CROPSCon 2025

In this presentation, Dr Weigand and Dr Sidebottom offer reflections on online student engagement, focusing chiefly on building communities in online PGT spaces and extending learning beyond formal education systems. 

They draw on the contexts of two Masters programmes that are hosted in the same Education department but have different target groups and modules, and on a MOOC that engages an even wider and more diverse group of participants. 

The presentation will link reflections to posthuman theory, thinking with Deleuze and Guattari’s notion of the rhizome. In botanical terms, a rhizome is a kind of plant that has no fixed root systems, but complex networks of nodes, shoots and tendrils which span a wide area. In similar ways, humans naturally form part of extended complex networks which challenge the bounded, linear and binary thinking often seen within education systems. 

Rhizomatic thinking encourages us to consider how such networks are formed and to seize opportunities for students to direct and forge their own curriculum. Through explorations and practical examples, we hope to show how different understandings of relationality and learning can encourage the building of sustainable and joyful communities. 

AI use is generally framed by summative assessment practices and discourses of threatening academic integrity or cheating. Symptomatic of this is an arms race between AI detection algorithms for assignments and practices to "cloak" synthetic text from detection. 

Rather than framing AI use in this way the UCLan Medical Education programme experimented with collaborative formative assessment practices to reposition AI use. Dr Wright argues that sound pedagogies and formative approaches are a more meaningful educational response to synthetic text from large language models (LLMs) in assessments than a reliance on detection systems. 

Students worked in action inquiry sets, sharing formative drafts of work. Through reviewing peers’ work and reflecting on their own, they could experiment with AI. Peer review was facilitated through Turnitin – including the AI detection algorithm. However, as formative work is excluded from academic misconduct policies, the approach enabled creative use of AI. 

The talk presents student accounts of their generation of synthetic reflections, synthetic data and LLM mediated writing. AI use introduced novel textual formulations that supported greater reflection. The formative approach enabled expansion, reflection and accounting for their insights. 

When subsequently submitted for summative assessment, rather than being locked into a detect-and-punish paradigm these experiments were accompanied by accounts of AI use, with reflection on LLM’s implications for teaching and assessing online postgraduate courses and specifically those areas where professionalism is a key concern.

🔈Tina Postalian, University College London

📍Room A - Room WCMUH 1204

Abstract: 

As universities incorporate an asynchronous provision as part of online programmes appealing to the possibility of learning anytime, anywhere, the topic of attention in online study is both important and relevant in education today. Much research focuses on asynchronous pedagogies or on distraction within a performative context, yet much less is known about students’ lived experiences of attention and online study. 

This research takes its departure from a philosophical reflection of technology. It advances a nuanced position of attention, and explores online students’ own construction of attention to better evaluate the positioning of the online student in the neoliberal university. 

Based on the experiences of eleven postgraduate students on a fully online programme, the research design follows a postphenomenologically-informed qualitative approach. The data highlight three themes that underpin students’ construction of attention through their own micro-interactions with technologies: attention as familiarity; as continuous practice; and as goal orientation. 

The discussion addresses how attention in online asynchronous study involves both physical and digital worlds, but also how attention exists within a broader ecology, highlighting tensions between unwanted and welcome intrusion. Ultimately, the ability to seclude oneself from interruption can be considered a form of privilege. 

These considerations have broad implications for educational thinking and practice that go beyond attention as a binary and measurable concept. A nuanced definition of attention is necessary for furthering praxis in the field of digital education.

🔈Professor Julie Langan-Martin & Dr Hayley Connell, University of Glasgow

📍Room B - Room WCMUH 1205

Abstract:

Online study offers flexibility and global access, but fostering a sense of community among distance learners remains challenging. Within the School of Health and Wellbeing (SHW), over 150 postgraduate taught (PGT) online distance learning (ODL) students are enrolled across five master’s programmes: Public Health, Global Mental Health, Health Economics and Health Technology Assessment, Infant Mental Health, and Positive Behavioural Support. Feedback from the ODL Staff/Student Liaison Committee (SSLC) indicated that many students feel isolated and disengaged, with some programmes noting limited participation in SSLC activities. 

This project aimed to enhance online engagement and promote a sense of belonging among SHW’s ODL PGT students. At the start of the 2024/2025 academic year, a Microsoft Teams channel—‘SHW ODL PGT Community’—was launched, comprising five channels: general, book and film recommendations, pets and animals, recipe recommendations, and SHW/UoG events. Programme leads and administrators were encouraged to initiate informal conversations to build community. Ethical approval was obtained (MVLS Ethics Application Number: 200240024). 

Over nine months, staff posted 28 messages, and one student representative contributed two. Student engagement was minimal: only 14 out of 150 students interacted by ‘liking’ posts, and no new posts were initiated by students. Despite an expressed desire for connection, engagement with the Teams channel was low. 

These findings suggest that barriers to participation remain and highlight the need for further research into what supports genuine community-building in online postgraduate education.

🔈Dr An Nguyen, King's College London

📍Room A - Room WCMUH 1204

Abstract:

Mature adults comprise more than half of the UK higher education student population, indicating significant growth in participation opportunities. However, this expansion has not necessarily resulted in equal educational quality and outcomes for adult learners. This study addresses the research gap regarding the availability and quality of support systems for mature students within Russell Group universities (RGUs) – a select group of 24 research-intensive institutions in the UK. 

A systematic review of 24 university websites and relevant literature from 2000 to 2023 was conducted. Findings reveal that RGUs primarily offer support to mature students in finance, social integration, caring responsibilities, and academic skills. A mismatch is found between the support provided and the needs of mature students in terms of financial support eligibility criteria. 

The research contributes by providing recommendations for universities and policymakers to develop more inclusive strategies to support mature students in the UK and similar contexts. As a reflective account, we present a case study of support for mature students on the online MSc Global Human Resource Management at King’s Business School.

🔈Dr Wendy Kwok, SPH, Imperial College London

📍Room B - Room WCMUH 1205

Abstract:

While online education has become increasingly popular in higher education (HE), there has been little enquiry about online classroom dynamics and curricula. The hidden curriculum (HC) has been described as incidental learning occurring between the lines of the formal curriculum and via socialisation in a learning community. 

This study explored what the HC is and how students experience it in an online Master of Public Health offered by Imperial’s School of Public Health. Semi-structured interviews with eight students were conducted to investigate their conceptions and experiences of the HC and four themes were identified via reflexive thematic analysis. 

Firstly, participants had clear conceptions of formal curriculum but divergent understandings of the HC; they broadly agreed it relates to incidental learning not specified in the formal curriculum. 

Secondly, student engagement in the learning community is contentious due to norms of social absence, competitiveness and the difficulties of balancing life-load alongside studying. 

Thirdly, hidden power dynamics in the curriculum (perhaps unwittingly) favour medical, Western and positivist knowledge over that from social sciences and marginalised communities, reflecting existing inequities in public health discourse. 

Finally, participants identified assessment and feedback as a key HC component, reporting a desire for more dialogic feedback and how current practices obstructed deep engagement with subject matter.

🔈Dr Magdalena Cerbin-Koczorowska, University of Edinburgh 

📍Room A - Room WCMUH 1204

Abstract:

Designing and delivering online postgraduate taught programmes (OPTP), especially those reaching a global audience, requires navigating a landscape shaped by multiple, interacting factors. 

This presentation introduces a multidimensional model that emphasises the interdependence of three key constructs: agency, appraisal, and acculturation. Drawing from an extensive literature review and recent research, the model demonstrates how these elements continuously influence one another, creating a dynamic and sometimes unpredictable foundation for online learning experiences. 

Findings illustrate that arranging educational experiences has to go beyond static or linear processes. Rather, it should acknowledge that online postgraduate learning is a fluid balancing act. The session concludes by exploring the feasibility of the model for designing, delivering and evaluating students’ experiences as well as a framework for OPTP Research.

🔈Dr Jessica Hancock, University of London

🔈Tim Hall, University of London

🔈Dr Matthew Phillpott, University of London

🔈Larisa Grice, University of London

📍Room B - Room WCMUH 1205

Abstract:

This lightning talk will offer an overview of a pilot of a generative AI program, Noodle Factory, which has been used in an online PGT programme to develop reflective writing. 

Students on the course wrote a short reflective piece, which they entered into the program to obtain feedback which they could discuss, ask for clarification, and even ask for suggestions for improvements. Initial research into the student experience with this AI feedback has been undertaken, particularly in comparison to peer feedback on writing which is used elsewhere on the course. 

Initial feedback is very positive about the AI feedback, although some have noted that it feels less personal than the peer feedback. This could be useful for anyone with a PGT course who is thinking of using generative AI feedback for their students.