Using weblabs as a tool to support a culturally diverse student cohort

This paper looks at potential issues thatmay be encountered by engineeringdepartments in the delivery of theircurriculum to a more diverse student baseresulting from the success of wideningparticipation (WP). This paper outlines apiloted solution to these issues by settingup weblabs: short interactive experimentsthat can be carried out by the students atany time from anywhere and shows how asystem originally developed to allow remoteaccess to real experimental equipment(ReLOAD) can also be used to support thelearning needs of a diverse student base.ReLOAD was incorporated into two differentcourses at University College London(UCL) and The University of Leeds, eachwith high proportions of WP students; andthe use of the tool and feedback from thestudents was recorded. What can be seenfrom this research is that, whilst supportingthe general student population in a positiveway, the tool can also be shown to givespecific support for issues encountered byWP students.