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Passed issues

These are the issues which achieved enough votes to be discussed by the Student Leadership Team.

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  • 6 score
    6 voters

    A reduction in responses from OU Staff throughout the academic year

    Submitted 2 years ago by Kelvin Connolly
    Passed
      2comments
      There has been a disconcerting lessening of replies from OU staff and forum moderators since the end of November 2022 across multiple modules/pathways. This has been heightened by the continuation of strike action and action short of strike along with system-wide errors that impacted multiple organisations across the globe from Microsoft, cloud service and unplanned outages disrupting both undergraduate and postgraduate studies (one drive, sign-in/account errors to name a few). Additionally, for all formative work not many of my questions regarding TMA01-04 and exam have had a response. On DE200 the main focus is on both mini-projects and exam. TMA 01 and TMA 03 has not had the same level of guidance or input in previous years to enable every student to achieve their best.This has heightened during the Easter Break increasing the chance there is a distinct disconnection from the OU campus which may increase stress and anxiety in fellow students seeking support for assignments, mini-projects and exams for instance. Ultimately this will impact student performance and potentially increase the chance of reduced marks in pivotal stages of undergraduate/postgraduate degree pathways which may affect degree classification in the future. I have heard from a multitude of students that are concerned the marks received are not their best work. Another potential set of situations is the alarming number of invalidating comments between staff and/or students. I have also experienced this several times in the last twelve months from forum moderators, students and also individuals that are not studying. This seems to have been exacerbated since the renewed strike action. I am still waiting on responses to correspondence from last academic year in terms of my various volunteering roles the longest is nearing two years which goes beyond the 1-5 days. In short, this was building since last summer and there has been a distinct change in module experiences as a result. Long-term this may affect degree classification for a multitude of fellow students that could feel shortchanged. For instance, assignment marks could reduce by three brackets which may not be indicative of the student's own performance. This will be due to the current situation that the educational sector faces in terms of EDI issues in paid roles. I hope that this will be addressed and taken into consideration so that the future careers of undergraduate and postgraduate students are not affected. https://www.oustudents.com/news/article/6013/Strike-Action-FAQs/ , https://www.ucu.org.uk/article/12791/UCU-Rising-strike-paused-campaign-continues.
    Janine Houghton
    7:36pm on 11 May 23 I have also noticed this and the lack of guidance or advice that we ask for we are told follow this link and read this despite already reading and still not understanding what it means.
    Beverley Binfield
    8:51pm on 12 May 23 I totally agree with this, having experienced this myself in the last two years. There is a distinct lack of guidance signposting to materials already read multiple times and I know there are a lot of undergraduate and potentially postgraduate students having these same issues. As a result, there has been a vast increase in the number of students making the difficult decision to defer following this year's extraneous factors.

    • Current issues Submit an issue (and vote on others) which you would like the Student Leadership Team to discuss at their next meeting.
    • Passed issues These are the issues which achieved enough votes to be discussed by the Student Leadership Team.

     
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