Student mental health is a critical issue in higher education. It is understood that higher education can act to trigger or exacerbate mental health difficulties, but research in this area has focused primarily on campus environments, identifying stressors such as halls of residence. Since distance learning students disclose mental health issues at a higher rate than campus students, and completion and progression gaps are on a par with the sector, the barriers and enablers to mental wellbeing in distance learning must be understood. This paper reports on a qualitative study that investigated barriers and enablers to mental wellbeing and study success that students experienced in distance learning. Fifteen distance learning students and five tutors were interviewed using narrative enquiry; students told their own stories and tutors told stories of students they had supported. Barriers and enablers were identified across different aspects of study, skills-development and the distance learning environment, and are presented in a taxonomy of barriers and enablers that suggest a range of implications for distance learning educators and policy developers.

Administrative burden in education is a serious issue for disabled students. Form-filling and bureaucracy are ubiquitous in further and higher education, particularly for students who need to disclose a disability and arrange for accommodations and support for an equitable educational experience. Paradoxically, many of these processes are inherently inaccessible for disabled students, and yet completing them can be critical to their success. Artificial Intelligence has potential to alleviate some of the burden imposed by administration and bureaucracy; virtual assistants and chatbots can replace forms with dialogue, without placing additional strain on institutions. However, it is essential that solutions are designed in partnership with disabled students to ensure that students’ needs are met, their concerns addressed, and the final solution is equitable for them. This paper explores a case study of participatory research with disabled students in a large UK distance learning institution, in which participatory research identified an issue of administrative burden for disabled students, and a virtual assistant was designed as a solution using participatory design. It shares the methodology and design process, explores findings from different phases of the research, and shares recurrent themes arising throughout the study. In doing so, it aims to provide a foundation for future participatory research to reduce barriers for disabled students.

UK higher education data has shown persistent differences in degree outcomes for specific student groups. Consequently, the Office for Students (the UK government's higher education regulator) are funding 17 projects to address these inequalities. Building on its expertise, our institution is leading the IncSTEM project alongside colleagues from two other universities, to evaluate, scale up and promote inclusive teaching and learning practice within Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) disciplines in higher education. There are challenges with inclusive distance learning, many of which are emphasised in STEM through the prevalence of practical and field activities, the widespread use of groupwork, and the use of text that is rich in symbolic notation. Online and blended learning approaches, including access to digital learning resources, bring opportunities for more inclusive practice, but can also lead to unforeseen and unquantified barriers for students. Integrating an inclusive approach to teaching and learning requires universities to embed and sustain practices that consider the diverse needs of students throughout curriculum design and delivery, bringing benefits to all students. In this paper, we present data on staff perceptions and practices regarding accessibility and inclusion for disabled students, explore examples of inclusive practice, and discuss how these can be applied by practitioners in order to create a higher education environment in which students of all backgrounds and characteristics are able to succeed.

Student mental health and wellbeing are critical topics in higher education. In response to broader societal shifts in thinking around mental health and wellbeing, there are calls for universities to take a more proactive and holistic approach, working in partnership with students to embed mental wellbeing throughout learning, tuition and curricula. This paper presents two participatory projects from different United Kingdom higher education institutions, both of which took holistic, proactive and inclusive approaches toward supporting student mental wellbeing in higher education, using online and technology-based approaches. The first project is the digital “Wellbeing Pedagogies Library” at the University of Warwick, a digital repository co-designed with students to foster the sharing of pedagogical practices that support student wellbeing, and to offer a practical support to students and staff who want to create and/or sustain wellbeing-inducing teaching and learning environments. The second project is the “Mental Wellbeing in Distance Learning” project at the Open University, which piloted five digital subprojects, led by different practitioners in partnership with students, aiming to address barriers to wellbeing in different aspects of distance learning. This paper presents the participatory methods and approaches from each project, explores stakeholders’ perceptions of the value that participatory approaches added to the projects, and comparatively evaluates the projects’ outcomes in order to draw conclusions that can inform future participatory research. In doing so, it explores different types of participatory approaches that can be taken in different contexts, and how terms such as “holistic,” “proactive,” and “inclusive” may be interpreted and applied in practice. Drawing on the findings, it posits that participatory approaches and partnerships with students should be considered a priority when designing digital resources, interventions and solutions to support student mental wellbeing.

Accessibility, inclusive teaching, and student support are multi-faceted; they are dependent on wider institutional factors, such as leadership, resource, systems, and culture. To be truly inclusive requires a whole institution approach, with voices, perspectives, and stakeholder buy-in sought from across the institution. This can be extremely challenging because these can be sensitive to myriad institutional, sector, and societal changes that can influence working practices, resource management, and capacity. In this paper, we analyse responses from three iterations of a biennial staff survey conducted in 2017, 2019, and 2021 at the Open University (OU), capturing views on accessibility and inclusion before and during the COVID-19 pandemic and other challenging circumstances. These responses, from tutors, module and programme teams, educational technologists, library staff, and student support teams, reveal crucial insight into the (in)accessibility of support and practice across the institution, as well as insight into staff skills, attitudes, and knowledge around accessibility, and the fitness for purpose of the systems and structures in place. In this analysis, we explore how staff practices and perceptions change over time; identify the themes that remain constant over time, despite global circumstances; and explore how these themes can inform a whole-institution approach to accessibility and inclusion.

Administrative processes are ubiquitous in modern life and have been identified as a particular burden to those with accessibility needs. Students who have accessibility needs often have to understand guidance, fill in complex forms, and communicate with multiple parties to disclose disabilities and access appropriate support. Conversational user interfaces (CUIs) could allow us to reimagine such processes, yet there is currently limited understanding of how to design these to be accessible, or whether such an approach would be preferred. In the ADMINS (Assistants for the Disclosure and Management of Information about Needs and Support) project, we implemented a virtual assistant (VA) which is designed to enable students to disclose disabilities and to provide guidance and suggestions about appropriate support. ADMINS explores the potential of CUIs to reduce administrative burden and improve the experience of arranging support by replacing a static form with written or spoken dialogue. This article reports the results of two trials conducted during the project. A beta trial using an early version of the VA provided understanding of accessibility challenges and issues in user experience. The beta trial sample included 22 students who had already disclosed disabilities and 3 disability support advisors. After improvements to the design, a larger main trial was conducted with 134 students who disclosed their disabilities to the university using both the VA and the existing form-based process. The results show that the VA was preferred by most participants to completing the form (64.9% vs 23.9%). Qualitative and quantitative feedback from the trials also identified accessibility and user experience barriers for improving CUI design, and an understanding of benefits and preferences that can inform further development of accessible CUIs for this design space.