The survey found that: - Most students owned laptops and smartphones, with laptops seen as most important for academic success due to their wide range of uses. - Laptops were used for consuming, communicating, and creating information using tools like presentations, screen casting, and wikis. - Smartphones and tablets were mainly used for consuming videos or communicating via social media. - Students felt most confident using presentation tools, and least confident using screencasting, response systems, and professional networks. - Expectations of using technologies matched how important students felt they were for their studies.

1. Exploring the Use of Digital Technologies
and Devices in Student Learning
Dr Helen Kay
Alan Donnelly

2. • The Digital Technologies Survey ran between 16th October and 2nd November 2014.
• The survey was targeted at undergraduate and postgraduate students that had recently
arrived at Sheffield Hallam University. The target population was approximately 8,600
students and 22% (1,914) responded.
• The survey was developed in a collaboration between the University of Leon, Spain, the
Centre for Education and Inclusion Research, the Faculty of Development and Society, and
the Student Engagement and Experience Team and the Technology Enhanced Learning
Team, QESS.
Digital Technologies Survey

3. The importance of
devices for achieving
academic success
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
100
Laptop Smartphone Tablet or iPad
Extremely important Very important
Moderately important
Ownership of devices
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
100
Smartphone Laptop Tablet/iPad Smartphone
and Laptop
Smartphone
and
Tablet/iPad
Laptop and
Tablet/iPad
Proportionofrespondents(%)

4. Which devices were used by students to access
the digital technologies?
• Laptops were used for a much wider range of purposes compared to smartphones and
tablets/iPads.
• Smartphones and tablets/iPads were used to access digital technologies that mainly involve
consuming (e.g. video tools) or communicating information (e.g. social networking tools,
microblogging tools).
• Laptops were widely used to access digital technologies that involve consuming,
communicating or creating information (e.g. presentation tools, screencasting tools).

5. Which digital technologies were used by students?
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90
100
Percentageofrespondents(%)

6. Educational purposes
• Presentation tools
• Professional networking tools
• Screencasting tools
• Web-based response systems
• Wiki tools
Educational and entertainment
purposes
• Blogging tools
• Interactive online sticky notes
• Video tools
Social purposes
• Synchronous tools
Social and entertainment purposes
• Microblogging tools
• Photo-sharing tools
• Social networking tools
What were students using digital technologies for?

7. How confident were students about using digital
technologies in their university studies?
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100
Screencasting tools
Web-based response systems
Professional networking tools
Blogging tools
Interactive online sticky notes
Wiki tools
Presentation tools
Microblogging tools
Photo sharing tools
Synchronous tools
Social networking tools
Video tools
Percentage of respondents (%)
Extremely confident Very confident Moderately confident

8. What were students' expectations and the level of
importance they placed on using digital technologies in
their university studies?
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
Proportionofrespondents(%)
Importance of use (Extremely/Very important) Expectations of use (Definitely/Probably)

9. Summary
• The majority of students reported that they owned laptops and
smartphones.
• Laptops were perceived to be the most important device for academic
success and they were used for a wide range of purposes.
• A large proportion of the users of presentation tools, wiki tools, video tools
and blogging tools used them for educational purposes.
• Students’ expectations and the level of importance placed on using digital
technologies for their studies were related.

10. Exploring the Use of Digital Technologies
and Devices in Student Learning
Questions and Discussion