Workshop with Heads of e-Learning Forum exploring outcomes and implications of the Jisc Digital Student project

1. Digital Students?
Reporting on students' expectations and experiences
of the digital environment

2. Digital Student Project
» Phase 1 study reviewed students’ expectations and experiences
of the digital environment at university
» Desk study | review of institutional data | survey of institutional
stakeholders | student focus groups
» Present consultation phase to inform final guidance to
institutions and further actions by funders
» Parallel study in FE and Skills plus review of practice in secondary
schools
http://digitalstudent.jiscinvolve.org

3. Expectations - headlines
› Free, ubiquitous, robust access to wifi and services
› VLE – organisation, time/task, content – consistency
› BYOD but also access to institutional hard/software
› Continued importance of spaces and places
› Support for skills development?
› Support for digital practices???

4. Experiences - headlines
› Highly contextualised to subject area and aspiration
› Not what was expected – unexpected is developmental
› Study habits with technology are hybrid – informal and peer
supported practices + academic criteria
– Critical moments with technology (e.g.) e-journals, data
analysis, reference management... formally taught
› Value perceived in retrospect
› Digital identity a critical motivation and outcome

5. Tensions and questions
digital know-how ↔ academic practice
personal/social ↔ institutional
familiar/transactional transformational↔
expectations requirements↔
frictionless adoption specialised practices↔
How do experiences in the digital environment
influence satisfaction?
What is the relationship between expectations
and experiences?

6. Transactional vs transformational
Transactional Transformational
Accessing networks
Accessing hardware and software
Accessing general and course-
related information
Signing on to university systems
Booking appointments
Submitting work, receiving grades
Sharing ideas, dialogue
Encountering threshold concepts
and practices
Developing independent study
habits
Collaborating on projects
Producing new digital artefacts
Reflecting, reviewing, revising
Reference management, data
analysis, e-journals, specialist
tools...
Expectations largely established in
advance by transactions with other
service providers
Expectations largely established
during study in dialogue with tutors
and peers

7. 'Building the vision': consultation

8. A vision for the digital environment
» Ubiquitous connectivity and data exchange: all potentially useful
content ‘a blink away’
» Continuous digital recording of experience
» Personal learning environment of devices, licenses, apps and
services, networks, information sources
» Enhanced spaces and places: permeable to outside world
» Blend of formal (closed) and informal (open) learning
» Personal data/records responsive, adaptive learning→

9. A vision for the digital environment

10. 'Building the vision': evidence

11. Evidence from Summer of Innovation 2013
Students 'really want' to:
» Network with like-minded
others, learn from peers
» Keep track of progress
» Revise effectively; engage more effectively with lectures; receive
more personalised feedback
» Manage study time and develop good study habits
» Enhance engagement with and impact of research (PGRs)

12. Challenges identified by institutions
» Preparing students to study successfully with tech
» Engaging students in meaningful conversations / managing
student expectations
» Tension between innovative/open and secure/closed
» Shift from supporting infrastructure to enabling
development
» Bring your own – risks, costs, opportunities, implications
» Staff skills

13. Challenges from 21st
May event
» Engaging vice chancellors in this agenda – need to develop people
as well as buildings and infrastructure
» Staff workload – difficult to do anything different/new
» Updating practice and knowledge as fast as it is changing
» Move from providing infrastructure/services to supporting people in
a mixed environment (especially for IT services)
» Fragmentation of digital expertise, policy and practice
» Providing consistency of service and parity of experience while
encouraging innovation and variety in learning/teaching

14. What institutions (say they) want
» Data clearinghouse (e.g. from institutional and national surveys)
and horizon scanning undertaken nationally
» Advice, guidance and support, pointers to further research
» Support engaging senior managers; establishing best practice
e.g. maturity assessment, benchmarking
» Support working with students develop digital envt
» National partnerships to find solutions e.g. data analytics, cloud
services, BYO/build your own...

15. More about our findings
http://digitalstudent.jiscinvolve.org

16. Over to you
How are e-Learning teams responding (and helping
HIEs respond) to students' changing expectations and
experiences in the digital environment?
bit.ly/digistudent2

17. Over to you
How would you prioritise recommendations from
this project?
Are there important recommendations missing?