DiSA Briefing Paper 5
The increasing participation of male BME leisure students
through Blogs and peer/tutor collaboration at the University of
Wolverhampton.
Martin Stokes, University of Wolverhampton
Overview
The DiSA project used a blog as an intervention to improve the dialogic relationship
between learners, peers and teachers. A disparity in attainment had been identified
between Black Ethnic Minority (BME) students and their white peers at the
University. The intervention improved the attendance and participation of BME
males in particular when compared to females, and females generally wanted marks
to be added or taken off in group work related to the level of participation. It was
not possible to compare performance over different modules as some of the
learning was contextual.
Abstract:
The use of institutional Blogs in this way is a ‘rarity’ at the University of
Wolverhampton and the work started initially because a part-time lecturer needed
to improve communications with students. It began 2 years ago as a case study
using Blogs as part of peer monitoring during group work to assess impacts on
student attendance, involvement and attitudes but is now part of on-going
ethnographic research involving over 200 students and 54 Blogs. Male BME students
when compared to females improved attendance and participated more and
disengaged BME students collaborated more with peers through digital tutor
support and intervention. Females agreed that marks should be added or taken off
for contributions to a task when compared with males.
Rationale:
Initial feedback using questionnaires and focus groups indicated very positive
responses about the Blogs from all students: for those having to work part time and
not being able to attend all lectures and meetings this was a welcome tutor and
peer-support mechanism.
Generation of Evidence:
Template: this was set up with the help of 6 students so that groups could record
individual attendance, apologies, and weekly tasks completed for the module.
Blog: this was designed so only students in their group and the tutor could
contribute.
Student focus groups: The students were all in teams for their Assignment and the
Focus groups were drawn from these with a mixture of male, female, White British
and BME students (international and British). Contributions were recorded and
annotated but all were anonymous.
Staff Focus Group: comprised of 2 staff from the Leisure Department and both had
recently taken part in modules utilising peer assessment. This was recorded and
transcribed.
Questionnaire: consisted of 2 closed questions, 2 open questions and 14 statements
which were graded on a Likert scale of 1 to 5.1 Many of the questions were adapted
from recent contemporary research (Tiew, 2010). Analysis was undertaken using
SPSS and t tests for comparisons between genders and ethnicity.
Observation: the tutor assisted all the groups in setting up the blogs and received
regular feedback regarding its use. Informal comments made by students in class
were noted and used to form questions in Focus groups and as part of individual
interviews (Interview Plus)
Interview Plus (Jisc, 2007; Creanor, Trinder, Gowan and Howells, 2006): this was
used to follow up comments made either on the Blog or informally in class and gave
a more in-depth insight in to the effect of the intervention on disengaged students in
particular.
Existing Evidence:
Whilst social blogging is commonplace with students on Twitter and Facebook,
institutional blogging on modules between students and staff at the Universtiy of
Wolverhampton is a rarity. The issue of student-tutor contact time may also be an
important factor influencing retention (Yorke and Longden, 2008) and Blog
technology could help assist this but staff lack time and resources and HE is trying to
address some of the negative implications due to an increasingly diverse student
cohort as well (Little and Williams, 2011); furthermore, BME students have lower
attainment levels than their white peers in Wolverhampton and this is a recurrent
pattern (Dhanda, 2010).
The use of simple technological systems can be established for staff and students
undertaking group work to improve attendance and participation and distal effects
can contribute as well (Brutus and Donia, 2010). High quality feedback is not always
needed to elicit better performance (Li, Xiongyi and Steckelberg, 2010). The fact
that higher numbers of BME students in SSPAL (+30%),2 than their white peers, fail
to complete year 1 of undergraduate study is also noteworthy and merits
comparison with other studies where this trend is also apparent. (McAffery, 2010:
255).
1
With 1 being for strongly agreeing with the statement and 5 strongly disagreeing. The mean was 3 and any
score of 2.5 or less was regarded as being in support of the statement.
2
Strategic Information Technology Services (SITS), University of Wolverhampton, 24.03.11.
In the context of this paper, Learner Voice relates specifically to Learners
themselves, the learning process and ‘co-operative enterprise’ as opposed to
student representation, the political process and materialism (Little and Williams,
2010:117). Learner focus is more subtle and complex requiring a 3 way split between
the peer, the teacher and the learner (Crawford, 2012) as stakeholders in the
learning process.
Learner Voice in HE is more aligned to the development of the learner engagement
with the academic and with theory, or ‘deep learning’ , interacting with both the
subjects and other learners and even being able to influence the curriculum
(McCulloch, 2009: 171-183). Students can learn from classmates and contribute to
their learning (Cook-Sather, 2011). It is very difficult to learn from voices we don't
want to hear (Bragg, 2007) the voices we don't know how to hear. The wide sociocultural and academic backgrounds of students now accessing HE is up 30% since
2005 and will be even more so now that more AAB students will be allowed to
attend The Russell Group of Universities for instance (Government White paper,
2011).
Research findings/ New Evidence:
For students using the Blogs and peer monitoring for the first time (phase 1), there
was significant correlation of improved attendance for males compared to females
and increased participation of all BME students compared to White British students.
Focus groups of male students in phase 2 also agreed attendance improved and BME
males stated that attendance and participation had improved.
The blogs helped identify disengaged learners and one BME male yielded particularly
interesting experiences through Interview Plus (Jisc, 2007, Creanor et al, 2006) and
participation generally improved whilst collaboration with peers was better for a
time.
However, over two years, the impact of the intervention was reduced; nevertheless
BME students still agreed that their attendance improved whilst all females agreed
that individual marks should be deducted for low attendance. Males were less
committed to this.
Outcomes/implications for policy and practice:
 BME males improve attendance and participation through the intervention
and this could have a positive impact on their engagement with learning and
their retention at the University.
 The use of Blogs as part of summative as well as formative assessment would
help students and staff to identify ‘freeloaders3’ and make group work more
3
Freeloading: although a slang term it is now used more extensively in research communities to
describe how students take advantage of peers, especially in group work, and contribute little or nothing
to the ‘team’ effort. Slang. To take advantage of the charity, generosity, or hospitality of others.
www.thefreedictionary.com/freeloading Accessed on 1st of August, 2012
equitable. It would also engage staff as part of CPD in developing new
technology in the assessment process.

Any other comments:
 The ethnic categorisation is too simplistic and more work needs to be
undertaken comparing EU, international and British BME students for
instance
 A range of staff need to use the Blog system to ascertain if the research is
contextual.
 Tracking students’ performance over the course of the intervention is needed
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