ascilite 2014 presentation on findings from the UCISA 2014 Technology Enhanced Learning Survey. The presentation explores the role of learning technologies in supporting flexibility in higher education learning and teaching.

1. ascilite2014
November 23 - 26 2014
Achieving flexibility?
The rhetoric and
reality of the role of
learning technologies
in UK higher
education
Martin Jenkins
Coventry University, UK
Richard Walker
University of York, UK
Julie Voce
Imperial College London, UK

2. Flexibility
The drive toward greater flexibility is influenced by:
– the marketisation of higher education;
– the emergence of students-as-consumers, exerting
wishes for new kinds of educational provision;
– the potential of new digital technologies; and
– the apparent potential (that new educational
environments are opening) for widening higher
education at reduced unit costs. [our emphasis]
Barnett (2014: 8)

3. Barnett’s interpretation of flexibility
 Sector flexibility:
– enabling flexible entry points for students to higher
education study programmes
 Institutional flexibility:
– having institutional responsiveness to student
expectations and needs
 Pedagogical flexibility:
– having flexibility within teaching and learning
processes, including allowing academic staff control
over teaching methods and the latitude to respond to
different circumstances
 Learner flexibility:
– student choice within their learning experience

4. What does the data say?
 The Universities and Colleges Information
Systems Association (UCISA) has surveyed
UK higher education institutions on the use
of learning technology tools since 2001
http://www.ucisa.ac.uk/tel

5. Institutional flexibility
 Investment has focused on:
– E-assessment tools
– Plagiarism detection
– VLE/LMS platforms
– Lecture capture systems
 Infrastructure development
 Management & control of learning
(mainstreaming)

6. 60%
50%
40%
30%
20%
10%
0%
2003 2005 2008 2010 2012 2014
A
Bi
Bii
Biii
C
Pedagogical flexibility
Still an emphasis, though slowly reducing, on
transmissive teaching methods
Category A – web supplemented
Category Bi – web dependent, content
Category Bii – web dependent, communication
Category Biii – web dependent, content and communication
Category E – fully online (categories adapted from Bell et al., 2002)

7. Learner flexibility
 Student experience
– Service oriented provision
– Expectations focused on
connectivity and access to
resources (Jisc, 2014)
– Instant and on-demand access to
learning (Bone, 2013)

8. Achieving flexibility?
 Institutional clarity in use of technology-enhanced
learning
– But potential conflicts in flexibility
 Beware of disempowering academic staff
– broadening the range of technologies but with
enterprise-wide goals in mind - not necessarily
encouraging pedagogic flexibility?

9. Case study: Coventry
 Institutional priorities
– Student experience
– Digital literacy
 Investment in TEL
– E-assessment
– Plagiarism detection
 Lack of awareness of TEL
 Recognised need for pedagogic innovation
 Disruptive Media Learning Lab

10. Case study: York
 Institutional priorities
- Enhancement of student learning experience
and delivery of services
 Investment in TEL
- Investment in electronic management of
assessment; lecture capture; BYOD provision
 Challenges
– short-term pressures (National Student Survey)
& quick fixes: assessment and feedback
– longer-term embedding of e-learning vision
within curriculum review and academic practice
(staff development and digital literacies)

11. Sector challenges
 Consumerism and the mainstreaming
of student services through
learning technologies
– speed of change / diversity of systems and
focus of change in TEL development
 Can this be compatible with pedagogic
flexibility and the academic freedom to
experiment and ‘freedom to fail’?
(Price, 2013)

12. Questions?
Richard Walker
University of York, UK
Martin Jenkins
Coventry University, UK
Julie Voce
Imperial College London, UK

13. Barnett, R. (2014). Conditions of flexibility: securing a more
responsive higher education system, The Higher Education
Academy: York.
Bell, M., Bush, D., Nicholson, P, O’Brien, D., & Tran, T.
(2002). Universities online: A survey of online education and
services in Australia. Canberra: Department of Education,
Science and Training.
Bone, E. (2013). Improving learning experiences: Student
attitudes towards the use of technology. NUS research
study sponsored by Desire2Learn. Insights Roadshow, 16
December 2013.
Manchester Metropolitan University, United Kingdom.
References

14. Jisc (2014). Digital student project:
http://www.jisc.ac.uk/research/projects/digital-student
Price, D. (2013). Open: how we'll work, live and learn in the
future. Crux Publishing
References