UUK Reports on Lessons from the pandemic and the use of digital technologies

Universities UK (UUK) collected data on digital technologies used by universities and their affectivity alongside in-person teaching to deliver courses best suited to student needs.

These data are presented in a briefing called Lessons from the pandemic: making the most of technologies in teaching.

Thirteen UUK member universities shared their experience during the consultations in March and April 2021. They shared their experiences on the benefits of online learning,

plans to permanently change teaching, and the online student experience.

The briefing identifies the effective practice of the universities that is to be shared across the sector in order to promote innovative teaching and flexibility of the methods.

While campuses are busy with students again, it is important that universities reflect on the changes that were made during the pandemic and learn from this period to enhance the student experience.

The majority of students prefer in-person learning but online teaching and learning during the pandemic provided a lot of opportunity for innovation and creativity.

While the universities had to overcome many challenges and hardships, the result has been positive change and progress.

The briefing identifies the following positive changes:

– The Universities have made better use of social media and emails leading to greater engagement with students. The work with student unions has been improved, using fewer print materials, noticeboards and word-of-mouth.

-The use of online teaching led to an overall improvement of digital skills of significant of staff and students.

-The use of digital platforms positively impacted the access to support services as the wellbeing session, study skills sessions and other online events such as career fairs are no longer restricted to numbers.

-Students expressed positive views on online assessment with new approaches including quizzes and the presentation of digital portfolios. According to a survey of students at Birkbeck, part of the University of London, 59 per cent of respondents would prefer all online or remote exams in the future.

Universities made more effective connections with speakers and networks on a local, national and international scale by using online teaching and meeting platforms. Students at the Royal College of Music were able to perform live for a global audience through the live streaming.

Reflecting on the findings, the universities consider the future steps that both universities and students might take to build on the lessons learned from the pandemic.

Universities are returning to higher levels of in-person teaching, so they can now utilize the positive aspects that digital technologies brought to the classroom and use the effort and funds invested in the students’ learning experience. The approach can be blended learning, which introduces complementary online teaching for students to engage within their own time, and another is hybrid learning, in which in-person and online teaching are delivered simultaneously.

As a result of the digital technologies, students will be able to access the lessons from home, if necessary, and they will be able to manage their time to learn and review the lessons and digital materials repeatedly.

The challenges brought by digital learning are not to be overlooked. Digital poverty is one of them as not all the students have access to a computer and good internet connections; providing online content for disabled students that has readable fonts and is compatible with screen readers; making sure that online courses are subject to agreed assessment methods; protecting against plagiarism and securing future funding for online and digital learning.

Dr Peter Bonfield, President of the University of Westminster, who contributed to establishing lessons learned from online delivery, said:

“Whilst we almost all love and enjoy working and studying as physical communities together on campus, it is paramount that the advantages of digital delivery alongside face-to-face delivery are not lost and are implemented to further improve the student experience and the quality of education offered to them.”

The full briefing is available on UUK website: https://www.universitiesuk.ac.uk/sites/default/files/field/downloads/2021-11/uuk-lessons-from-the-pandemic_0.pdf