One Assignment, Different Outcomes: Does Access to Academic Support Create an Unequal Playing Field
Why students often produce very different outcomes when completing the same assignment. Many learners within the university and student community have been discussing whether the reason for so many varied outcomes is due to differing access to academic support.
With AI tools becoming more widely available in recent years, some forms of support are now free and readily available, but other types of support such as guidance, feedback and personal tutoring are still inconsistent. Those students with high technological skills and good judgement will benefit from using these tools to aid their learning; however, others may not realise the risks involved in using them.
Whilst the assignment itself will all look the same, very rarely will everyone have the same situation. Students will have had varying levels of quality education, knowledge of academic standards, confidence in understanding the language within the assignment, amount of paid work they do, caring responsibilities and a quiet place to study.
Some will have family members who have been through university and will be able to advise them on what the marker is looking for; others will be left to figure out the unspoken rules. These factors will largely go unnoticed when looking at the final grade.
Students have always had unequal access to informal academic support. Some students will have private tutoring, parents proofreading, study groups and connections to peers who can help them more than others.
Whilst services such as writing centres, library sessions and office hours are in place to help reduce this gap, they can often be busy, at inconvenient times or simply unknown. This can be particularly difficult for international and part-time students.
This is where online academic support can be involved to support students in achieving high marks.
Gotoassignmenthelp is a renowned platform that provides online academic support and believes that students should gain acknowledgement for their hard work and efforts. If used this service correctly, students can get assistance in the form of explanations, free examples and referencing, which can act like a personal tutor. However, if used incorrectly (plagiarism), then it goes against academic integrity policies and can result in severe consequences. They offer free examples, a question bank and 24/7 chat support. Gotoassignmenthelp allows students to speak directly to subject experts to ensure they understand what is required.
This website clearly states that their aim is to empower students with comprehensive support to simplify their academic workload with relief. They also have an Academic Integrity Policy in place to show students how their resources can be used.
They offer academic services to students across the globe (Australia, UK, USA, Canada, India, Malaysia, New Zealand & Singapore), with a focus on how varied students’ situations can be.
If the support is affordable, easy to understand and for learning, then students who wouldn’t have other resources will benefit. However, if it is costly or being used to avoid learning, then it can create a bias towards those who can afford to pay the most.
Having clear guidelines will also make it fairer for students to know what their university allows.
How Is GotoAssignmentHelp Making It More Equitable?
There are 4 key points to consider:
- Provide short training sessions: To teach students skills relating to research, referencing and academic writing to reduce reliance on previous knowledge.
- Offer free support: By providing evening sessions, online sessions and clear guidance. This will help those in paid work, part time and international students.
- Provide clear guidelines: This will help students understand what they can and cannot do with AI, working with others and using third party help.
- Provide constructive feedback: Comments will help students to understand how they can improve.
What Students Can Do
Students can use the support responsibly by using it to help them learn. Ask for explanations, compare your draft to examples provided and check what the university policy says first. Only submit work that you understand.
Ultimately, this platform wants the grade to reflect what the student has learnt rather than how many resources they had available. Having open conversations between the universities, students and academic support providers is a sensible place to start.
About Us
Gotoassignmenthelp is an online academic support service for students across the globe (Australia, UK, USA, Canada, India, Malaysia, New Zealand & Singapore). The platform provides educational advice and resources.
They offer free examples, a question bank and 24/7 chat support. Their services provide convenience to students in the form of well-written assignments, homework, essays, dissertations, case studies, and lots more.
