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Kate Blackham

Relaxed Tutorials

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Edited by Kate Blackham, Thursday, 8 Feb 2024, 13:51

I was emailed a fascinating internal news article yesterday about the value of running Relaxed Tutorials. The idea comes about as a follow-on from Relaxed Events in arts and culture events in theatres and cinemas. 

https://www5.open.ac.uk/scholarship-and-innovation/fasstest/blog/relaxed-tutorial-project-new-way-looking-accessibility-distance-learning?nocache=65c4d609264a4

The trial was run by Classics tutors as part of their faculty's Scholarship of Teaching and Innovation group and was aimed at increasing participation of autistic students, with of course the added benefit that Universal Design has advantages for all students.

(Anecdotally here I'm going to mention that of all the subjects in the Humanities it is fitting that Classics have decided to try this approach. My neurodivergent son is a second year Classics student at Royal Holloway and swears blind that while autistic men are drawn to Physics and Computer Science, their autistic sisters can be found in equally large numbers in Classics.)

The list of steps taken is reassuringly close to what I make a point of doing in my tutorials: not calling upon any particular students, allowing the use of chatbox or microphone, not expecting the use of their webcams even in tiny groups. The only difference is that all my tutorials have to be recorded for the benefit of those unable to attend.

I like also that they mentioned the providing of slides beforehand. I always do that. My own tutorgroup are used to me doing that and also are very aware that my own autism diagnosis impacts on my willingness to accommodate for their needs and make things as accessible as possible. However, when I was preparing for a module-wide tutorial before Christmas and sent my usual group email mentioning the availability of my slides several of the students became concerned that this was because the tutorial was not going ahead after all - it would seem I am unusual. I think that the next time (i.e. next week) I will mention my autism and my intention to provide as accessible as possible resources and that hence my slides are available early as part of my Relaxed As Possible Tutorial approach.

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Kate Blackham

Tutor disability disclosure and group work

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So I recently finished H880 Technology-enhanced learning and one of the things we talked about was teacher presence and being open and honest with our students.

I post my introduction thread before term starts on the tutor-group forums and while I don't share my laundry list of issues I am honest about my autism diagnosis and the issues that created for succeeding at university the first time around. To 'celebrate' World Mental Health Day on 10 October I always share some mental health resources for students and mention that I have personal experience of poor mental health derailing my studies.

There's always a danger that being that open is going to cause students to be dismissive of me as a teacher ("those who can't, teach", right?). But to be honest, those sort of students generally have the benefit of an unhindered education and they probably don't need me much except as someone to mark their TMAs. Certainly some students don't seem to want to interact with me much, and that's fine.

What is interesting is some of the conversations I am having in private. I noticed at the beginning of the term that for the first time since starting at the OU I had no autistic students.

I now know that to not be the case. I have a number of students who are diagnosed with autism or waiting for an autism diagnosis. But they hadn't disclosed it to the university. Some of them have disclosed a disability but haven't said what that is, others haven't mentioned that they even have a disability (you can disclose having a disability without mentioning what it is or having DSA).

And I don't know, but I wonder if this doesn't feed into some of the group work issues that we tutors find on SM123. I know that lots of my AL peers have issues with getting groups going. In my emails and my introductory tutorial I always mention that there is group work in week 3. And here's where I diverge a little from the 'suggested plan' provided by the module team in-house. The suggested format is that I assign students to group from before the course, so they have time to get to know each other. It makes perfect sense. For a neurotypical.

I openly discuss my late diagnosis. And I tell them that because of my own experience I now treat every student as a potential undiagnosed autistic.

There is actually an alternative activity for students with anxiety or autism, etc. But it's not made clear on the module materials. So I tell them that there is alternative available. Most students want to do the group project, but there are always a few with perfectly valid reasons who don't. 

I think ideally the students would be brave enough to declare their disabilities, especially since I suspect that the average AL is not autistic themselves (or at least they all seemed to be extremely loud and sociable at the STEM AL development day I attended) and hence not able to coax a private confession out of them as I can. I don't know what the answer to that is.

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