Moving Higher Education forward in the digital age: realising a digital strategy

1. Moving Higher Education forward in the digital age:
realising a digital strategy
Neil Morris
Director of Digital Learning
Professor of Educational Technology,
Innovation and Change
University of Leeds
National Teaching Fellow
Email: n.p.morris@leeds.ac.uk
Twitter: @neilmorrisleeds, @unileedsonline
Image © University of Leeds

4. University of Leeds students’ use of mobile devices
97%own a laptop.
N=1363 (Nov 2012; Middleton and Caperon, 2013)
50% use a mobile device
frequently for research or assignments
23% use a mobile device
frequently to read e-books
86% own a smartphone
20% own a tablet device
35% are planning to purchase a
tablet device for academic and social
reasons
70% likely to use a mobile
device to read articles or books online
87% use a mobile device
frequently to use a search engine

5. Teacher as
content provider
Teacher as
content advisor
or curator
Student
learning
Face to
face
teaching
Other
learning
materials
Other
learning
materials
Restricted
online
material
Publically
available
online
material
Learning
materials Student sourced
content
Student produced
content

6. Faculty of Biological Sciences
Edgar Dale’s Cone of Learning; CC-SA

7. Gartner Hype Cycle for Education (2013)

8. University strategies for Digital Learning
Digital strategy for Student Education
Blended Learning Strategy
Policy on Audio and
Video Recordings for
Educational Purposes
MOOC vision and
strategy
Open Educational
Resources policy

9. Digital Strategy for Student Education

10. Blended learning strategy
Face to
face
classes
Event
capture
Learning
resources
Interaction
collaboration
Social media
channels
Mobile
devices
Online
assessment
Research-based
learning

11. Digital learning channel portfolio
Only available to
Registered Students Available to all learners
Online Courses
Individual Learning Objects
Learning Objects complementing face-to-face provision (Blended Learning)

12. Resource production
In-room capture
Scheduled
Ad-hoc
At-desk media
creation (Audio,
video, screen
capture)
Mobile capture
(Audio, video)
Video
conferencing
Online
collaborative
E-learning learning spaces
support

13. Digital learning infrastructure
Over 1000 recordings in
6 weeks
Over 60000 views
in 6 weeks
Over 240 rooms
equipped

14. Learning object re-use strategy

15. Enhancing face to face interactions

16. Uses of video in education
Image CC by Jenko, FlickR

17. Benefits of lecture capture
76% have listened
to more than half of the lecture
audio recordings available to them
93% indicated that
lecture audio recordings had
become important/very important to
their study habits
73% indicated that the
availability of lecture audio recordings does
not influence lecture attendance
90% indicated that they
concentrate more in lectures where audio
recordings are provided, as they don’t
have to make so many notes
“Audio recordings of the lectures have been invaluable to me during my revision as
they have allowed me to make full notes for revision purposes, as well as aiding my
understanding of the more difficult material”
Smith, K and Morris, NP (2014) Evaluation of biomedical science students use and perceptions of podcasting. Bioscience Education Electronic Journal.
ISSN 1479-786 Full text available as: http://dx.doi.org/10.11120/beej.2014.00024

18. David T: why does it stop
potassium?
maria: how does it block the
channel? with a molecule or via a
protein
shipoopi: whats a hilock ?
xxx: are ipsp's used to prevent
unwanted ap's occurring
spontaneously or just when an ap
is occurring and needs to be
stopped?
Useful for high achieving
students to skip through
and find key points of interest.
Particularly beneficial for non-native
English language
speakers.
Beneficial for weaker students,
who view recordings multiple
times
Synchronised with
learning materials
Bollmeier, S. G., Wenger P. J., Forinash A. B. (2011) Impact of Online Lecture-capture on Student Outcomes in a Therapeutics Course. American Journal of Pharmaceutical Education. 74: 127
Davis, S.J., Connolly, A., Linfield, E. (2009) Lecture capture: Making the most of face to face learning Engineering Education: Journal of the Higher Education Academy Engineering Subject Centre 4: 4-13
Owston R.; Lupshenyuk D.; Wideman H. (2011) Lecture capture in large undergraduate classes: Student perceptions and academic performance. Internet and Higher Education. 14: 262-268
Shaw G.P.; Molnar D. (2011) Non-native english language speakers benefit most from the use of lecture capture in medical school. Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Education. 39: 416-420

20. The flipped classroom
At-desk recording
Open desktop software and press record.
Screen, audio and video captured.
Automatic upload to system for review, edit
and approve.
Make available to
colleague, VLE or
public.
REC
Problem-solving
Discussion
Creativity
Conceptual
understanding
Active learning

21. Investigating the impact of tablet
devices on learning
© University of Leeds #aberBL

22. Mobile learning in action
Deep
learning
Multimodal
learning
Any time,
any place

23. “Revolutionary, this has
changed the way I
approach a class, I feel
totally prepared as, I get the
lecture slides without
having to print them, take
notes , record, reference
and if necessary look things
up, all in the palm of my
hand... WOW”
© University of Leeds
© University of Leeds
Minutes
Week

24. Over 3 ½ h per day
using device for studying
Significant 
Top educational apps:
Soundnote
Docs To Go
iBooks
GoodReader
Pubmed on Tap
Coursenotes
Dropbox
Dictionary
Wikipanion
Morris et al. (2012) Advances in Physiology Education 36: 97-107
in use of laptopfor
studying after 10 weeks with a tablet device
96% found the device easy to use
80% thought the iPad was
a useful tool for studying
Significant

in use of:
Literature search engines
Wikis
Podcasts
Audio recordings
Significant 
in use of printed learning resources
Significant 
in word-processing
Significant 
in use of pen and paper
Significant 
in use of email

25. Average of 13.6 ± 0.6 mins
using 3-D Brain app during 2 hour practical class (n=273, 3 years)
98% of students used the 3-D Brain app during the
practical class (n=256, 3 years)
70-99% of students found the 3-D Brain app useful
or very useful for learning (n=247, 3 years)

26. 76-83% found tablet device in class
beneficial(3 years)
77-84% found using tablet devices in class
enjoyable(3 years)
72-81% thought that tablet devices
enhancelearning(3 years)

27. Cutaneous testing
Immunofluorescence
Electrophysiology

28. 70-90% agreed
eBooks are beneficial to
learning
83-97%
commended eBook design
40% preferred eBooks
to paper protocols
32 minutes average use
in practical class
“enjoy the novelty and design of the eBooks… and the
videos were really useful at first”
“after I’d used the eBook… I liked using the paper protocol
just because it’s more straight-forward and easier to flick
through just to find one particular thing”

29. Embracing openness
© CC

30. iTunes U portfolio

31. iTunes U statistics
44,793
visitors

32. Social
constructivist
Participatory
Active
learning
Research-based
Teacher- and
participant-focused
Digital
literacy
support
Multi-format
content
Accessible
content
Social
Our MOOC pedagogy

33. 82% agreed that
MOOCs offer opportunities for
flexible learning
69% agreed that
MOOCs increase access
to Higher Education
70% agreed they
would recommend
MOOCs to their students
140 academics would
like to develop a MOOC in
next 1-2 years
64% agreed that
developing a MOOC would
enhance their digital literacy
skills
57% agreed that face-to-face
learning in combination with
MOOCs was an effective learning
model
Staff perspectives on blended learning and MOOCs. N=267 responses, Summer 2013, © University of Leeds)

34. MOOC portfolio
FREE ONLINE COURSE
Sign up at futurelearn.com
Sign up to ‘Exploring anatomy:
the human abdomen’
http://futurelearn.com
Course starts on 10 February 2014
For 3 weeks, 4 hours per week
Explore the inner workings of the human abdomen with experienced anatomy lecturer Dr James Pickering
http://twitter.com/accessanatomy #FLanatomy
Learn about the structure and function of vital organs, and through discussion relate this
to common surgical scenarios and current research.
Interested in the anatomy of the human body? This course is for you.
https://futurelearn.www.futurelearn.com/courses/com/courses/when-anatomy
worlds-collide

35. Key elements of MOOCs

36. Key elements of MOOCs

37. Futurelearn MOOCs
97% found the structure of the course fairly/very clear
97% found the educator(s) engaging
95% believed the course had fulfilled their expectations
92% rated the overall experience as good or excellent

38. 100
90
80
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
Overall engagement by age for all courses
18 years
old or
under
18 - 25
years old
(n=1722)
26 - 35
years old
36 - 45
years old
46 - 55
years old
56 - 65
years old
66 years
old or
over
% overall engagement
Average overall engagement 51.7%; data shown is weighted averages for all courses
Overall engagement is the % of video watched, discussions viewed, articles viewed, quizzes / tests taken
Excludes participants with zero engagement and participants who declined to answer the question

39. Quiz score vs video watched (Anatomy)
120
100
80
60
40
20
0
*
*
*
*
(1387)
(628)
(380)
(193)
(208)
(695)
0-10 11-20 21-30 31-40 41-50 >50
Average quiz score
Number of videos watched
Active learners who watched more videos performed better in quizzes
(P<0.05, df5, f256, one way ANOVA). Post-hoc tests revealed
differences between the majority of groupings (* P<0.05, Bonferroni)
(n=3491).
Full data set

40. MOOC learning elements
72%spend between 30 mins
and 2 hours online per visit.
90-97% satisfied with
video as a learning tool
37-53% satisfied with
discussion as a learning tool
86-92% satisfied with
quizzes as a learning tool
Post course survey data for first three MOOCs (n= When Worlds Collide: Fairness and Nature (n=241); Exploring Anatomy: the human abdomen
(n=424); Introduction to Physical Actor Training (n=83); Photo: Kabsik Park under a CC licence (flickr)

42. Digital learning on campus
FREE ONLINE COURSE
Sign up at futurelearn.com
Sign up to ‘Exploring anatomy:
the human abdomen’
http://futurelearn.com
Course starts on 10 February 2014
For 3 weeks, 4 hours per week
Explore the inner workings of the human abdomen with experienced anatomy lecturer Dr James Pickering
http://twitter.com/accessanatomy #FLanatomy
Learn about the structure and function of vital organs, and through discussion relate this
to common surgical scenarios and current research.
Interested in the anatomy of the human body? This course is for you.
https://futurelearn.www.futurelearn.com/courses/com/courses/when-anatomy
worlds-collide
Content re-used in
existing modules

43. Digital learning on campus
New discovery theme
module created in a
‘MOOC’ style

44. http://www.bostonglobe.com/metro/2014/05/17/behind-harvard-explosion-online-classes-flurry-lights-camera-action/BybPhkyfX59D9a7icmHz5M/story.html

45. The future of digital learning?
Analytics-based
personalisation
Hybrid
courses
Adoption of
digital
literacy
Game-based
learning
Award
flexibility
Validated
electronic
assessment
Integrate
dmobile
learning
Student
centred
learning
Widespread
blended
learning

48. Future online learning strategy
Stella Cottrell and Neil Morris
Study Skills Connected
9781137019455
£12.99
27 Jul 2012

49. Future online learning strategy
References and acknowledgements
Morris, N.P. (2007) HEA Centre for Bioscience E-learning Case Study. Blended learning resources for a first year
neuroscience/pharmacology module – an e-learning practice case study: ftp://www.bioscience.heacademy.ac.uk/Resources/morris.pdf
Morris, N.P. (2008) VLE implementation project. Learning and Teaching Bulletin, University of Leeds, Issue 18.
Morris, N.P. (2010) Podcasts and mobile assessment enhance student learning experience and academic performance. Bioscience
Education. 16:1.
Morris, N.P. (2010) Using eVoting handsets in Biological Sciences. Learning and Teaching Bulletin, University of Leeds. Issue 24.
Morris, N.P. (2010) Blended learning approaches enhance student academic performance. Enhancing Learning Experiences in Higher
Education, Hong Kong University. Conference Proceedings: http://www.cetl.hku.hk/conference2010/pdf/Morris.pdf
Morris, N. P. (2011) Using Blackboard for Blended Learning Enhances Student Engagement and Learning. Blackboard World
Conference, Las Vegas, July 2011. http://blackboard.echo360.com/ess/echo/presentation/1a246e1f-faba-4bc6-8fe1-8e4234a4c790
Morris N.P., Ramsay, L., Chauhan, V. (2012) Can a tablet device enhance undergraduate science students study behaviours?
Advances in Physiology Education 36: 97-107
Cottrell S; Morris N.P. (2012) Study Skills Connected. Palgrave MacMillan.
Morris NP (2014) First time MOOC provider: reflections from a research-intensive university in the UK. European MOOC summit : 259-
263.
Smith, K. & Morris, N.P. (2014) Evaluation of Biomedical Science students use and perceptions of Podcasting. Bioscience Education.
24.
Acknowledgements to all final year project students, student interns,
project officers and the Digital Learning Team who contributed to the
work presented.
Work funded by Higher Education Academy and University of Leeds
All data © Neil Morris, University of Leeds