Access

---

Designing for Participation, Choice & Opportunity

Access is an important starting point for inclusive digital and AI-enabled education. At its most visible, it can mean having a suitable device, reliable connectivity and access to the platforms and resources needed for learning. But providing the technology does not necessarily provide an equal opportunity to participate.

Accessibility asks us to think about how people experience what we create. Inclusive digital education needs to recognise differences in health, culture, language, age and socioeconomic circumstances, alongside the different support and assistive technologies learners may require (Daniela, 2022). Universal approaches to learning can help us design for this diversity from the outset, rather than relying solely on individual adjustments (Kocdar and Bozkurt, 2022).

Access is also about choice and flexibility. Students learn in different circumstances and have different preferences for engaging with technology. Jisc’s research into UK higher education found that, while digital technologies provide significant benefits, aspects of the digital experience can still hinder some students. The findings emphasise the value of offering a range of platforms and modes of learning rather than assuming a single approach will work for everyone (Jisc, 2023).

Then there is modality: not simply whether technology is available, but what learners are able to do with it. Reich’s work on digital equity identifies a “usage divide”, where access to technology can result in very different learning experiences. Technology might enable creativity, collaboration and problem solving, or simply become another way of delivering content and completing routine tasks (Reich, 2020).

This is why we also need to understand barriers. Technology, teaching methods, people, environments, purposes and values do not operate independently. Fawns (2022) describes these elements as entangled, mutually shaping what actually happens in an educational experience. Access therefore cannot be solved by any single technology or teaching decision in isolation.

And perhaps this is where Access becomes a more useful lens for our practice. Providing the technology may get someone through the door, but meaningful access is about what they encounter once they are there: the choices available to them, how they can participate, the support they receive and the opportunities they have to succeed.

So, when we think we have provided access, perhaps the more important question is: what happens after access?

References

Daniela, L. (2022). Inclusive Technology-Enhanced Education. Educational Communications and Technology: Issues and Innovations, pp.1–11. doi: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-14775-3_1.

Fawns, T. (2022). An Entangled Pedagogy: Looking Beyond the Pedagogy–Technology Dichotomy. Postdigital Science and Education, 4(3), pp.711–728. doi: https://doi.org/10.1007/s42438-022-00302-7. [research.monash.edu]

Jisc (2023). 2022/23 UK higher education students digital experience insights survey findings. [online] Available at: https://digitalinsights.jisc.ac.uk/reports-and-briefings/our-reports/2022-23-uk-higher-education-students-digital-experience-insights-survey-findings/. [digitalins…jisc.ac.uk]

Kocdar, S. and Bozkurt, A. (2022). Supporting Learners with Special Needs in Open, Distance, and Digital Education. Handbook of Open, Distance and Digital Education, pp.1–16. doi: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-19-0351-9_49-1.

Reich, J. (2020). Failure to Disrupt: Why Technology Alone Can’t Transform Education. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard University Press