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Rhoden, Maureen; Maguire, Claire; Gallagher, Clora; Tahera, Khadija and Mathur, Sahil
(2024).
URL: https://i-he2024.exordo.com/programme/presentation...
Abstract
Approximately 28% of the students that attend the Open University’s (UK) Faculty of Business and Law declared having learning difficulties which included dyslexia. These students had an average pass rate gap of 10.1% when compared to students without a declared disability (Norfolk, 2022). One approach that could assist with reducing this pass rate gap is developing the role of online tutors when assessing the assignments of learners with declared dyslexia coupled with the support that the tutors receive to carry out this function.
The aim of the research was to explore whether the lived experiences of online tutors with personal and meaningful experiences of people with dyslexia (Cameron & Nunkoosing, 2012) had any impact on the strategies they used when assessing the work of students with declared dyslexia in HE.
Participants (n=13) were provided with two vignettes to read one week prior to participating in semi-structured interviews. The vignettes were used to explore their judgements and decision making when assessing the written assignments of students with declared dyslexia and when providing the learners with appropriate support. The vignettes were developed from stories collected from several online tutors within the Business School. The goal of collecting these stories was to recreate the lived experiences of the tutors as the vignettes were based on real-world situations which could encourage participants to respond authentically. The stories avoided unusual or exaggerated situations or characters and focussed instead on representing day-to-day dilemmas and problems that tutors often encountered when assessing assignments and supporting dyslexic learners.
This study suggests that tutors tended to perceive dyslexia as either a learning difficulty that needed to be fixed or as a positive and different way of thinking. Their preferred pedagogical approach appeared to be influenced by whether they had personal and meaningful experiences of people with dyslexia. While this study does not aim to suggest that tutors without these experiences are unable to engage with students with dyslexia this research found that tutors with personal and meaningful experiences tended to have gained cumulative and in-depth understanding of dyslexia which they used when conducting day-to-day tasks such as assessing assignments and supporting students with dyslexia.
This research concludes that tutors with personal and meaningful experiences of people with dyslexia were able to convey authentic and positive insights regarding the experiences of students studying online with dyslexia. As a result, this in-depth knowledge could be used to design appropriate training materials, briefings and to raise the awareness of online tutors in HE. This greater perception would also be useful for developing university policies, practices, and support which online tutors can use to address the specific needs of dyslexic learners.
References:
Cameron, H. & Nunkoosing, K. (2012). Lecturer Perspectives on Dyslexia and Dyslexic Students Within One Faculty at One University in England, Teaching in Higher Education, 17:3, 341-352, DOI: 10.1080/13562517.2011.64100.
Norfolk, R. (2022). Disability Pass Rate Gaps: Insight. Strategic Analytics, The Open University.
CORE (COnnecting REpositories)
CORE (COnnecting REpositories)
