Learner and student experience in an age of austerity: how is the

agenda set?

Chris Jones

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Introduction

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Austerity

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Kal: - http://www.economist.com/node/21553519

What is learner experience?

• Experience – mixes together notions of knowledge with feelings and time– Learners and knowledge– Learners and their feelings– The ‘now’ and the learners future

• ‘transform the learning experience to meet the students’ needs’ (JISC)

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Transforming the students experience

• Austerity and UK student course fees– Not a ‘cheap’ option– Shifts balance from ‘public good’ to private

debt

• A hidden curriculum– Debt and repayment– Individual competition– Consumer not citizen

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The contemporary experience

• What are students learning?

• What are universities selling?

• What are students buying?

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Private profit and public interest

• The student experience as consumer– Personal responsibility for cost of education– Personal cost and personal gain

• Why should ‘I’ pay for schools…?

• The student experience as citizen– Shared responsibility for costs– Social costs and shared gains

• Student ‘owes’ responsibility to others4th Nov 2013 ELESIG 7

A contemporary learner experience4.4 The learner experience in MOOCs

There is a strong emphasis on learner independence and peer support in MOOCs. Partly this is a result of their scale and that they are free – the providers of the course cannot afford to employ sufficient staff to provide support. (my emphasis) http://www.open.edu/openlearn/education/open-education/content-section-4.44th Nov 2013 ELESIG 8

MOOCs and policy hype

• cMOOC or xMOOC– Dialogue– Transmission– Local variation

• Edinburgh Digital Cultures (Coursera)

• Student experience– Consumer?

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Phenomenography and the learner experience

• The study of variation in conceptions of phenomena– Began Sweden 1970s (Marton, Säljö)– Popularised 1980s ‘90s

• Began as empirical research– Epistemology and ontology clarified later– Popularly associated with ‘deep’ and ‘surface’

learning4th Nov 2013 ELESIG 10

Deep and Surface

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Approaches and contexts

• Phenomenography stresses student approaches (relational)– Approaches are not styles– Approach influenced by context

• Teaching• Space and place• Networked learning

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Approaches to learning• Phenomenography

underpins:– Qualitative research– Quantitative work – Approaches to

Study inventories (ASI, ASSIST)– Related work e.g. Biggs

constructive alignment, 3P model– Course Experience Questionnaire

(Ramsden 1991)

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The 3 P model

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From academic research to…

• “…the widespread and usually unquestioning use of this model imposes limitations on the way that research data about student learning are both generated and understood.” (Haggis 2003)

• The research has become a dominant policy paradigm

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Student experience and austerity

• There is currently little focus on the broader student experience

• The learner experience is seen as a ‘technical’ issue– A narrow form of rationality– Student needs are not fixed

• Policy helps form them• We reap what we sow…

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The costs of HE• A fall in the percentage of GDP spent on university

funding between 2008 and 2013 in 10 EU countries and an increase in eight (EUA 2013).

• In the UK (England and Wales) university spending is falling as a proportion of GDP. After rising from 2008 to 2011, expenditure fell to 0.46% of GDP http://www.eua.be/Libraries/Governance_Autonomy_Funding/EUA_PFO_report_2013.sflb.ashx

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Students and analytics

• The prospect of new sources– Traces without intervention

• Who’s in charge?– Managed experience

• Who’s data– What happens to aggregate data

• Google apps etc

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educause

Students form their own experiences

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