The Jisc Student Digital Experience Tracker provides a survey and engagement process to understand students' digital experiences. The survey collects both closed questions to benchmark experiences and open questions for local analysis. Participating institutions value the actionable evidence, benchmarking, and community of practice. Over 90 institutions participated in the 2017-18 pilot, and there is interest in the aggregated findings. The tracker aims to involve students in design, communication, interpretation, and response to better inform strategies and investments to improve students' digital experiences.

1. Engaging students in their digital experience
Sarah Davies, Jisc
EUNIS
Rectors’
Conference
2018

2. The UK’s HE and FE technology body
27/06/2017 https://www.jisc.ac.uk/rd/projects/student-digital-experience-tracker #digitalstudent
Connecting everyone to achieve the unimaginable

3. TheTracker team
Jess Francis, Research manager,
Jisc
Ruth Drysdale, Senior co-design manager,
Jisc
Helen Beetham
Sarah Knight, Head of change:
student experience, Jisc
Tabetha Newman Mike Gulliver

4. The student digital experience matters
01/02/2018 https://digitalstudent.jisc.ac.uk #digitalstudent
»Often students' first experiences
»Many courses now hybrid/blended
»Students want to use their own
devices and services
»Students expect university to
prepare them for digital workplaces
»Affects students' sense of wellbeing
and belonging
»Opportunities for students to be
partners and experts in their learning
Image by Alejandro Escamilla from https://unsplash.com/@alejandroescamilla CC-0
http://digitalstudent.jiscinvolve.org

5. Student digital experience and engagement
Student tracker survey Learning analytics
27/06/2017 https://www.jisc.ac.uk/rd/projects/student-digital-experience-tracker #digitalstudent

6. What universities and colleges wanted
»Find out more locally
»Engage students in their digital experience
»Fill gap in current instruments and processes
»Something proven and credible
»Easy to administer and actionable.
Find out more: http://ji.sc/student-tracker

7. What the tracker is:
1. Tried and tested student survey:
› Closed questions that can be benchmarked
› Open questions for local analysis
› Add or customise further questions
2. Student engagement process
3. Community of practice
4. 360 degree view

8. What we’ve learned about it
1. Survey instrument is robust
2. Organisations value the process:
› Actionable evidence for change
› Benchmark against others; monitor progress
› Better informed decisions about digital services
› Support for student engagement and an
international community of practice
3. Popular: 2017-18 open pilot has 90
institutions & 58k respondents already
4. Huge interest in our aggregated findings
› http://bit.ly/jisctracker17
http://bit.ly/tracker17brief
27/06/2017 https://www.jisc.ac.uk/rd/projects/student-digital-experience-tracker #digitalstudent

9. How can technology benefit students?
Better
student
outcomes
High quality
learning
experience
Digital
capabilities
for
employment
Convenient
and flexible
Networking
and
belonging
08/07/2016 Student digital experience tracker pilot results 2016 9

10. »Submitting assignments
electronically is more
convenient
Attitudes to digital technologies
»Technology makes me more
independent and makes it
easier to fit learning into life

11. Virtual learning environment/LMS
Rely on their institution’s
VLE to do their coursework
Regularly access their institution’s
VLE via a mobile device
07/02/2018 https://digitalstudent.jisc.ac.uk #digitalstudent

12. How students use their devices
Discuss learning
informally on
social media
Make note/
recordings, and
look for additional
resources
Access learning
on the move
Organise their
study time
07/02/2018 https://digitalstudent.jisc.ac.uk #digitalstudent

13. How can digital technology best support learning?
»Active learning
»Formative assessment and
rapid feedback
»Peer-to-peer learning and
increased interaction
»Monitoring and supporting
student progress
»Employment-relevant
activities & external interaction
28/04/2018
http://bit.ly/jischepi

14. What are HE students experiencing?
28/04/2018
9 in 10 frequently access online course materials
4 in 10 have used an educational game or
simulation
Half have used polling devices/online quizzes
in class

15. Tracker findings: learning and teaching
01/02/2018 https://digitalstudent.jisc.ac.uk #digitalstudent
»In qualitative data, students
overwhelmingly ask that
digital technology does not
replace face-to-face teaching
»They do want more reliable
and more joined-up access to
services…
»… and more interaction, f2f
and with digital systems

16. Tracker findings: learning and teaching
01/02/2018 https://digitalstudent.jisc.ac.uk #digitalstudent
»The digital confidence and
capability of teaching staff is
significant to students’ overall
digital experience
»Students want consistency in
the use of core technologies…
»… but for teaching staff to be
diverse, creative,
discriminating and selective in
their use of technology

17. Staff digital capability
28/04/2018 17
ICT
proficiency
Information,
data and
media literacies
Digital
learning and
development
Digital creation,
problem solving and
innovation
Communication,
collaboration and
participation
Digital identity
and wellbeing

18. 68%
57%
81%
67%
86%
91%
Digital safety and wellbeing
More could be done by providers to support students with digital
safety and wellbeing
07/02/2018 https://digitalstudent.jisc.ac.uk #digitalstudent
FE
HE
I know where to get help from
my learning provider if I being
bullied or harassed online (% agree)
My learning provider expects
me to behave respectfully in
online spaces (% agree)
My learning provider
helps me stay safe
online (% agree)
Q14/15.How much do you agree with the following statements?

19. Digital skills and the workplace
01/02/2018 https://digitalstudent.jisc.ac.uk #digitalstudent
82% agree that digital skills
will be important in their chosen
careers
50% agree their
course prepares them for
the workplace
Yet only
HE learners do not feel their courses are preparing them well for the workplace
Q10/Q11/Q12. How much do you agree with the following statements?

20. Revised student question set for 2018
» Digital on my course:
› Core questions about digital environment
› New questions on teaching spaces and course
software
» Attitude to digital learning:
› New question on preference for independent
learning /group work
› New question on: “How much digital?”
» Two new questions which we hope will
become key metrics:
› Satisfaction with digital environment
› Satisfaction with digital learning and teaching
09/10/17 https://www.jisc.ac.uk/rd/projects/student-digital-experience-tracker #digitalstudent

21. 27/06/2017 https://www.jisc.ac.uk/rd/projects/student-digital-experience-tracker #digitalstudent
Students
Improving the student digital
experience
Organisational strategies
and investments
Teaching staff
360 degree perspective

22. 27/06/2017 https://www.jisc.ac.uk/rd/projects/student-digital-experience-tracker #digitalstudent
Organisational-level
strategies
Teaching staff Students
Use the trackers to triangulate!
Organisational
questions
Teaching
staff tracker
Student
tracker

23. 27/06/2017 https://www.jisc.ac.uk/rd/projects/student-digital-experience-tracker #digitalstudent
Teaching staff Students
e.g. Organisational Qs
• TEL strategy?
• BYOD policy?
• Tech adoption culture?
e.g.Teaching staff Qs
• Devices used?
• Time and support to
innovate?
• Use of digital tools for
[various teaching activities]?
• Rate digital provision and
support to develop digital
skills
e.g. Student Qs
• Devices used?
• Access and support
• What one thing should
we do / not do to improve
digital T&L?
• Rate digital provision and
quality of teaching

24. »Local actionable data
»Students involved locally and nationally:
› Designing
› Communicating
› Interpreting
› Responding
» Institutions can benchmark
themselves but no published benchmarks
»Community of practice shares insights into student engagement,
responding to findings, partnership working
27/06/2017 https://www.jisc.ac.uk/rd/projects/student-digital-experience-tracker #digitalstudent
Focus on student engagement

25. Responses from universities and colleges
27/06/2017 https://www.jisc.ac.uk/rd/projects/student-digital-experience-tracker #digitalstudent
It is useful to have an indicator
of comparative data to get a
sense of how the sector looks… I cannot over-emphasise how
much more credible these results
are perceived by senior
stakeholders in comparison to
local surveys…
Helped us make sense of student and
staff perspectives to support our
action planning for electronic
management of assessment
Working to improve digital experience
at faculty level
Informing
2020
digital
strategy
Used findings to inform
curriculum review
Improved signposting to digital services
Changed induction
Established a baseline

26. Find out more…
Sarah Davies
sarah.davies@jisc.ac.uk
http://digitalstudent.jiscinvolve.org
#digitalstudent
Except where otherwise noted, this
work is licensed under CC-BY-NC-ND
https://digitalstudent.jisc.ac.uk #digitalstudent01/02/2018

27. Exploring the tracker
» Sample HE questions: http://bit.ly/HEtracker18
» Sample FE questions: http://bit.ly/FEtracker18
»Staff tracker questions: https://bit.ly/2IWJtrG
»Web site: http://ji.sc/student-tracker
»Guidance on engaging students: http://bit.ly/trackerguide
27/06/2017 https://www.jisc.ac.uk/rd/projects/student-digital-experience-tracker #digitalstudent

28. Follow developments
07/02/2018 https://digitalstudent.jisc.ac.uk #digitalstudent
»Report of 2017Tracker findings:
http://bit.ly/jisctracker17
»Summary of 2017Tracker findings:
http://bit.ly/tracker17brief
»Tracker blog:
https://digitalstudent.jiscinvolve.org
»Change agents’ network:
http://can.jiscinvolve.org
»Change agents’ network mailing list
http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/CAN

29. »Teaching staff matter:
› Support (aspects of) the student digital experience
› Have their own experience to report
»Mapped to the student questions
and to the organisational
questions
› How well are you supported?
› How fit for teaching are… ?
› What do you think about…?
27/06/2017 https://www.jisc.ac.uk/rd/projects/student-digital-experience-tracker #digitalstudent
Questions for teaching staff

30. Data
Collection
Data
Storage
and Analysis
Presentation
and Action
Jisc Learning Analytics open architecture: core
Alert and Intervention
system
Other Staff
Dashboards
Consent Service
(tbc)
StudentApp:
StudyGoal
Jisc Learning
AnalyticsPredictor
Learning
Data Hub
StudentRecords VLE Library
Staff dashboardsin
Data Explorer
Self DeclaredData Attendance, Presence, Equipment use etc….
Data Aggregator
UDD TransformationToolkit Pluginsand/or Universal xAPITranslator