Education 2.0 & 3.0

The university sector in the United Kingdom is hugely diverse and that diversity is increasing rapidly. It is not just that devolution to Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland has encouraged regional diversity but that institutional missions, modes of operation and methods of governance are so different. 

For some, universities are about creating and disseminating knowledge. For others, students are at the heart of everything they do and others are very directly reliant on tuition fees. Many for-profits, meanwhile, are about the bottom line. This diversity has important implications for policy-making. A policy that favours one kind of institution may severely disadvantage another. 

Of all of the aspects of the student experience currently under scrutiny, you’d maybe think that academic textbooks were uncontroversial and their efficacy clearly understood. You’d think that the academic benefits of textbooks would be incontestable, and that both students and staff were clear on how textbooks are used to support learning. You’d be wrong.

With a growing movement in transnational education, universities have a new challenge in achieving equality - how can they ensure all students have access to the same publications?

A Curated Conversation on MOOCs in the Uk held at the altMOOCsig at UCL on 27th June 2014. Contributions from various British academics including Diana Laurill…

Education Secretary Gavin Williamson says students should expect in-person teaching for new term.

Digital and numeracy skills are amongst those that are most sought after by employers, and can help you progress in work and boost your job prospects. Digital skills can be anything from using social media and staying safe online to coding, programming or digital marketing.

Library hub discover, library hub compare, and library hub cataloguing will make it easier for UK higher education libraries and researchers to access, discover and manage academic collections.

Having a student body that is representative of wider society has been high on many universities’ agendas for quite some time. Yet recent UCAS data shows the gap between disadvantaged and non-disadvantaged students, particularly those studying at “top” Russell Group universities, has recently widened.

Key messages:

Prepare students for digital learning
Arriving students need to know what to expect from
digital learning. Our findings point to the key practices
and tools that students find useful in each sector but
there is no one-size-fits-all solution. This is where
institutions can make excellent use of their local
insights data.

Make bring your own devices (BYOD) work
Most students now bring their own devices for
learning but many can’t use them to access subjectspecialist software and online content. Students learn
more efficiently if they have access to the full range
of learning tools on a device of their choice.

Assistive technology is for everyone
One in five students is using assistive or adaptive
technologies, often by choice rather than necessity.
Institutions should recognise the value of ‘inclusive
for all’ and investigate how digital technologies can
support inclusion in learning and assessment.

Help students stay happy and well
FE students would benefit from better access to
health and wellbeing services online. HE students
would benefit from more help to stay safe online.
All students want to feel that they belong, so their
log-in should give access to personalised services,
student societies and social networks.Digital experience insights survey 2018: findings from students in
UK further and higher education.

Authors: Tabetha Newman, Helen Beetham and Sarah Knight
SEPTEMBER 2018

Disinformation and 'fake news': Final Report Contents

1.Social media companies cannot hide behind the claim of being merely a ‘platform’ and maintain that they have no responsibility themselves in regulating the content of their sites. We repeat the recommendation from our Interim Report that a new category of tech company is formulated, which tightens tech companies’ liabilities, and which is not necessarily either a ‘platform’ or a ‘publisher’. This approach would see the tech companies assume legal liability for content identified as harmful after it has been posted by users. We ask the Government to consider this new category of tech company in its forthcoming White Paper. (Paragraph 14)

Have you wondered what the Teaching Excellence Framework is but been too afraid to ask? Have no fear, Wonkhe's Ant Bagshaw has provided a comprehensive guide to this complicated and high profile exercise.