In higher education as with life more generally, it’s practically impossible to get by without technology in the 21st century. Whether it is Blackboard, online journals or just a PowerPoint presentation they are the staple of student academic life.

It can be easy to pretend that higher education hasn’t changed much in the last few decades, but the increased role of technology has certainly seen a sea-change in the way students engage with their learning and teaching experience. For the majority of students and staff too, basic digital literacy isn’t a ‘nice to have’, it’s increasingly essential. And for institutions themselves, technology is increasingly being turned to as the solution to longstanding challenges. New solutions which integrate different services are having a positive impact on the student experience, and can bring together what had often been scattered services dispersed across an institution. From technological solutions to support the extension of library opening hours, to new modes of communication to gain support from personal tutors through wikis and blogs, technology can actively improve the student learning experience.

Academically reform is catching on too. As employers increasingly call for presentation skills from graduates, departments are able to find new ways to use technology as students can present their work and findings. As we enter a more globalised workplace, departments too are able to starting linking up UK students with their counterparts from the four corners of the globe. In a click of a button students in a seminar room in Leicester can find themselves engaging and working with fellow students from Lagos to Los Angeles. In many instances students will use programmes they are familiar with in their day to day lives like Skype or FaceTime.

In August 2011, the National Union of Students (NUS) published a charter on ‘technology in higher education’ which sets out ten recommendations for how technology can improve the student experience. Issues such as training for staff and students, the need for institutional IT strategies and the ability of technology to improve an institution’s infrastructure are all centre stage. But the charter stops short of offering unqualified support for technology in the learning and teaching experience, indicating that further research on student demand and perspectives on technology should be conducted.

This is backed up when speaking to the current President of NUS, Liam Burns. He says, “We should be cautious in assuming that technology can always improve the quality of the learning and teaching experience, especially if it comes as a replacement for face to face contact. Although it seems pretty clear that technology can unquestionably improve the infrastructure and support for students during their time in higher education.”

In many respects this is echoed in the findings in the NUS research, ‘Student perspectives on technology – demand, perceptions and training needs’ which was commissioned as part of the 2010 – 2011 HEFCE Online Learning Task Force chaired by Dame Lynne Brindley, of which I was a member. The findings in the research demonstrated that technology was being used on a daily basis by students, and that 77.7% of students felt that ICT had benefited their learning experience, but it clearly isn’t universal. 81% of pre-HE students in the study consider their web skills to be self-taught and 43% of students actively want their tutors to use ICT more.

But looking to the future, the expectations of students are rapidly increasing, and the ability for technology to keep pace with this will be crucial. As the funding for teaching is reduced dramatically over the coming years, and the cost of tuition will soar for home and EU undergraduates, a number of institutions have started to consider how technology can play a part in adding value to the student experience through open access materials and additional content as a supplement to face to face contact.

Derfel Owen is in the newly created role of student engagement and participation development manager, working jointly for the University of Exeter and their students’ guild. He comments that, “I believe that technology does present an opportunity to replace and improve on face to face contact. Technology offers an opportunity to work far more flexibly, around hours – or, even better, minutes – that suit increasingly busy students and academics.”

He adds, “The biggest challenge facing universities now is that they will never be able to impress their students! We will be running to catch up with their stratospheric expectations that are constantly shifting because of the sheer pace and volume of change in online communications. We can’t resist this. We can only observe it, respect it, learn from it and break down our risk-averse cultures to make sure we keep pace.”

And with a greater focus on student engagement too, there is a growing appetite from students for technology to aid a revolution of a different sort. Rather than placards or slogans, students today are more likely to want technology to be used so that they can see their module evaluation forms or online forums to give course feedback. The traditional face to face staff-student committees are helpful, but only to a point. They will inevitably engage the ‘usual suspects’ and rarely those from non-traditional backgrounds, particularly if they are part-time or have caring responsibilities.

New mechanisms for students, which don’t rely on them having to attend staff-student committee meetings in person, are bringing about a necessary revolution. Student engagement has long needed to embrace more than just the young, full-time undergraduate, and I am working with JISC to develop a student Community of Practice amongst e-learning (CAMEL) which will act as a network for those involved in digital literacy, assessment and feedback activity, and support them to network, share best practice and to innovate.

So as technology continues to transform the way in which the academic and student experiences more broadly are delivered in higher education, we need to think about how it can be delivered in a way that has a positive impact on the experience of students. Vice-Chancellors and senior staff aiming to place their institution at the cutting edge of innovation would be well served to consider whether they are investing sufficiently in the infrastructure, back-end technology and training to ensure staff and students can make the most of the opportunities that present themselves. But crucially, in a new era of rising student demands, institutions will need to stay ahead of the curve just to stand still and continue to fulfil the expectations of the next generation of students.

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