Engaging with the student voice through digital experience insights surveys

Digital experience insights surveys are an established part of the university’s calendar, running annually between November and January. The findings reveal if students are experiencing pain points in their digital environment, where their satisfaction is improving, what’s working well and what could be better. Benchmarking information provided by Jisc a couple of months later offers context, so the team can see what’s happening across the sector.

The digital university

The University of Wolverhampton‘s ‘digital university’ aims to be an experience where all students can get the information, resources and support they need digitally from anywhere and at any time. And as someone who was involved in a previous role with Jisc’s pilot for the insights surveys, head of user experience and engagement, Emma Barwell, thought the surveys would help the university achieve these ambitions.

Targeted support

The survey allows institutions to gather data about how students use technologies and experience their digital environment. This means the university or college can identify where to target investment for the best results. Over time the data can be evaluated to see how the strategy is performing and to plan an effective response when the digital environment changes.

And as changes to the digital environment go, nothing in recent years has come close to the upheaval caused by COVID-19.

Six months into the first national lockdown Wolverhampton University ran its first insights survey to see how students were experiencing learning fully remotely. More than 2,500 students completed it, and their feedback was reassuring about online sessions and the flexibility and pace of online learning.

Their answers about connectivity, however, revealed inequalities. A significant proportion of students said they were reliant on mobile-only devices and data to access their learning, so the university began to review the hardship fund and found ways to offer more (and more flexible) laptop loans. Similarly, every year since then, data from the surveys has informed investment decisions.

Director of digital services, Nici Cooper, says the university makes this explicit in its communications with students and staff:

"Every year we give a clear response to what students have told us in the survey. It is a key opportunity to engage with the student voice at scale and then to show we listen and take action."

Encouraging participation

When the survey opens each year there’s a communications programme encouraging students to take part. Getting the message across is simple, using mechanisms that already exist such as the Canvas VLE, the university’s student app, Students’ Union representatives and all-student emails.

Most of the university’s survey questions are those suggested by Jisc, which in 2023/24 included an extra set for international students, exploring their digital experience in their home countries. The university added five of its own, for all students.

As an incentive, students have a chance to win Amazon vouchers, and around 2,000 students complete the survey every year. Nici says:

"We include, and highly value, questions that invite free text answers. We read every single one and this gives us a richness that helps us fine-tune our programmes in response. We also love hearing what is going well from the student perspective, we would not necessarily hear this otherwise.

"These voices are powerful. If students tell us there’s an issue somewhere it gives us evidence to prioritise it."

Clear insights lead to effective action

Armed with information from the 2022/23 digital insights survey the university prioritised actions including:

• Adding 100 more laptops to the loan scheme and replacing hundreds of PCs across its campuses. The result? A better study experience for more students as evidenced by positive comments in the subsequent survey
• Adding user-friendly features to the Canvas VLE – a comment in the 2023/24 survey noted, “it looks better, it’s much more intuitive and it syncs with my modules”
• Ramping up onboarding and pre-arrival communications, bringing positive feedback including this: “induction made the process of using the digital tools and resources smoother”

The 2023/24 survey results show solid improvements in students’ experience of their digital learning environment since 2020. For example:

• 82% rated the quality of digital learning on their course as ‘good’, ‘excellent’ or ‘best imaginable’ (compared with 67.1% in 2021)
• 75% agreed they were well supported to learn effectively using technologies (compared with 64.3% in 2021)
• And 83% gave the quality of their digital learning environment at the university one of the three highest ratings (compared with 76% in 2022 – the first year the question was asked)

The survey has also provided food for thought around issues such as the cost of-living crisis, digital skills and the optimal blend of face-to-face and online learning.

"Topics like these throw up some interesting questions for us. It’s useful to see from Jisc’s benchmarking information how other institutions are faring, and to work with the digital experience insights community of practice to explore ideas and best practice."

Actions for the coming academic year include:

• More digital orientation work for new students, getting them up to speed with the systems and services that make up the digital university
• Work to improve the wifi
• Offering more resources and support for specialist software
• Creating more video/audio resources to reduce reliance on text
• Developing formal credentials for digital and data skills to encourage upskilling and confidence