Monthly Archives: August 2012

From JISC – Retaining Students

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According to a National Audit Office report, 20% of students in higher and 15% in further education do not complete their studies. Universities and colleges with high student drop-out rates lose government funding.

In a nutshell

Institutions that provide a first class learning experience achieve good retention rates. Our research has shown that the appropriate use of technology in learning and teaching can enhance learning, motivate students and improve retention.

Our thinking

We’ve examined how digital technologies can support retention at various stages in the student lifecycle from search and enrolment, to teaching and learning, through to assessment and feedback.

  • Learners are more likely to prosper if they are suitably matched to their course and institution. You can help students make informed decisions by sharing sample learning materials and lectures freely online through Open educational resources
  • Online technologies can also help learners develop realistic expectations of study and acclimatise to their new institution. Listen to our radio show to find out how several universities and colleges are using digital technologies to better meet students’ requirements and improve retention.
  • Many learners enter further and higher education enthusiastic about the use of digital technologies, yet lacking the skills needed to apply them to education. Unchecked, this could result in dissatisfaction, drop-out or failure. We’ve developed new guidance (PDF) to help institutions support students in developing these new learning and digital literacies
  • Students are more likely to prosper if they have a stake in designing their own learning experiences. Our new guidance, Emerging practice in a digital age, discusses how to work in partnership with students and includes several written and video case studies and podcast interviews.
  • Effective management information can also help institutions retain students. For example, ‘at risk’ students can be identified by tracking those who fail to log in to key services, such as library systems and virtual learning environments. See our new toolkit to find out how activity data, which records a user’s use of a resource, can help.
  • Some institutions are supporting student retention through enhancing the first year experience. Our getting started guideStudent engagement and retention: easing the transition to HE, puts the experiences of three universities into a wider context. Another guide shows how some institutions are using mobile technologies to enhance the student experience and thus increase retention rates.

What does the future hold?

We are exploring customer relationship management tools which could be used to encourage ongoing study.

Research servers slowly fade away

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When a Research Group buys a server as part of a grant then it will get extensively used for that grant by the team working on that grant.

When the grant expires, so does the server. It gets decommissioned and sent to server heaven.

Actually, no. When the grant expires the server lives on and will most likely be used by the original team and others in the Group.

They get used to its setup, the software is probably quite stable.

At this point the system is probably 3 or 4 years old, it will have software of a similar age. If it still works then there is a reluctance to change it, especially if change means learning a new system or having to transfer a project from one version of software to another. “What happens if we need to revisit our old project?” “But I *know* this works on this setup!” they cry.

So we leave the machine be, we keep it patched as long as possible and running as long as possible. Only when it is no longer viable (either from a security or a parts-replacement cost point of view) do we let it fade away. And you know what? At that time very rarely do the users find that they actually needed that setup as much as they thought they did.

There must be a cut off point where an old machine has outlived its required usefulness and is just a drain on support and electricity. Should we push our users to find that point? ‘Proactive change’ can be a dirty phrase if one is resistant to change.

We try to virtualise where we can, but  whilst virtualisation is a reasonable route for replacing the *processing* power of old machines it can be a bit of drain to try and move large amounts of storage around.

So what do we do? I think again this touches on Digital Literacy. We must impress on the users that when they purchase a machine they must give it a reasonable lifespan and include provision for the long term archive, storage and, if necessary, format/application-shifting of its data.

The new Vista?

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So, Windows 8.

Hmmm.

We’ve just got Windows 7 established as the steady, reliable workhorse for Windows desktops. XP is in its death throes. Vista was almost stillborn on the corporate desktop, it needed extensive rewriting and repackaging before it was accepted (i.e. Windows 7 was released and taken up).

Windows 8 with its extensively modified user interface has already generated a reactionary response from the corporate world, unsure of how to integrate this new system in to its setup or its training.

It may take a year or so before people get used to it. People may never get used to it. Microsoft may abandon the Metro interface and step back to the ‘standard desktop’. Whatever happens it’s unlikely that Windows 8 will replace Windows 7 on the corporate desktop. Windows 9, however, may learn from the Windows 8 experience and deliver something with which people feel more comfortable. We may have got used to seeing Windows 8 on personal machines, so the jump in to 9 may not seem as bad as the switch to 8 may have been.

So, I think it may be a while until we roll out Windows 8. Maybe when it’s been extensively rewritten & repackaged…