained and included in the study. If they preferred, the data collected could be destroyed and not included in the study. However, once the research had been completed and the data analysed, it was not possible for participants to withdraw their data from the study.

What if I, as a participant, have a problem or concern? [for research participants]

Queries, concerns or complaints about any aspect of this study, in the first instance should be directed to the researcher:

Dr Melita Panagiota Sidiropoulou

melita.sidiropoulou@port.ac.uk or uopsurveys@port.ac.uk

If you have a complaint about the main researcher, please contact Dr Harriet Dunbar-Morris, Dean of Learning and Teaching and lead of this project, DeanLandT@port.ac.uk. If your concern or complaint is not resolved by the researcher or their supervisor, you should contact the Head of your Department. If the complaint remains unresolved, please contact:

The University of Portsmouth Complaints Officer

023 9284 3642 complaintsadvice@port.ac.uk

Who funded the research?

This research was funded by the Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education (QAA), an independent body that checks on standards and quality in UK higher education. None of the researchers or study staff received any financial reward by conducting this study, other than their normal salary.

Who has reviewed the study?

Research involving human participants is reviewed by an ethics committee to ensure that the dignity and wellbeing of participants is respected. This study was reviewed by the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences ethics committee (Ethics-fhss@port.ac.uk) and was given favourable ethical opinion.

University of Portsmouth Participant Information Sheet

University of Portsmouth Participant Privacy Statement

This survey tool is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License, except where otherwise noted. This license enables you to copy, redistribute this work in any medium or format and remix, transform, and build upon for non-commercial purposes. All you need to do is add the attribution and link back to the original work.

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