Education 2.0 & 3.0

According to a recent Educause survey, the number of students expressing preferences for courses that are mostly or completely online has increased 220% since the onset of the pandemic, from 9% in 2020 (before March 11) to 29% in 2022.

Something that surprised us was how active online students were in terms of asking questions about their instruction.

Many learning providers will be welcoming new learners to their courses in September and this new Jisc guide looks in depth at how organisations can plan an inclusive induction programme. Whether you are taking a hybrid, face-to-face or blended learning approach you will find information about accessibility, wellbeing and helpful resources. You will also find many case studies to inspire you.

Higher education institutions have been scrambling to meet the demand for remote and online courses. This has been due in part to general growth trends in online enrollment, but it has also been accelerated out of response to the Covid-19 pandemic. Because of this, we have focused on helping faculty teach more effectively online.

In this blog, we turn our attention to the learning experiences these courses provide students. Understanding students’ experiences in online courses has implications on the effectiveness of teaching strategies. A look at published research shows several factors related to the quality of student experiences that faculty can address when developing their online courses.

How do we in higher education help students prepare for the future by becoming not only problem solvers but also problem creators?

"Virtual and augmented reality have become a trend more recently due to advances in artificial intelligence. They’ve grown to be more commonly utilized tools for interpretation of ideas in a variety of fields. VR is an immersive technology experience. Though it was commonly used in the gaming industry, it’s now being applied to a variety of fields. For example, companies can make use of simulated interviews and best choose candidates for the job when recruiting and training. AR on the other hand, supplements and enhances reality that already exists. Social media filters are a good example of this. Another example, the furniture company IKEA recently used this immersive technology to help shoppers envision how furniture would look inside their home."

No-one really wants to think about students as ‘customers’. And there’s plenty of debate out there about the challenges of consumerism and the threats posed to collaboration and collegiality. But does that mean that universities can’t learn from the innovative ways other industries work with customers? On the contrary, they might find there’s quite a lot to learn.

By far the most effective means of keeping adult learners engaged is to make the coursework RELEVANT to them.

Short version: My new book Learning Online: The Student Experience has been published ahead of schedule by Johns Hopkins University Press. The Press has made the book available online for free as part of its efforts to support COVID-19 responses.

First year students at UK universities will be imminently beginning some kind of an on-campus experience this year. It will be unlike anything they, or staff working in HEI,s have ever experienced.

Many anticipate that we may have only a month or so to help them bed in before a second wave causes furthers local or national lockdowns, so it’s imperative we get this first engagement right. I propose there are five areas we have to work on immediately to help freshers feel they have become part of our learning communities, before reversion to online learning becomes highly likely. If all of us Cassandras are wrong (and we must hope so!), this is still good practice for welcoming students whose 2020 pre-HE learning experiences are likely to have been grim.

Young people who are the first in their family to go to university are less likely to attend an elite institution and are more likely to drop out than those with graduate parents, according to new research led by the UCL Centre for Longitudinal Studies.

Learn how a few strategic moves can help higher-ed IT teams make online courses more streamlined and enjoyable for students and educators.

Key messages:

Prepare students for digital learning
Arriving students need to know what to expect from
digital learning. Our findings point to the key practices
and tools that students find useful in each sector but
there is no one-size-fits-all solution. This is where
institutions can make excellent use of their local
insights data.

Make bring your own devices (BYOD) work
Most students now bring their own devices for
learning but many can’t use them to access subjectspecialist software and online content. Students learn
more efficiently if they have access to the full range
of learning tools on a device of their choice.

Assistive technology is for everyone
One in five students is using assistive or adaptive
technologies, often by choice rather than necessity.
Institutions should recognise the value of ‘inclusive
for all’ and investigate how digital technologies can
support inclusion in learning and assessment.

Help students stay happy and well
FE students would benefit from better access to
health and wellbeing services online. HE students
would benefit from more help to stay safe online.
All students want to feel that they belong, so their
log-in should give access to personalised services,
student societies and social networks.Digital experience insights survey 2018: findings from students in
UK further and higher education.

Authors: Tabetha Newman, Helen Beetham and Sarah Knight
SEPTEMBER 2018

Research Shorts are short research video summaries by George Veletsianos and The Digital Learning and Social Media Research Group: http:/...

It’s amazing what we can do with a series of ones and zeroes. Modern technologies consisting of databases connected to interfaces that deliver functionalities that improve our day to day lives. The creative and imaginative ways in which we make meaning, offer services, engage, and even make predictions for future success are all predicated on a variety of technology-based solutions. In higher education, our use of technology has always run in step with the world around us. From the days of old when punch cards held reams of research to the present day when information is stored in data-rich, mobile accessible clouds, the student experience is directly connected to an institution’s technology.