There is nothing so alienating as reading a document which you think has been written for you, and finding it doesn’t even recognise that you exist. If you are in a university where the majority of students are on-campus, the policies can frequently be written purely from the on-campus viewpoint, often without realising that they have done so. Another example would be if your university has recently changed delivery methods (e.g. blended to online only) or assessment methods. Read through any policies which should apply to your students that you make reference in your module. E.g. the University Assessment Policy. See them from your learners’ point of view. If they are excluded or disregarded, change if you can; notify the owner of that policy if you can’t; and in any case, include a note around the policy to indicate to your students how it applies to them. If possible ask students to check through any guidance / policies. The student union may well have reviewed to bring in the student voice, but does your union have representatives for all students, e.g. do they have off-campus officers?

Example: Freda’s University had spent a lot of time creating a reader-friendly resource for students, but on closer inspection she noticed a lot of references to facilities in the city campus. Some services did mention off-campus students, but didn’t make it clear how off-campus students could access them. She notified the owner of the guidance, who then checked with the services and amended the resource accordingly. The document was given to an off-campus student to check through and a couple more areas were highlighted for enhancement. A summary of changes was fed through to those supporting off-campus programmes.