University of Glasgow use the Tracker

1. Drew McConnell
Information Officer
Information Services
Improving the Student experience
using Digital Insights

2. Why Digital Experience Insights?
• A great opportunity
• Replaced a now defunct survey
last conducted 3 years ago!
• Consultation and engagement is
what we want to do!
• Benchmarking across the sector!

3. How we used the tracker
• Read JISC support
materials
• Consulted SRC and
academics
• Added in 6 of our own
questions
• Lecture recording
• Software for BYOD
• University website

4. How we used the tracker
• Aimed for 600 responses
• 1639 responses over 3
weeks
• We sent out 3 emails and a
MyGlasgow (news) story
• Em… … … that’s it!

5. Reviewing the results
• Took us some time……
• Formed senior Academic and
student review group
• Information Services working group

6. Summary of our key tracker data

7. • 73% rate the quality of digital teaching and
learning on their course as good or above (Q18)
• 37% agree their course prepares them for the
digital workplace (Q17d)
• 53% agree software used on their course is
industry standard and up-to-date (Q16c)
• 89% rate the quality of our digital provision
(software, hardware, learning environment) as
good or above (Q13)
• 70% agree we support them to use their own
digital devices (Q9a)
• 79% can access reliable WIFI whenever they
need it (Q7)
Summaryofkeymetrics
89%
70%
79%
73%
37%
53%
Quality of
digital
provision
Own device
support
Reliable WIFI
Quality of
digital
teaching &
learning
Preparation
for digital
workplace
Up-to-date
software

8. Students’ digital

9. Institutional digital environment
• Students were asked what one thing we should do to
improve their experience of digital teaching and learning
(Q11)
• This was a free text question, which we analysed for themes
• Common themes included:
• Wifi and eduroam 144
• Moodle 119
• Lecture Recording 144
• Library 90

10. Student preferences for digital learning

11. Digital on your course
How much do you agree with the following
statements about our VLE?
%
agree
I rely on it to do my coursework 77%
I regularly access it on a mobile device 59.9%
It is well designed 43.9%
I would like it to be used more by my tutors 37.3%
I enjoy using the collaborative features 21%

12. Reviewing the results
• Results mostly positive!
• Until we compared them to
Rest of UK data…
• Around 5% behind the curve
in some key areas.

13. Benchmark comparisons
• The Jisc system allows us to compare our data with total data from other UK
institutions that ran the tracker (We have compared the six key metrics shown earlier
Question UofG UK
Across institution:
digital provision
Overall rating (Q13) 89% 87.5%
Own device support (Q9a) 69.7% 69.5%
Reliable WIFI (Q7) 79% 76%
On course: digital
teaching and
learning
Overall rating (Q18) 73% 74.2%
Preparation for digital workplace (Q17d) 36.6% 42.1%
Up-to-date industry standard software (Q16c) 53.2% 59.3%

14. Taking it forward
Information Services
• Information Security
• Comms plan
• Online course?
• Cyber Essentials?
• VLE (Moodle)
• UX
The University Helps me stay safe
online
UofG UK Total
Agree 34.59% 41.68% 41.20%
Neutral 57.32% 49.91% 50.42%
Disagree 8.09% 8.41% 8.39%

15. The CONCEPT of UX
“User experience encompasses
all aspects of a user’s
interaction with a company, its
services, and its products.”
Donald A. Norman
Design Lab Director, UC San Diego
The FIELD of UX
“Bringing together user needs
and business goals through
research, design and testing.”
Neil Scott
Glasgow-based UX Designer

16. UX research on VLE
Apr-May 2018
• Student touchstone tours
• Staff workshop
Review of previous research
 2017: SRC student workshop
 2016: Positive Student Journey project
Holly Pringle
Kat Husbands

17. Theme Category Recommendation
Clarity Tech AND Best
practice
Assessment submission screen:
* Hide 'Grade' field when not being used
* Show details on how and when students will get their grade and feedback
Consistency Best practice Increase consistency in overall course layout
Consistency Best practice Increase consistency in use of Gradebook - make it clearer whether or not a course is
using it
Consistency Best practice Increase consistency in use of the Library's online reading list service -
ReadingLists@Glasgow - rather than uploading reading lists in PDFs
Consistency Tech AND Best
practice
Increase consistency of experience when clicking on a link or doc: currently they might
open in current tab, new tab, new window or download, with no clear logic
Consistency Best practice Increase consistency in timing of uploads: some lecturers don't make slides available
until after lecture
Consistency Tech AND Best
practice
Increase consistency in format of course short names - using course codes alone creates
confusion
Dashboard Tech Hide old courses
Dashboard Tech Allow users to favourite courses to display first
Dashboard Tech Allow users to customise their dashboard
Functionality Tech Add push notifications to Moodle app
Functionality Tech Integrate Moodle calendar with other calendars, eg My Timetable
Functionality Tech Improve forum interface and functionality
Functionality Tech Implement a Moodle-wide search function - currently can only search forum posts
Functionality Tech Improve online marking interface
Layout Best practice Consider wider use of the tile layout
Layout Best practice Consider wider use of course completion settings, so students can use checkboxes to
keep track of which resources they've accessed
Navigation Tech Improve the visibiliy of the navigation column toggle: the nav bar is very useful, but only
when users can find it
Navigation Tech Simplify nav column - course block:
* Hide 'Badges' when not being used (does anyone use them? If not, just remove!)
* Hide 'Grades' when not being used
* Move 'Participants' to bottom of block
Navigation Tech Simplify nav column - universal block:
* Move 'Dashboard' to persistent header
* Remove 'Site home' & 'Calendar' (both are accessible through Dashboard)
* Move 'My Courses' to persistent header
* Do we have stats on use of 'Private files'? Only one participant touched on it. Remove
it for students?Support Tech AND Best
practice
Make more how-to tutorials available, both for students and staff, or if they already
exist, make them more discoverable and easier to use
Support Best practice Encourage course coordinators to include in course induction a demo/explanation of
how they will be using Moodle on this course

18. UofG specific
Increased access to recorded lectures would be a
significant benefit
We are installing Lecture capture tech in 40 more lecture
theatres

19. I would like to be able to run lab software on my own device
UofG specific
We are developing Virtual Desktop Infrastructure (VDI)
which will allow programs and applications to be delivered
to any device

20. Next steps
• Continue to engage with staff and
students on the results
• Comms plan for wider engagement
and data sharing
• Push for development and
investment which will
address/improve student concerns
• Participate again!

21. Thank you!
Drew.McConnell@glasgow.ac.uk
drewmcconnell