Sarah and I had a bit of a chat about my reflections on what worked and what could have been better on my ARP:

As I mentioned in my conversation with Sarah, one of the things that comes next is the Changemaker project in the Digital Learning team at CSM. The hope is that the changemaker will be able to help with further testing and listening to students in order to inform the development of a Moodle template at CSM, to be piloted next year.

Referring to O’Leary’s cycles of research as shown in the diagram above, our previous development of Moodle is the ‘Act’ stage in the first cycle, my action research project is part of the ‘Observe’ and ‘Reflect’ stages in the second cycle and the next stage is to Plan and Act again. This will comprise of our work with the changemaker and within the team to devise the CSM Moodle template(s) and the further testing of them, and eventual implementation. This cycle will continue however, as each stage in the cycle builds on knowledge gained in previous cycles and implementation will involve further evaluation and development as the design becomes more complex.

Bibliography:

Koshi E., Koshi V. and Waterman H. (2011) Action research in healthcare SAGE publications Ltd, London​

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.

Summary of findings (Word)

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.’

Full report: Making Moodle more inclusive

Making Moodle more inclusive – Full report (Word)