The document summarizes the findings of a survey conducted by the Faculty of Social Sciences at an unnamed university on student opinions of technology enhanced learning. The survey gathered demographic information and asked students about what technologies they use, how helpful they find various technologies, and their experiences using technologies for learning. Some key findings include that students overwhelmingly like using the university's online learning platform MOLE and want access to course materials anytime through mobile access. They also strongly desire lecture recordings and find benefits to technologies like voting systems when used well. However, students note technologies should be used to enhance learning and not for their own sake. The document discusses implications that technologies should be implemented strategically and with clear pedagogical goals.

1. Student Opinions of Technology Enhanced
Learning
Faculty of Social Sciences Student TEL Survey
Julia Davies, Faculty Director of TEL
Farzana Latif, TEL Manager
Graham FX McElearney, Senior Learning Technologist

2. Background
Why we wanted to do the survey - Faculty of Social
Science (FSS)
CiCS Collaboration - “Wanted to assess delivery of our
services”
but also…..
Research Questions
Same questions asked of all students whether on f2f,
distance or blended learning courses

3. Background - Research Questions
What forms of technology use do students report as being
helpful?
How do students characterise the benefits of the technology
they use?
Are the ways in which students perceive these benefits
consistent with the aims of their teachers in using those
technologies?
Are students and teachers using technologies in ways that
open out new possibilities for learning and teaching?
Do most uses of technology reinforce traditional roles and
practices for learning and teaching?

4. Activity
From your own observations and interactions with
students:
- what areas would you think are relevant as part of TEL
- what knowledge do you already have of students’ uses
and opinions of TEL.
- Have you ever asked students specifically about TEL?
https://www.polleverywhere.com/survey/ze2nIR6PO
10-15 mins

5. Background
Method
Demographics
All disciplines represented

6. Background
Method
Demographics
Discipline Bias
Respondents Total Numbers
in FSS
Male 78
Female 132
Undergraduate 134 2627
Postgraduate 76 3355
UK/Home 148
EU 23
International 39

7. Background
Method
Demographics
Discipline Bias

8. General observations about the results
How do we interpret the answers in which there are a
great number of respondents that select N/A?
These responses indicate that a student has not encountered that particular
technology
Should we identify what technologies we are not using and ask the question, ‘Why not?’

9. Findings 1 -
Delivery of materials - MOLE etc

10. Preliminary Findings
Students:
• overwhelmingly like MOLE
• want MOLE on the move –
mobility & flexibility
• want access to content before
and after lectures
• value what lecturers have to say
• Expect lecturers to use
technology effectively
• value education as content
• value material in a range of modes,
media and formats
• want the materials fast
• judiciously select what they read
• make quick decisions
• value technology
• seem less interested in collaboration
and content sharing
• seem less interested in new ways of
learning

11. Code Examples
Mobile App Windows 8 will not run in; no updates; terrible; can’t see Turnitin;Didn’t know
about the App till did this survey; too slow; temperamental;
Quality of MOLE technology
(Backboard)
Temperamental; does not always display; sometimes can only see last year’s
content
Lecturers’ competence Some don’t use it; some keep it in a mess; can’t locate materials;
Scheduling of resources being placed
online
These are highly valued; After the lecture is no good; should not remove
material as punishment;
Type of content being shared Should use fuller scope of tools – eg podcasts, video, links, eBooks, reading lists
etc
eBooks Love these; all compulsory reading should be available electronically
Reading lists Love these; should be up to date and easy to find
Discussion boards Like these to be anonymous and will then we will use them more often
Number of emails Too many – need to give clear subject in subject line
Findings 1 - 48 Open Comments

12. Findings 2 - Tech Used in Lectures
Areas covered (technologies):
Voting system
Lecture capture
Skype

13. Findings 2 - Tech Used in Lectures
Highly Desired
All modules should be recorded; being able to watch lectures again at home is
fantastic;
Value
catch up on missed lectures; miss information or falling behind; learning
outside of lecture and revision; hard to concentrate in 3 hour lectures;
facilitate revision

14. Findings 2 - Tech Used in Lectures
Voting system was very useful, helped to keep individuals awake and test to know if they were
understanding the lecture materials
I like the voting clicker because it mixes things up from just lecture slides all the time
they're a bit of a gimmick waste time and don’t add anything, but maybe I just haven't seen
them used effectively - added value
Did not work very well and entire lectures were affected by it. - technology and skills

15. Findings 2 - Tech Used in Lectures
Other Findings
Interaction During Lectures
The important part was being able to interact with the tutor. (minority point of view).
Having readings available before the lecture was useful because you could pre-
read and engage more effectively.; We never had any of the above technologies,
they would allow the teaching to be more engaging though so would have been
useful.
Technology in Classrooms/Tech Fail
crackling microphone; recording cut off before the end; please replace slow
computers; computers didn’t have the programmes we needed

16. Finding 3 - Working with Others
Questions Explored:
MOLE discussions
Social Media
twitter
facebook
Google Docs
Skype
Blogging
Wiki
Hangouts
Social Bookmarking

17. Findings 3 - Working with Others
The lecturers never checked the discussion board and didn't answer questions on it
Not a lot of people used the discussion boards on MOLE, perhaps we should introduce
another social friendly platform to discuss ideas
It would be useful if somebody could moderate the board and merge threads

18. Findings 3 - Working with Others

19. Findings 3 - Working with Others
The Facebook group for our
course has been invaluable.
It'd be great if they were set
up automatically.
· I think
student-made groups
and chats work
better than ones put
together by lecturers.
Not sure why this is

20. Findings 3 - Working with Others
The Facebook group for our
course has been invaluable.
It'd be great if they were set
up automatically.
I think student-made groups
and chats work better than
ones put together by
lecturers. Not sure why this
is

21. Findings 3 - Working with Others
Social Media Successful Examples of Practice:
Twitter: Gary Wood(English), Ruth Stirton (Law), MOOCs
new opportunities - open up learning e.g. invite an author to a tweetchat
Facebook: Thanos Hatziapostolou (Computer Science)
Be clear on purpose - (not just about going to the
students)
Interesting Resources:
Twitter for teaching: Can social media be used to enhance
the process of learning?

22. Findings 5 - Technology used in assessment

23. Findings 5 - Technology used in assessment

24. Findings 5 - Technology used in assessment

25. Findings 5 - Technology used in assessment

26. Findings 5 e - Technology used in assessment
- quotes
“I did not like that I had to submit paper copies of my assignments. I am sure the
university has the resources to print them out themselves “
“Should be able to submit work into turnitin alone and not also handing in a
physical copy”
“Online feedback was very helpful.”

27. Findings 5 e - Technology used in
assessment - quotes
“Provisions should be made so that most modules have e-Feedbacks”
“Be good to just be able to submit our work online and receive our marks
online - as a student that commutes into University it would be much more
convenient”
“Typed comments on work are far better. Online submission is very welcome
and far easier.”

28. Findings 5 e - Technology used in
assessment - quotes
“Turnitin is unreliable. Submitting an assignment via MOLE is extremely
confusing and not user friendly. The latter, as much as it is useful in terms of
saving us the trip to School, definitely needs to be fixed.”
“When uploading my essay for this module to Turnitin I experienced problems
and it was so slow that I ended up with a 5% deduction in marks for a late
submission.”
“E-feedback was a system tragically worse than written feedback. If a system
isn't broken it doesn't need fixing.”

29. Covered Later
Findings 4 - Research for Learning
Findings 6 - Personal dev and reflection
Findings 7 - devices I use

30. Some contradictions - we have a diverse student body:
Don’t Use Google docs!
Use less technology. Communicate
with us instead!
I’m a big fan of Pebblepad….
More ebooks please
Use Googledocs more!
Get lecturers to use technology
more!
Pebblepad is the biggest waste of
money ever and in the four years I
have been here I don’t know one
pgr who uses it
ebooks are a nightmare

31. Students care about TEL:
Students have strong views based on their beliefs about teaching and
learning;
Students tend to prefer ‘traditional teaching’ with tech used to reinforce
traditional teacher/learner relationships;
Students value digital content;
Students appreciate skilful use of technology - but impatient with ‘tech for
tech’s sake’.
Implications:
We need to share our pedagogical intentions with students;
We need to challenge students’ assumptions about learning;
We need to continually check students’ digital skills and access to the
technologies we offer.

32. ● Would you find it useful to carry out a similar questionnaire in your
own faculty?
○ (tell us your faculty)
● How often should a survey like this be conducted?
● Are there additional areas/questions it would be valuable for us to
cover?
● Do you have any suggestions for focus group themes?
https://www.polleverywhere.com/survey/0i0vcUeJR
10 mins

33. Questions?
Contact
Julia Davies
Graham McElearney
Farzana Latif

34. FSS Student Survey: TEL
Julia Davies
Graham McElearney
Farzana latif

35. GM final question
Are we just using new technologies to reinforce old
pedagogies?
New technology can help us offer ‘polished performances
of traditional practices’ (Davies & Merchant 2009) but can
we take the next step?

36. Findings 2 - Tech Used in Lectures
Code Examples
Desire for more Lecture Capture
or at least powerpoint materials
All modules should be recorded; being able to watch lectures again at home is fantastic; It would have been great to have access to MyEcho; Would like
to see this in all my lectures.; Make recordings of lectures universal across the department.; MyEcho should be more widely
available in all modules; Would like to see this in all my lectures.; All modules should be recorded; I
wish my department can use this.; I think MyEcho should be compulsory for all modules. It makes
life about 10 times easier; Could be useful to have voice recordings with lecture slides online; you
can look back at the presentations if they are on Mole (where applicable), and relate back to the
lecture as a reflective process.;
Value of Lecture Capture if I had missed a lecture and needed to catch up (if I hadn’t missed a lecture I wouldn’t use them); when they lecture so fast it is near impossible to get
everything down; if I'm ill or away I miss all the information and fall behind which is really annoying; My echo is very useful for
learning outside of lectures and revision etc as it allows you to revisit things discussed in the lecture.;
lectures were up to 3 hours long, no-one can concentrate for that long, would have helped so could
look over them; Recording would facilitate better revision.; MyEcho recordings were very useful;
Voting System they're a bit of a gimmick waste time and don’t add anything, but maybe I just haven't seen them used effectively; Voting system was very useful, helped
to keep individuals awake and test to know if they were understanding the lecture materials.; Clickers weren't very good. Did not work very well and
entire lectures were affected by it.; I like the voting clicker because it mixes things up from just lecture slides all the time; We don't have many
times that we use clickers, maybe once a semester.
Interaction during lectures/Increase
Rather than just use powerpoints have more visual aids such as prezis; The important part was being

37. Findings 3 - Working with Others

38. Findings 3 - General Comments
Most of these things listed I am unaware of, yet they all seem as though they
would be very helpful for our learning. I would suggest running training
workshops so all students know how to use/ access and learn from these
tools to better your view and ours.

39. General Comments, FL
Reasons for using TEL not always obvious to students
“Only use them when they actually augment learning”
Consistency vs. Disparity
“Make more of MOLE, and use only one channel - that stops the confusion and lack of intelligent Knowledge Management
at present” vs. “Try and use more, most big organizations flood their environment with useless technologies”
Technology Usability/General dislike to technology
Staff Competency
“be more knowledgeable with technology, but not forced to use it because some lecturers are hopeless and should just
stick to talking instead of fiddling with a computer all day”
“training for teachers need to be differentiated based on experience. Some lecturers cope fine and others need
significantly more to be at the same level.”
Students not aware of what is available to them (e.g. MOLE app)
“Advertise clearly what technology is available to use.”

40. General Comments, GM
Still a huge demand for lecture recordings - mentioned 50+ times
throughout……
…..but also to be book-ended with presentations available before lectures
“Make sure the lecture slides are on MOLE before the lecture and that the echo recording is up
relatively soon after”

41. General Comments, GM
Comments about the overall role of technology enhanced
learning….
“Continue as they do, embracing but not using it as if it were the sole medium”
“Spend more of our money on technology for us! Make lectures interactive and
interesting, rather than just reading off a powerpoint.”