Creative Higher Education and the Home Learning Environment

written by Tamsyn Dent, King’s College London and Silvie Jacobi, Researcher

Research on the home learning environment has been developed in relationship to early years development and primary – secondary education (Sutton Trust 2010), particularly in relation to inequalities around cognitive development and attainment level. Less attention has been paid on the relationship between the home learning environment and Higher Education (HE). In our last #CreativeHECovid zoom café which focused on coursework and assessment, the impact of the home learning environment for HE students was raised as an issue that the switch to online current assessment criteria has not yet taken into account.
In the discussion on younger children’s home learning environment data has exposed how C-19 has exacerbated the social inequalities within education (Sutton Trust report April 2020). There is a noted concern that C-19 will widen the attainment gap through unequal access to technology, support and space within the home learning environment, having a potential long term impact on social mobility. The report considers the impact of the home learning environment in relation to HE but acknowledges that there insufficient knowledge and evidence on the variable ability for students in HE to continue with their studies. It acknowledges that issues relating to space, resources including internet connection and other technological platforms plus caring responsibilities for family members will create barriers for certain students across their circumstances, making standardised online assessment frameworks problematic.
In our zoom café hosted last Wednesday on learning and assessment within Creative HE, the complexity of this shift, in relation to creative subjects was highlighted. Unlike other subjects, whereby essays or other forms of written work could be uploaded online (although acknowledging that there will still be variance across accessibility to online platforms) the shift to online assessment linked to creative subjects necessitated skills not necessarily linked to the curriculum – filming, editing and then uploading performances for example or creating a blog or online platform for a visual arts presentation. Access to the skills and resources to share coursework was therefore not equal and not part of the original learning outcomes. Participants spoke of the radical shift from group-based to individual assignments within certain subjects, particularly those in relation to the performing arts following C-19, and the loss of the collaborative thought-processes and development that emerged from group-based work. There was an acknowledgement of the difficulty in re-producing the studio-based environment within the home, and how artists, craftworkers, media practitioners would be able to access the material resources necessary for their assignments. Childcare came up as a particular impact on those students who could no longer concentrate on their coursework whilst managing home learning for their children. Although it was acknowledged that there were development opportunities in relation to innovation, planning, development and individual responsibility, participants in our discussion were mindful that there was an inequality of access to the resources, space and time needed for the online creative HE learning assessments which would be likely to create further divisions across gender, socio-economic status that are already problematic in both the creative HE sector and the creative economy more broadly.
You can access the forum discussion on learning and assessment through the creativeHEcovid  padlet by registering to take part in the project.