Professor Richard Hall

@hallymk1 rhall1@dmu.ac.ukrichard-hall.org

NUCCAT// 19 November 2015

Student Achievement in the Digital Age: How emergent technologies can enhance the academic experience

1. Digital transformation and productivity: the policy space for higher education and technology

2. The academic experience of which students?

3. The relationship between emergent technologies and student achievement

The policy/practice space for HE and technology

1.HE Green Paper focuses on teaching intensity, student commitment to learning, and learning environment

2.HM Treasury Productivity Plan rooted in digital transformation and disruption

3.The Small Business, Enterprise and Employability Act

includes ‘Education Evaluation’ that promotes human capital theory (skills, expertise, employability)

4.Jisc work on building digital capability: leadership, pedagogy and efficiency

[NOTE: see also trade liberalisation and the TTIP]

Across the higher education system, institutions are using technology in innovative ways.

Yet conventional universities no longer hold all the cards on how the higher education market develops.

Although MOOCs are still at a relatively early stage, they are evolving fast and may have the potential to tackle some particular challenges – such as an apparent mismatch between the supply and demand for high-level computer skills.Willetts, D. 2013. Robbins Revisited: Bigger and Better Higher Education.

London: Social Market Foundation, p. 69. http://bit.ly/1mhl2By

transnational joint ventures

Major Players in the MOOC Universe. Chronicle of HE.http://bit.ly/1a2lqVv

Interactions between policy/practice change the contexts for student achievement, rooted in “intensity”, “productivity”, “gain”.

1.Data: learning analytics; open data; c.f. concerns over The Patriot Act and information governance

2.Learning content: open repositories; enterprise reading lists

3.Accreditation: open badges; e-portfolios; competency-based

4.Personalisation: universal design for learning; assistive technologies; productivity tools; mobile

5.Social: open education (MOOCs); cloud-based services

We might ask: enhancing the academic experience of which students?

1.The dominant, universal narrative of technology and “progress”, “efficiency”, “employability”: Pearson

2.Alternative uses of technology outside formal HE: ds106 and community learning/accreditation

3.Alternative uses of technology inside formal HE: Why is My Curriculum White? and Rhodes Must Fall

doubling the amount of really high value learning:

being more global; being more mobile; thinking holistically; being absolutely obsessed with learning outcomes

“building an ever-wider range of bigger and more complex standalone products and services to participating in more open, interoperable educational ‘ecosystems’, centered around learners”

Pearson’s Five Trillion Dollar Question: http://bit.ly/1iaRaMp

Rizvi, S., Donnelly, T., and Barber, M. 2013. An avalanche is coming: Higher education and the revolution ahead. IPPR. http://bit.ly/1jA5Dzo

Dismantling the Masters house: http://www.dtmh.ucl.ac.uk c.f. Why isn’t my professor black? Why is the curriculum white?#rhodesmustfall #educationalrepair

The relationship between emergent technologies and student achievement

1.Increasing complexity of ecosystems

2.Competency-based learning

3.Connecting institutional and public/personal technologies

4.Digital transformation

Gartner's 2014 Hype Cycle Special Report provides strategists and planners with an

assessment of the maturity, business benefit and future direction of more than 2,000

technologies, grouped into 119 areas.

Gartner's 2014 Hype Cycle for Emerging Technologies Maps the Journey to Digital Business. http://www.gartner.com/newsroom/id/2819918

Gartner's 2014 Hype Cycle for Emerging Technologies Maps the Journey to Digital Business. http://gtnr.it/1swZR7r

Office of Educational Technology. 2015. Ed Tech Developer’s Guide. https://tech.ed.gov/developers-guide/

Some caveats

1.Data governance, e.g. safe harbour concerns

2.Digital identity and footprint, e.g. professionalism, openness

3.Digital privacy, e.g. anonymity in recordings/DSA

4.Digital literacy, e.g. alignment of staff/student needs

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.