What works and why? Student perceptions of ‘useful’ digital technology in university teaching and learning

Michael Henderson · Neil Selwyn · Rachel Aston

951 citations0/0 files storedStudies in Higher Education

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Educational Innovations and Challenges Online and Blended Learning Educational Technology in Learning

Abstract

Digital technologies are now an integral aspect of the university student experience. As such, academic research has understandably focused on the potential of various digital technologies to enable, extend and even ‘enhance’ student learning. This paper offers an alternate perspective on these issues by exploring students’ actual experiences of digital technology during their academic studies – highlighting the aspects of digital technology use that students themselves see as particularly helpful and/or useful. Drawing on a survey of 1658 undergraduate students, the paper identifies 11 distinct digital ‘benefits' – ranging from flexibilities of time and place, ease of organizing and managing study tasks through to the ability to replay and revisit teaching materials, and learn in more visual forms. While these data confirm digital technologies as central to the ways in which students experience their studies, they also suggest that digital technologies are not ‘transforming’ the nature of university teaching and learning. As such, university educators perhaps need to temper enthusiasms for what might be achieved through technology-enabled learning and develop better understandings of the realities of students’ encounters with digital technology.

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References

1984Understanding Student Learning 2012Navigating change: a typology of student transition in higher education 2012Making sense of higher education: students as consumers and the value of the university experience 2014Understanding student satisfaction and dissatisfaction: an interpretive study in the UK higher education context 2014Perceptions of effectiveness, fairness and feedback of assessment methods: a study in higher education 2012An interpretative phenomenological analysis of stress and coping in first year undergraduates 2011Developing autonomous learning in first year university students using perspectives from positive psychology 2009University students’ and teachers’ conceptions of teaching and learning in the biosciences

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