Project title: Inclusive Engineering Hub for transformative, equitable and inclusive teaching
Funding awarded: £93,700.00
Summary:
The Inclusive Engineering Hub, first developed through a Diversity Impact Programme grant in 2022, is an inclusive environment for students to celebrate diversity, receive professional personalised careers and coaching support, engage in engineering activities, ease cost-of-living pressures, socialise and focus on self-care. Based on student feedback, the new project aims to upgrade the existing Hub and develop new extended reality (XR) facilities for engineering education.
Incorporating XR teaching opportunities in engineering education could enable significant curriculum and skills development. This project will improve student access to a wider range of these transformative engineering experiences in welcoming and inclusive environments outside formal teaching.
What needs does the project address?
The project has been developed following feedback from students who have participated in the Inclusive Engineering Hub, and recognising gaps found between groups (based on socioeconomic status, race, ethnicity, gender, disability, and neurodiversity). Making open-access XR facilities available in inclusive spaces will allow students to access a range of engineering experiences. This will improve the cohesion of their learning and transferable skills, providing vital development opportunities for translation to industry.
What will the students experience?
This project will provide an interactive environment for students, equipping them with a wider range of engineering opportunities and additional skills development. Though the XR facilities are open to all students, beneficiaries will be supported in participation through a booking system combined with a support intervention scheme. Student-centred methods will be used to evaluate opportunities and barriers to participation in XR engineering experiences. The project will pilot a support intervention scheme for underrepresented students that considers intersectionality through performance, wellbeing and diversity data, combined with widening participation sessions to widen the reach and encourage belonging.
What are the expected outcomes?
Project success measures include:
- engagement level and mixed methods evaluations, to encourage the student voice and implement appropriate support for equitable and inclusive XR learning
- evaluation of the support provided through the intervention scheme and how it helped students
- adoption into wider teaching initiatives
- developing best practice guidance to disseminate to other institutions.
For more information please contact:
Dr Elizabeth Ratcliffe, Senior Lecturer in Bioengineering, Academic Lead Inclusive Engineering; People to Products VC Scholarships Research Cluster and Excellence Hub