Helen Beetham and Tabetha Newman

1. Digital experience insights survey 2018:
findings from the pilot of teaching staff in
UK further and higher education
Helen Beetham and Tabetha Newman
Digital experience insights https://digitalinsights.jisc.ac.uk

2. Insights includes teaching staff as well as students

3. Why were we so keen to
include teaching staff?
1. Teaching staff have their own
experience of the digital environment
and of digital learning and teaching
2. Teaching staff are critical to the
student digital experience – their
development matters
3. Teaching staff engagement is
necessary to the Insights process
4. Research ethics: ‘nothing about us
without us’

4. The survey instrument
• 47 items, closely matched to the student
questions and themes
• All questions optional
• Mini version (17 items) also piloted
• Core questions were benchmarked
• Custom questions could be added to the
full version

5. The pilot sample
• Four colleges and 11 universities in England, Scotland
and Wales piloted the surveys
• 376 college responses
• 1,545 university responses
•Pilots also used the student survey, so we could compare
staff / student responses from the same institution(s)
•Pilot institutions had already provided us with some insights
into their context
•Pilot institutions were committed to the digital experience of
students and teaching staff
1,921 teachers surveyed across
15 institutions

6. Key findings
Remember that this is a pilot!!

7. Theme 1: teachers and their digital technology
60% of our sample of
teachers described
themselves as early
adopters of digital
technology for teaching.
Two thirds of college
teachers turn to their
colleagues first for
support with digital
issues, while only a third
of university teachers do
the same.

8. Who said that?
Who is most likely to
turn to support
services first for help
with digital issues,
teaching staff or
students?

9. Teaching staff!
Teaching staff are more
likely to turn to (non-
teaching) support staff.
But both teaching staff
and students look first
to their immediate
colleagues – teaching
staff or other students.

10. Theme 2: digital in the institution
College teachers had much lower
levels of access to key resources
than university teachers, especially
to e-books and e-journals, lecture
capture, and a video skills service.
Only a third of teachers in either
sector agreed that the software
available for teaching was industry
standard and up to date.
Less than a fifth of college teachers
and less than a third of university
teachers agreed that audio visual
(AV) equipment is reliable, or that
teaching spaces are well designed
for technology use.

11. Theme 2: digital in the institution: the VLE
About a third of college teachers and about two thirds at university rely on a
Virtual Learning Environment for teaching.
A third of college but only a quarter of university teachers use it for student
collaboration.

12. Who said
that?
Who gives a higher
rating to their
institution’s digital
environment, teachers
or students?

13. Students
Students were significantly more positive than teachers at the same institution(s).
Taken together with their significantly worse assessments of software and teaching rooms,
teaching staff appear to be more critical than students of organisational provision.

14. Theme 3: digital teaching
Digital teaching practice is reported to be different in the two
sectors.
College teachers are much more likely to carry out live polls or
quizzes in class than university teachers, and somewhat more
likely to create their own learning materials. They also provide
more digital feedback.
Teaching in a live online environment such as a webinar is more
common in university.
Asked to name a digital tool or app they found useful for
teaching…

15. Who said that?
College and university teachers named the digital app or tool they
find ‘really useful’ for teaching. Which is which?

16. Who said that?
University teachers College teachers
College and university teachers named the digital app or tool they
find ‘really useful’ for teaching. Which is which?

17. Who said that?
College and university students were asked to name a digital app or
tool they find ‘really useful’ for learning.
University students College students

18. Who said that?
College and university students were asked to name a digital course
activity they find really useful for learning.
University students College students

19. Theme 4: teachers’ digital development
College teachers tended to agree they had been given guidance about the digital skills
they need for teaching, while university teachers tended to be neutral.
College teachers tended to be neutral about whether they had been given time and
support to innovate, while university teachers tended to disagree.

20. Theme 4: teachers’ digital development: guidance
College teachers were significantly more likely to say they had all five types of guidance.
Most university staff were unsure of their responsibilities in relation to assistive
technologies (85%), student safety online (84%), and their own health and wellbeing (81%).

21. Theme 4: teachers’ digital development
About half of our respondents never search online for teaching resources
About four in ten never discuss teaching issues online with peers.
More than one in eight teachers never develops their digital teaching skills
Only 11% read about issues in digital education on a weekly basis
University and college teachers very similar

22. Theme 4: teachers’ digital development
About half of our respondents never search online for teaching resources
About four in ten never discuss teaching issues online with peers.
More than one in eight teachers never develops their digital teaching skills
Only 11% read about issues in digital education on a weekly basis

23. Theme 4: teachers’ digital development: time

24. Theme 4: teachers’ digital development: support
Support
For

25. Who is most
enthusiastic about
using digital in
learning and teaching,
teaching staff or
students?
Who said that?
Students rating their
digital learning and
teaching
Teaching staff rating
their digital CPD

26. Who said that?
Are teaching staff or
students more
enthusiastic about using
digital technologies in
learning and teaching?

27. Teaching staff
Almost two-thirds of
teaching staff want
digital technologies to
be used more in
teaching, compared with
only about a third of
students.

28. Going further– what is the ‘digital
experience’ of teaching staff?

29. Factor analysis of the UK student responses…
F1
My digital development
(20%, 3Qs)
F2
My digital course
experience (6%, 4Qs)
F3
Frequency of digital
activities on course (6%,
2Qs)
F4 Anytime
access to online
resources (4%,1Q)
F5 My VLE
experience (4% 1Q)
F6 Ind. digital
learning (3%,
2Qs) F8 Digital
investment
(3%, 2Qs)
F7 My digital
wellbeing (3%,
1Q)
8 factors of student
digital experience
(Uni)

30. Factor analysis of the UK teaching staff responses…
F1
My digital CPD
(23%, 4Qs)
How much do you agree that your organisation
provides you with…?
• Guidance about the digital skills you are
expected to have as a teacher
• Reward or recognition when you develop digital
aspects of your role
• Regular opportunities to develop digital skills
• Time and support to innovate

31. Exists, and can be investigated
Is highly determined by investment in digital CPD (guidance,
opportunity, recognition, time, help and support)
Also requires:
•flexible learning environment, well-equipped teaching spaces,
usable systems, industry standard software
•clear understanding of responsibilities for key digital agendas
•consultation with teaching staff about the digital environment
•opportunities to share expertise and examples of practice
•opportunities to practice and experiment, with specialist support
•on-the-spot technical support and a variety of support for digital
skills (e.g. via a video service)
•rewards for innovation, recognising that teachers want to lead
•support for varieties of digital practice
The digital experience of teaching staff:

32. What do teachers say?
Give examples of where digital
teaching practice has been
successfully applied in the different
disciplines.
Workload is so cluttered during term
time that developing new digital
teaching practice in response to
student feedback … is impossible
Consult BEFORE implementing
change.
Please value teaching itself more,
whether digital or not.
Give us time to actually learn how to
use technology well, in order for us to
be confident to use it in class.
Have [Inset days] actually creating
work for my course, not just showing
off techniques that I am never given
time to implement.
Provide time and follow up support -
one training session is insufficient.
Provide a mentor to check in with from
time to time, to answer questions,
develop skills and give ongoing
support.

33. Take-aways
Except where otherwise noted,
this wok is licensed under CC-BY
Briefings for teaching teams (HE and FE)
Briefings for senior managers (HE and FE)
Digital learning activities (an update on
Bloom’s taxonomy based on students’
preferred digital activities)
Full report from digitalinsights.jisc.ac.uk
See also: Digital student experience
roadmap (for student unions and guilds)

34. Questions and feedback