Widening the (out)reach: Using interactive webinars to extend widening participation beyond local geographical boundaries (Outreach & Recruitment) Practice Jon Rainford, Access Partnership Support Officer & Trevor Sinclair, Access Partnership Lead Officer, University of Bedfordshire, UK This paper focuses on the effectiveness of utilising webinars in place of traditional campus based events for outreach activities with pre-entry students. The presenters will discuss the challenges and opportunities in using the Blackboard collaborative software in a pilot project to engage with a specific cohort of learners in one school where geographical barriers would normally have made this sustained engagement unfeasible,

1. Widening the (out)reach: Using
interactive webinars to extend
widening participation beyond
local geographical boundaries
Jon Rainford (@jonrainford) and Trevor Sinclair
Access Partnership Team (@BedsATeam)

2. University of Bedfordshire 2
Widening Participation Landscape
• Changes in Higher Education funding in England post-2012
• Every HEI wanting to charge more than £6000 per student must write
an Access Agreement.
• Need to track and monitor more effectively
• Focus is constantly evolving. Interim report by OFFA (2013) stated:
• Outreach is most effective when it is a progressive, sustained
programme of activity and engagement over time.
• Outreach programmes need to be directed towards people at
different stages of their education, starting at primary level.
• Challenges this creates:
• Ability of schools to timetable and staff visits to HEI’s
• Restrictions on time, especially in examination heavy years

3. University of Bedfordshire 3
University of Bedfordshire
• Established 2006 following merger of University of Luton and DMU’s
Bedford Campus
• 6 campuses – Bedford, Luton, Putteridge Bury, Butterfield Park,
Aylesbury, Milton Keynes
• 24,000 students
• Diverse population (100+ nationalities)
• 34% students are over 25
• 97% students from state schools
• 35% entrants are from BME populations
• 53.2% of our young full-time undergraduates are from NS-SEC 4-7
• Care leavers

4. University of Bedfordshire 4
Our Access Programme
Sowing the
Seed Event
• Aim 4 Uni Days – Years 8 - 10
• Year 9 Options
• Access Partnership Associate
activities
• Taster Days
• Pilot Mentoring
Scheme
• E mentoring
• Making a successful UCAS application
• Preparing for university life
• Student Finance & Money Matters
• Information, Advice & Guidance on HE Finance, Options & UCAS
• Access Partnership Associate activities
• Targeted Summer Schools
• Considering and Experiencing HE
• Vocational Days
• Subject Specific & Targeted Summer
Schools
• Access Partnership Associate activities
•Access Event
• Access Summer
School
•Breo training
• E mentoring
• Access PA
activities
• Student shadowing
• Uni visits/lectures
• Summer Schools
• PAD PALS
• Careers talk
• Motivational talk
• Networking Event

5. University of Bedfordshire 5
The Case of eOutreach
• Reduces Geographical Restrictions
• Removes issues of travel time and costs
• Allows targeting of specialist groups
• Subject based (e.g. Midwifery, Law, Health and Social Science
etc.)
• Also provides subject specific work for associates
• Protected characteristics (i.e. Disability, Ethnicity, LAC etc.)
• Access Students transitioning to HE
• Provides access to facilities that might not hold groups
• Labs, Specialist / Remote facilities – Crime Lab / Butterfields
• Facilitates opportunities for prolonged engagement over time
• Easy route to data capture for monitoring purposes

6. University of Bedfordshire 6
Choosing technologies
•Working with colleagues
in CLE
•Historically we have used
Wimba Classroom for
remote teaching
•Wimba was brought out
by Blackboard and merged
into Collaborate
•We chose to utilise the
software the institution
already had
•Also provides experience
working on platform they
might use as undergrads

7. University of Bedfordshire 7
Pilot implementation
• Initial plans to pilot with group of students for a session on study
skills but this session was deferred to next academic year.
• Instead pilot involved training of 8 associate students who work on
within our Access team.
• Session was delivered from one campus with 5 attendees to another
where 3 students attended.

8. University of Bedfordshire 8
Activities
• Aim was to try different activities we do in face to face sessions
remotely to see how they worked in a Webinar scenario
• Quiz
• Had to establish a ‘buzzer’ system
• Led to increased competition
• Audio delays caused some issues
• Jigsaw activity
• Had hard copy resources at both ends
• Required a facilitator at both ends who understood activity
• Proved interesting due to lack of visual feedback

9. University of Bedfordshire 9
Challenges
• Remote participants found the lack of visual cues difficult in
communicating
• Dropping of connection
• Delays in audio
• Technological challenges
• Java
• Initial set-up
• Needing a ‘technician’
• Content of session needs to be adapted for remote participants
• Briefing the lead at the remote location is important

10. University of Bedfordshire 10
Future Opportunities
• Pre-visits for Primary schools
• Cross campus events (Associates training)
• Visits to crime scene lab / Nursing simulation centre
• Foundation degree e-learning (assist with transition)
• Access for offsite students in FE to university lectures
• Specialist sessions (i.e. introduction to Law – Debating perhaps)
• Weekly ‘drop-in’ sessions (Buddy scheme & mentoring for
prospective applicants)

11. Any questions?
September 2006University of Bedfordshire 11