Interesting Reads This Week

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My curmudgeonly self is currently on a brief hiatus, thanks to the recent change in weather. Some of this week's readings have reinforced this fleeting cheerfulness, while others have stirred the dormant skeptic within me.

Experiencing the digital

Jisc in the U.K. has released its annual Student Digital Experience Insights Survey results. This comprehensive survey, based on responses from over 28,000 students, is one of the best in its genre. While student opinions on digital learning environments are generally positive, support for digital learning still requires improvement.

First, student preferences for learning modality are moving more online.

This represents a significant shift from last year's survey when 45% of students preferred on-campus learning and only 41% favored a hybrid approach. These results align with trends observed elsewhere, indicating a growing preference for hybrid learning.

Another intriguing aspect of the survey was students' reported use of accessibility and productivity tools. The extent to which features traditionally associated with accessibility, such as captions or transcripts, are employed for general productivity purposes is remarkable and should be considered a strong argument for increased adoption of these features.

Finally, the survey provides valuable insights into the barriers students encounter when using digital tools for learning. This issue has been a long-standing concern of mine, dating back to the early 2000s when many IT leaders on campus mistakenly believed that students had sufficient personal technology and didn't require campus support or facilities such as computer labs. The pandemic brought the reality of students' actual needs into sharp focus, and it's clear that these needs persist. Moreover, student needs are far more complex than simply having access to a device. As the Jisc data demonstrates, students also require suitable workspaces, highlighting the growing importance of places such as libraries as learning environments.

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