Wondering if any #ActuallyAutistic or #ADHD people have ideas that I'm missing.
My day job is supporting disabled university students. We have increasing numbers of autistic/ADHD students who are too anxious to attend classes. So they miss class 1, and then can't understand content of classes 2 onwards so get more anxious - and it spirals.
It's HUGE uni, often 100+ in class. Most buildings are HUGE, with vile acoustics and visual stress - can't change those. We do have quiet/sensory spaces.
We are not a remote course provider, that's legally and regulatorily a completely different service.
I have no authority to condone absence. Low-attenders get nagging emails which I can't stop.
Often tutors are AMAZING, they will really try and help with some extra 1:1 support, but there's hard limits on that due to workload/student-numbers. Tutors are frustrated cos student wants 1:1 of what was IN class (which isn't fair on them)
Studes often already use noise cancelling headphones etc.
I worry some students are coming to uni cos they feel they have to, and really aren't ready for it. academic and other colleagues and I often wish younger students could have a few years working first, and time to decide what they want to do, not what mum/dad/school push for.
Further Education have government metrics pushing university. Universities are on the hard sell to recruit.
I'm often astonished by students who haven't visited campus before signing up, even when they live locally...
@t54r4n1 I agree about not visiting in advance, I think part of it is due to social deprivation their families don't know this is a good idea and I do feel pre-uni students are babied so they aren't taught how to take initiatives (I blame their adults)...
And yes, being withdrawn from course is a huge risk for several right now, with expensive consequences.
Some tutors/depts do do "what to expect" and handbooks. I often find the anxious-non-attenders haven't looked for or read them 😬 ...
We try to contact studes before they start but their response rate is low.
We offer a mostly-autism focused summer school - with 2 days on campus trialling classes and staying overnight in halls. I think it's a yr too late tho!
School/college are in loco-parentis so disability support is "done to them" and Parents are legally responsible.
Uni treats studes like legal adults. so they're told "Hi, you told us you're disabled, please do A + B + C to get support"
Studes are told once a term how to get support if they have a disclosed disability and no support plan on the system.
Even when we create a support plan and email to offer more support, response rates are low.
Tutors have often signposted to us over and over again.
Our MH team will only accept direct student registering unless emergency. MHT reasoning is that unless student engages directly, their support doesn't work (while harsh, they may have a point)...
Seems like the way the system works, you have only small opportunities for leverage against the mighty powers of avoidance and overwhelm!
Would they click through to watch videos do you think? I'm imagining things like "here's a video tour of this lecture theatre with nobody in it and how to find your way there, you can/can't choose where you sit, most people take notes on a laptop, some people prefer paper, here's a clip or a photo from during a lecture", "hi we are the people you can talk to, here are some typical things which people talk to us about".
Also anything which makes it easier to ask for help - like a form with check boxes "please email me / please text me / I need X / Y / I'm not even sure what I need" versus the peril of I Have To Write An Email :-)
Or does that sound like stuff that already exists and doesn't work?
That's a good idea re video tours. I'll try pushing for that again or suggesting it to some course tutors who might be up for it... Esp on arts courses with a lot of ND students.
For context of how Stupid the uni can be, I've been asking NICE estates people for a flat plan of each floor of buildings #2-7 cos we have one of #1 and it's really useful... But no, they want Google Earth style whizzy wossname... That no one will fund...
I know tutors are using Teams messages with some success, but by the time student is in anxious-withdraw mode, they don't respond to that either. We're limited on how most tutors are permitted to communicate e.g. email/teams only cos safeguarding and boundaries reasons. Some depts don't let tutors phone frex.
I often find the tutors have done really cool creative stuff, but it's in-person. I dunno if some more stuff pre-admission would help or not, till we try it.
Yeah my intuition from what you've said is that even if it's logistically tricky to give them stuff before they arrive, that's also the point of highest leverage, because of getting people off to a good start. Like "get in before anything's gone wrong and multiplied the anxiety"!
A couple of other things that occur to me now:
1. Buddy systems - does that exist? perhaps involving students from the year above as hosts of small meetups in the first week, or saying hello online beforehand? If it weren't too much of a time investment, you could make a quiz about what they're into (distinct from their course, things like music or Pokemon or fandom) and assemble groups of 3 or 4 newbies based on that? Then they've potentially got someone to walk in to lectures with, which is much less daunting than having to turn up by yourself. And anything linking the previous year's students gives them another avenue for getting advice/info.
2. Caitlin whom I currently work with had a past project at Liverpool John Moores where students started the first year with a module identifying things like what learning styles came natural to them & what environment they needed to be successful, and it worked really well. To copy that full-on would need more buy-in from tutors than you can probably get, but I wonder if there might be elements you could nab. I could ask Caitlin where's a good write-up of what they did. (I know I've seen a video about this project, can't find it now.)
@unchartedworlds @t54r4n1 I know our tutors have been asking for years for intro to academic skills and getting to know you stuff to have higher prominence in year 1, but keep getting fobbed off.
Our new leadership team are dictatorial and clueless. They're also v patronising to front line people, I missed a meeting where top bod lectured an academic asking Qs about the new education strategy, on how to teach, rather than answer the question. We've had multiple increase in demand on /1
@unchartedworlds @t54r4n1 on academics with limited notice or resource. Things like adding multiple new assessment periods without recognition each one takes umpty hours more work. It's v difficult to ask academics to do more, cos many are exhausted which is in sick leave and departure spiral, loading more onto remaining.
I'm hoping they'll provide me with an accessible education policy so I can see what's happening. But the current PDF is riddled with the distorted font which I can't read.
NatalyaD
paramilitary organizer
Jennifer Moore 😷