Year: 2023
Author: Mike Rose, Kwong Nui Sim, Jay Rowe, Rachel Spronken-Smith, Shijia Yu
Type of paper: Workshop
Abstract:
The digital divide is fundamentally intersectional. Despite great potential to remove barriers through greater accessibility, online and digital learning often implements the same barriers of resource, social capital, language and institutional membership that can occur in in-person education. Reflecting on the digital divide in both the UK and Australia, we identify how a range of intersecting factors can disadvantage or exclude researchers. Gender, race, socio-economic factors, nationality and education can individually and collectively make online spaces forbidding or inaccessible.
We run 23Things International, a large online research skills and profile-building programme for researchers. Institutions from several countries (UK, Australia, New Zealand, Ireland, USA, Bahrain) as well as the Africa Research Excellence Fund, partner to deliver content and scaffolding, informed by academic and professional expertise. One objective is to address intersectional barriers to research through networking opportunities, free resources, and access to the knowledge of our academic authors. For example, we have segments on Maori traditions and academic writing, international collaborations in research, and career planning in a globalised academic market.
In this discussion we will critically reflect on the successes and challenges of 23Things with respect to intersectional digital divides, drawing on the experience of our team’s members in managing university studentships programmes (Jay Rowe: Surrey Black Scholars initiative), distance learning and barriers to researchers’ adoption of ICT (Sarah Stein [Otago], Kwong Nui Sim [SISTC] and Shijia Yu [KCL]), ‘decolonising’ doctoral training (Mike Rose and Jay Rowe [UoSurrey]), and enhancing researcher mobility and funding success (Dawn Duke [AREF]). Challenges of resource and engagement remain prominent, and we are working to embed inclusivity and accessibility in our content; we hope through this discussion to share quality development practice and learn collaboratively with attendees.
We have run this programme for four years, each time collecting evaluations via questionnaires and focus groups. Sharing insights from this data may be useful to educators similarly concerned with reaching, engaging and supporting students and staff at risk of exclusion or disadvantage.
We run 23Things International, a large online research skills and profile-building programme for researchers. Institutions from several countries (UK, Australia, New Zealand, Ireland, USA, Bahrain) as well as the Africa Research Excellence Fund, partner to deliver content and scaffolding, informed by academic and professional expertise. One objective is to address intersectional barriers to research through networking opportunities, free resources, and access to the knowledge of our academic authors. For example, we have segments on Maori traditions and academic writing, international collaborations in research, and career planning in a globalised academic market.
In this discussion we will critically reflect on the successes and challenges of 23Things with respect to intersectional digital divides, drawing on the experience of our team’s members in managing university studentships programmes (Jay Rowe: Surrey Black Scholars initiative), distance learning and barriers to researchers’ adoption of ICT (Sarah Stein [Otago], Kwong Nui Sim [SISTC] and Shijia Yu [KCL]), ‘decolonising’ doctoral training (Mike Rose and Jay Rowe [UoSurrey]), and enhancing researcher mobility and funding success (Dawn Duke [AREF]). Challenges of resource and engagement remain prominent, and we are working to embed inclusivity and accessibility in our content; we hope through this discussion to share quality development practice and learn collaboratively with attendees.
We have run this programme for four years, each time collecting evaluations via questionnaires and focus groups. Sharing insights from this data may be useful to educators similarly concerned with reaching, engaging and supporting students and staff at risk of exclusion or disadvantage.