Digital Diversity, Learning and Belonging

This project is about widening participation (WP) once students have begun their university education. The study will investigate how digital technologies are impacting on the successful engagement of diverse and under-represented students whilst studying at the university. In this way, it will fill in an important part of the WP agenda, by building understanding of these students’ experiences in university and of future strategies that might be used to support them. The aim of this study is to explore a range of WP students’ experiences across six academic schools within the University of Bristol in relation to their formal and informal learning lives. We will examine the role of digital media in facilitating new learning experiences and a sense of belonging to the University. In line with recent work on undergraduate involvement in research (Brew, 2006, Neary & Winn, 2009; Zamorski, 2002), a group of 30 students are working with the project team as co-researchers using visual methods to document their learning lives (Cashmore et al., 2010; Timmis & Williams, 2013). They will also be invited to take part in analysis and dissemination activities. The project is funded by the University of Bristol's widening participation research strand.