By Dr Gillian Proctor (D.Clin.Psych.), lecturer in healthcare and Leeds Institute for Teaching Excellence (LITE) research fellow, Dr Emma Peaseland, LITE research and impact officer and student intern Theo Bedford.
This project explored how the online learning environment shapes our self-awareness and how we relate to others: our authenticity, identity, sense of connection, engagement, belonging and consequent ability to learn.
The project considered self-consciousness of one's own image, the blurring of public and private spaces, and the impact that the online environment has on people's inhibition. All of these factors are crucial to navigate in ways which promote inclusion and belonging for all students and staff.
We researched how these factors can be applied to online learning environments to support staff to develop pedagogically informed digital practices and facilitate students’ learning.
The team was made up of a researcher and LITE fellow, a research assistant from LITE and a student intern.
Action research groups
Participatory action research was used which is based on the principles of authentic collaboration, critical attention and cycles of reflection and action (Heron & Reason, 2006).
We recruited participants for two action research groups — one student group, and an educator group — and each group met for two hours six times between September 2022 and April 2023.
The group of 10 students had an average number of five members attending each session, while the 14 educators had an average of 10 members attending each session. All participants had experience of online learning and/or teaching.
Meetings were organised under the themes of contact, authenticity, connection and inclusion, with the student intern presenting one theme at each meeting. The researcher then facilitated the group discussions, which were recorded.
We extracted potential recommendations from the discussions and ordered them into themes. These recommendations were then discussed within the groups and amended after feedback from group members, before being circulated for wider consultation.
The project produced a template presentation of an online learning protocol, for programmes to adapt and share with students, and a set of recommendations for educators that we published in the form of a Microsoft Sway.
Project strengths and limitations
The methodology is ideal for projects where there are many stakeholders who all hold experience and expertise, as it encourages participation and democratic involvement.
There is a lot of work to ensure attendance at groups, including reminders and incentives and this can cause concern about whether enough people will attend each session.
A pragmatic strength of this method is that the data is created as it happens so data analysis time is minimal.
The opportunity to return to the research groups to allow them to comment on and adapt results brings rigour to the process, which can also benefit from having a wider group of stakeholder comments for wider representation.