The document analyzes survey data from students to understand factors that influence their ratings of digital teaching and learning. It identifies three key groups or "personas" of students based on their digital experiences and opinions: 1) mainstream pragmatists who regularly use digital tools and rate experiences positively, 2) specialist enthusiasts who intensively use digital tools and rate experiences as excellent, and 3) negative thinkers who are critical of digital teaching and learning experiences. The document concludes that most students want improvements to existing digital resources and teaching, while a minority asks for new services, and some students have broadly negative views of digital experiences.

1. Analysing students’ digital experience:
personas and key drivers
Tabetha Newman and Helen Beetham

2. Background
2
• Data from Jisc’s student insights
surveys 2018-19
• Focus on students’ digital experience
• Can identify areas for improvement
and good practice
• Two rating scales:
- Quality of digital teaching
and learning
- Quality of digital infrastructure
(Teaching staff and Professional services staff
surveys allow triangulation of perspectives)
Analysing students’ digital experience: personas and key drivers

3. Analysing students’ digital experience: personas and key drivers3
Drivers:
What influences students’ ratings of their
digital teaching and learning?
Personas:
Can we group individual learners in terms
of their opinions and experience of the
digital?

4. 4
Drivers
What influences students’ ratings of their
digital teaching and learning?
Analysing students’ digital experience: personas and key drivers

5. Q19: How would you rate the quality of digital teaching
and learning on your course (seven point scale)
5 Analysing students’ digital experience: personas and key drivers
DT&L
rating
12 x
potentially
relevant
issues in the
survey
• My course prepares me for the digital workplace
• I have regular opportunities to review and update my digital skills
• Teaching spaces are well designed for the technologies we use
• The software used on my course is industry standard and up-to-date
• Online assessments are delivered and managed well
• I can easily find things on the VLE
• Do you have access to online course materials and recorded lectures?
• How often do you use a polling device / online quiz to give answers in class?
• How often do you use an educational game / simulation for learning?
• How often do you create a digital record of your learning?
• How often do you produce digital work in formats other than Word /
PowerPoint?
• How often do you work online with others?

6. Q19: How would you rate the quality of digital teaching
and learning on your course (seven point scale)
6 Analysing students’ digital experience: personas and key drivers
1. My course prepares me for the digital workplace
2. I have regular opportunities to review and update my digital skills
3. Teaching spaces are well designed for the technologies we use
4. The software used on my course is industry standard and up-to-date
5. Online assessments are delivered and managed well
6. I can easily find things on the VLE
7. Do you have access to online course materials and recorded lectures?
8. How often do you use a polling device / online quiz to give answers in class?
9. How often do you use an educational game / simulation for learning?
10. How often do you create a digital record of your learning?
11. How often do you produce digital work in formats other than Word /
PowerPoint?
12. How often do you work online with others?
DT&L
rating
Key Driver
Analysis
places these
in order of
importance

7. 7

8. 8
Important and
performing well
Important and
performing poorly

9. 9
• I have regular opportunities
to update digital skills
• Teaching spaces are well
designed for tech we use
• Software is industry
standard / up to date
• Online assessments are
delivered / managed well
• I can easily find things on
the VLE

10. 10
Students were asked what their institution could
do to improve digital teaching and learning:
16,823 HE students responded in 2018
11,269 HE students responded in 2019
What issues do
students associate
with ‘better’ digital
learning and teaching?
Analysing students’ digital experience: personas and key drivers

11. 11
• Quality of lecture experience: recordings,
slides/ notes, polling activities
• Quality of online academic resources: e-
books and e-journals; materials for revision
• Perceived value for money, especially high
value software
Most responses concern the digital
environment for learning: platforms,
networks, classrooms, learning spaces
Fewer concerned support for digital skills:
most often: ‘don’t assume students know how
to learn digitally’
What issues do
students associate
with ‘better’ digital
learning and
teaching?
Analysing students’ digital experience: personas and key drivers

12. Personas
Can we group individual learners in terms of their
opinions and experience of the digital?

13. We know from previous work (Jisc ‘Digital
Student’ programme) that students differ in
ways that impact on their digital experiences
13
Work with secondary school and FE students (Davies et al.
2010, Sharpe et al. 2015) suggested three broad persona
types:
• Unconnected and vulnerable
• Mainstream pragmatists
• Intensive and specialist enthusiasts
Would these (or something similar) be reflected in our data?
Analysing students’ digital experience: personas and key drivers

14. Identifying personas
14
• Multiple correspondence analysis (MCA) is a specific
statistical technique
• Taken from UX persona research
• Uses cluster analysis to segment user groups (see
https://measuringu.com and academic works such as
Laporte et al, 2012, Schroeder et al. 2018)
Analysing students’ digital experience: personas and key drivers

15. No effect
of gender
or age
Here are 3,000 students plotted via MCA analysis:

16. Here are 3,000 students plotted via MCA analysis:
Majority group
Use digital regularly
Rate DT&L as good
Minority group
Using digital a lot
Rate DT&L as
excellent+
Think the VLE is badly
organised
Smallest group
Never use digital
Rate DT&L as average-
Never WOWO

17. Here are 3,000 students plotted via MCA analysis:
Mainstream pragmatists
Majority group
Use digital regularly
Rate DT&L as good
Specialist enthusiasts
Minority group
Using digital a lot
Rate DT&L as
excellent+
Think the VLE is badly
organised
Unconnected and
vulnerable?
Smallest group
Never use digital
Rate DT&L as average-
Never WOWO

18. 18
Qualitative data:
• Analysis of responses to four free text
questions, especially ‘What should we do
to improve your experience of digital
learning and teaching?’
What do students
tell us?
Analysing students’ digital experience: personas and key drivers

19. 19
• Most students want ‘more’ and ‘better’
versions of what they have already e.g. better
quality lecture capture, access to more
journals
• A minority have digital expertise. They may be
negative about aspects of digital provision.
They are more likely to ask for new/ different
services eg loan schemes, student apps,
desktop features
• A different minority of comments are broadly
and generally negative about the digital L&T
experience (reasons differ)
What do students
tell us?
Analysing students’ digital experience: personas and key drivers

20. • Most students want ‘more’ and ‘better’
versions of what they have already e.g. better
quality lecture capture, access to more
journals
• A minority have digital expertise. They may be
negative about aspects of digital provision.
They are more likely to ask for new/ different
services eg loan schemes, student apps,
desktop features
• A different minority of comments are broadly
and generally negative about the digital L&T
experience (reasons differ)
20
What do students
tell us?
Mainstream
pragmatists
Specialist
enthusiasts
Negative
thinkers?
Analysing students’ digital experience: personas and key drivers

21. 21
• We can’t assume our ‘negative thinkers’ are ‘unconnected and
vulnerable’…
• …but from qualitative data we can identify the following sub-
groups:
Digitally left behind: lacking required access or skills
Digitally disappointed: digital L&T is poor quality
Digitally disaffected: critical of digital L&T overall
Using qual and quant methods broadly supports three
persona types identified in previous research
Analysing students’ digital experience: personas and key drivers

22. 22 Analysing students’ digital experience: personas and key drivers
Conclusion: undergraduates want…
• Regular opportunities to review and update their digital skills
• Well-designed learning environments that deliver well-managed
assessments
• Industry-standard, up-to-date software; digitally-enabled teaching spaces
• Engaging lectures with digital resources/activities designed in
• When it comes to digital attitudes, students can be considered:
- Mainstream pragmatists
- Specialist enthusiasts
- Negative thinkers

23. DATA
Use data thoughtfully:
think about what
information is
captured – and the
possible importance of
what is not captured.
DIALOGUE
Talk to people; don’t
just respond to the
numbers that their
data produce.
DOING
Responding to data
doesn’t always mean
having to change
things. Use data to
empower institution
AND individuals.

24. customerservices@jisc.ac.uk
jisc.ac.uk
Tabetha Newman
Helen Beetham
For more information about Insights:
Sarah Knight Sarah.Knight@jisc.ac.uk
Ruth Drysdale Ruth.Drysdale@jisc.ac.uk
Consultants for Jisc