1. Emergent technologies have the potential to enhance the student academic experience through increased productivity, learning analytics, open educational resources, and personalized and social learning. 2. However, the benefits of technology are not experienced equally among all students, and there are concerns that a focus on skills and employability promotes a narrow view of higher education. 3. The relationship between technology and student achievement is complex as ecosystems become more integrated and competency-based learning emerges, but issues around data governance, digital identity, privacy, and literacy must also be addressed.

1. Professor Richard Hall
@hallymk1 rhall1@dmu.ac.uk
richard-hall.org
NUCCAT// 19 November 2015
Student Achievement in the Digital
Age: How emergent technologies can
enhance the academic experience

2. 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

4. 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]

5. 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

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

7. 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

8. 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

9. 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

12. 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

14. 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

15. 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

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

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

25. 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

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