campusreview . com . au policy & reform were worried about attrition , is this going to mean more students are dropping out ? What we found is that while hyper flexible isn ’ t enough to save students who were going to leave anyway , so if they were going to leave , they were always going to leave and this isn ’ t enough to sort of protect them , but it wasn ’ t the actual cause of attrition .
What were some of the benefits of removing assignments due days for lecturers ? We care a lot about the staff experience . Many times we focused on the student and what the students learning experience is . But of course we know that how staff interact has a really big outcome on how the students experience study . Some of the benefits for lecturers was that they often really cared about the wellbeing of their students , and if their students are doing well , that can bring a lot of work satisfaction for staff , but it can also mean flexibility for them as well . We found they could moderate peak loading times . It did also give some benefits to team teaching and sharing that workload out . And some of the lecturers who participated in the study said that marking one off assignments as they dripped through was far more relaxing and allowed them to give more good feedback as it wasn ’ t a huge onslaught all at once .
What are the risks for lecturers if students have the liberty to choose when they give back their assignments ? The main risk there about students being able to choose is not really having a clear idea of when your marking is going to arrive in a traditional format . That onslaught coming at the end of week six , you can block out your calendar and you can make plans for that marking . Whereas when there ’ s no set due dates , that marking can really arrive at any time . So that can be a bit tricky , particularly if lecturers are also balancing research responsibilities or want take leave or go to conferences , that can be a bit of a disadvantage there . For lecturers as well , there was a feeling of two distinct cohorts and they ’ re trying to manage two different groups in there , which means that it just needs some additional sort of thinking and framing . And so it ’ s not necessarily more work or more workload , but just differently measured and managed workload . So there there ’ s a need for different systems and training and ways of calculating and recognising workload .
Your study focused on undergraduate students in humanities . Would this work with other disciplines ? Humanities was a great discipline to look at and in other disciplines they do have external accreditation which can make things tricky . They ’ ve also got , let ’ s say placements and pracs . And so when students maybe in schools or in hospitals , that could change the dynamic a bit as well . So this has got a small study , so I wouldn ’ t necessarily want speak for all disciplines . I think as with everything , there ’ s the absolute ability to be flexible when we need to be flexible and we should have those discussions , but I do think we need more research before we approach hyper flexibility in those different disciplines where there are those factors at play .
You believe being more open ended about when assignments are submitted looks like the next logical step for universities . Why ? Universities have been looking for ways to stand out and attract students even before Covid . Particularly as the job market picks up , maybe less people are looking to come to university because there ’ s great jobs out there earning lots of money . So universities are competing for these students . And then we had more institutions go online , they got more comfortable with being
flexible than perhaps they ever had been before . But also they ’ re really looking for ways to retain students . Likewise students , they ’ re busier , and so many people have jobs or have kids . I think this idea of the uni student as the 18-year-old school leaver who maybe lives off the bank of mum and dad or has a very part-time job , I think that ’ s really outdated . I don ’ t think many students per se fit that mould anymore . So universities need a way of serving the needs of that new community of students who have lots of genuine time pressures , and it ’ s going to be something they will all have to address .
What are the benefits of being more flexible for the tertiary sector as a whole ? I think when we ’ re talking about student stress , removing some of that stress for students does help as they navigate and commit to study , and perhaps on a bigger scale we will see students be able to fit in study around their life more easily than they currently can . Maybe there is a mother of four and working as a nurse and wants to come and do their nursing degree but can ’ t quite find the time because they can ’ t turn up to 12 weeks of lectures . I think opening up and being more flexible either with a hyper flexible approach like we did or even just with more flexibility around due dates . I love the idea of more equitable and having an increasingly equitable higher education sector where we can welcome in more students and make a difference to more people ’ s lives . ■
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