Welcome back to this new edition of Education Technology Insights !!!✖
| | OCTOBER - 20219employers have invested in a range of digital tools to aid communication and collaboration (MS Teams, Zoom, etc), students have been provided with learning management systems, essentially virtual formal study space like a classroom. Students at Canterbury Christ Church University have been using a mix of formal, semi-formal and informal virtual learning spaces to support their learning. The students identified the formal learning management system Blackboard Collaborate as being the most helpful digital medium in supporting their on-line learning. However, in addition to these resources students have independently identified and adopted social media and video conferencing platforms to support their learning. For example, 52 percent of students from Inebode (2021) research study identified that video conference platforms Discord, Jitsi, etc have been best to support group work assessment. These platforms support informal and semi-formal student learning on-line, akin to the semi-formal and informal physical collaborative study spaces across an institution. The same study highlighted that students' methods of communication with lecturers and their peers are a mix of email (86 percent used) and video conference platforms (67 percent used). Over 73 percent of students would welcome keeping the on-line recorded broadcast lectures, as it supports ubiquitous learning, but only 26 percent would like to keep on-line inter-active lectures, and10 percent on-line laboratory practical learning. Interviews with some of the student survey respondents provided a greater depth and insight. For example, though they use email they felt it lacked responsiveness and would welcome a direct messaging service. The move to on-line learning due to COVID-19 has increased their digital literacy and therefore their readiness for employment, however they would also welcome more training on how to use digital tools to further develop their skillsets for future employment. Future digital provision needs to be akin to academic campuses in providing formal, semi-formal and in-formal study spaces for learning. Students need access to laptops to support their learning and reliable and large capacity broadband service. A learning management system is also required to support their formal learning, but students also want access to a direct messaging service and collaborative platforms to support their semi-formal and in-formal learning. In reality, the latter is equally as important as the learning management systems to support student digital competency for graduate employment. The move to on-line learning due to COVID-19 has increased students' digital literacy and therefore their readiness for employment < Page 8 | Page 10 >