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Lecturers keen to use digital education tools but need support

The 2023/24 digital experience insights survey for higher education teaching staff reveals demand for support and the time to learn.

Over 3,000 teaching staff from 29 universities and 4 colleges took part in the Jisc 2023/24 digital experience insights survey that asks them about teaching using digital technologies.

60% of lecturers considered the digital teaching environment offered by their organisation to be good, excellent or the ‘best imaginable’. This represents a slight decline from last year’s survey where 64% gave their organisation a high rating.

Survey respondents commented that digital technologies complimented their teaching styles. Examples included delivering pre-lecture content through virtual learning environments and the ability to support more students at scale with a range of accessible content. However, digital infrastructure was the source of some dissatisfaction with 53% of teaching staff reporting issues with wifi connectivity and 41% having problems with systems access.

Just under a quarter (24%) of teaching staff said they used artificial intelligence (AI) tools in their teaching activities with 18% saying they had been offered training in the use of AI. Training and the time to learn about digital technologies is a key theme of the survey. 50% of respondents said they had received specific training for teaching online, but only 14% felt they had time to explore new digital tools and approaches.

Dominic Walker, business intelligence and surveys consultant at Jisc, who wrote the survey report, said:

“Many teaching staff are positive about opportunities to engage students with course content and enjoy experimenting with tools and techniques. However, teaching staff are enormously pressed for time and need the support of their organisations to make the most of digital teaching technology.

The 2023/24 digital experience insights further education teaching staff surveys and higher education students surveys both reinforce the same message about the need to carve out time for support and to explore new digital tools that help efficiency and engagement. These surveys give higher and further education providers the evidence they need to target that support for teaching staff and students.”

About digital experience insights

Through Jisc’s digital experience insights service, organisations can gain valuable data to inform strategic, operational and digital investment decisions, evidence year-on-year improvements and demonstrate return on investment. Organisations that take part have access to their own data to assess their unique situations as well as benchmarking data across the UK education sector. Full information about the digital experience insights surveys is detailed on the digital experience insights website.