JISC

These web resources demonstrate the many ways in which institutions can respond positively to changing student expectations and experiences. This cannot be a one-off response, however. Listening to students on a continuing basis means that:

• Institutions have access to students’ own ideas for enhancing quality
• The range of different student needs are identified and individuals can be supported more effectively
• Institutions can target their investment on technologies that really add value to the student experience
• All this can lead to increased retention and achievement

Students learn differently and want choice. Such as paper or book, computer or internet, hand out or [VLE]. This would fit the comfort of the student learning style. Variety… with different options for each course, so students can choose which systems to learn from.

Student, Lead project

The Learners’ Experiences of e-Learning programme is developing a suite of tools to help institutions capture the student point of view and embed the student voice into strategic processes. These are available in draft from the programme website: final versions are available from March 2009. They include checklists for practitioners and managers, and a learner-centred evaluation toolkit. Other resources in development include baselining tools from the Curriculum Design programme, and tools for auditing institutional provision for digital literacies (LLiDA project). Several JISC projects have captured student ideas and feedback using available technologies, such as audio logs produced by mobile phone, electronic response systems, and VLE tracking data. All of these can provide richer and more robust data than a reliance on course evaluation questionnaires alone.

All the ideas explored depend on institutions taking a strategic approach to the student experience of living and learning with technology. It is not simply that students are impatient with the lack of consistency they perceive in messages about technology, and support for technology use. It is that technology now pervades the institutional systems that support the student experience, from first contact to alumni status. At the same time, quite different technologies are pervading the lives of learners. Only a coherent strategy for technology enhanced learning can bridge the gap.