In conducting the thematic analysis of data from the participant interviews, questionnaire and drawings, I have summarised them into 4 themes, each organised around a Central Organising Concept (Braun and Clarke 2018), or description. Each theme includes key takeaways and the conclusion addresses the research question.
See below for the:
- Summary of findings.
- Conclusion: addressing the research question.
- Full report: Making Moodle more inclusive
Summary of findings:
Please find the summary of findings below. An accessible version on Word is also included.
Conclusion:
To what extent does our Moodle design template support inclusive practice in relation to neurodiverse and disabled students?
Perhaps inevitably, the answer to this research question seems to be ‘partially’. Based on this data, there are practical elements that work well; headings, spacers, colour contrast, bullet points, and the use of distinct images for individual pages. When we work with course teams on their Moodle pages, we encourage them to think of Moodle as a member of the team, an active part of learning and teaching, and the data suggests that this has some traction – material is reliably available and Moodle is seen as important part of learning and teaching. Participants talked about the improvement from previous years and the overall usefulness of Moodle, suggesting (although not proving, of course) that this a step forward, rather than a reflection of Moodle without our current guidance.
‘Firstly, the redesign is better overall and more successful.’ Participant 1
‘I would say compared to last year’s Moodle, this one is a lot easier and a lot better to use.’ Participant 4
However, there are clearly significant areas where we need to improve. I would say the priorities here are clarity and consistency in the naming of documents; more training and support for staff, in a variety of easily digestible formats, to ensure they are in a better position to support students; and a push for lecture recordings to be made available. In addition, I think in the Digital Learning team we can look into potential for colour-coding, use of graphical images and further testing of the grid/collapsed topics format
One area we have not really touched on here is about accessible documents (the uploaded material on Moodle), and how to encourage best practice across the college. This is another significant area where we need to improve.
Finally, I’m aware that this project is very small and has focussed on one particular group of students. It’s interesting that relatively few of the comments made by participants specifically related to their neurodiversity or visual impairment. These were largely concerned with use of images or colour, a preference for a different font/background colour, use of a screen reader or the requirement to have less text, all of which are likely to be helpful to a wide variety of students. Having said that, I am also interested to run similar projects with other groups, in particular, students with English as an additional language, to see if their experience is substantially different. I will also incorporate some of the prompts used in this project into our Moodle evaluation forms in order to try and understand more about students and staff from a broader range of backgrounds who might not wish to participate in 1:1 interviews or focus groups. Speaking to students and staff has been a really pleasurable and valuable experience and I’m very grateful to all the participants. As one said:
‘So it’s good that they’ve got people thinking about this and, you know, meeting with students is very, very big step. And it’s a personal step, you know? So it’s good.’