Welcome to the web pages for the Jisc Student Digital Experience Tracker, a survey and student engagement process designed to help education providers learn more about their students’ experiences of the digital learning environment and the digital curriculum.
If you want to sign up to run the tracker in 2017/18 please complete this sign-up form.
There is more information about the background and previous findings of the tracker on this page (below). There is more information about the tracker process on the following pages:
- Guidance for institutions who are running the tracker in 2017/18
- Blog posts relevant to the tracker showing most current information first
- Information for non-UK universities interested in running the tracker
Tracker findings 2016-17
A report on the findings of the 2017 Tracker has been published by Jisc. This summarises the evidence from more than 22,000 student respondents across 74 UK colleges and universities, and shows the kind of evidence you will be gathering and analysing at your own institution.
People said some nice things about the experience of using the Tracker and working with the Jisc team. You can find out more about the tracker on this page and by following the links below.
Rationale and development
The Student/Learner digital experience Tracker allows universities, colleges and skills providers to:
• gather evidence from learners about their digital experience, and track changes over time
• make better informed decisions about the digital environment
• target resources for improving digital provision
• plan other research, data gathering and student engagement around digital issues
• demonstrate quality enhancement and student engagement to external bodies and to students themselves
The original tracker was based on a number of questions arising from Jisc’s digital student studies. These questions were intensively tested with HE and FE students, and subsequently piloted with 12 universities and 12 colleges across the UK. After some changes to the question set in response to their feedback, a new version was released for open pilot in time for the 2016/17 academic year. This time over 100 Tracker surveys were run, including in HE, FE, Adult and Community Learning, and for online learners and some international universities. The evaluation included detailed statistical modelling to ensure that the questions and structure of the survey were robust. Final improvements were made to the question sets and Tracker process in summer 2017.
The new Tracker remains as close as possible to the 2016/17 version that proved so popular and usable. This means that early adopters can use it to monitor changes year-on-year. You can find out more about the background to this project and the early development of the Tracker here.
Implementing the Tracker
The Tracker is delivered in BOS, an online survey service developed for the UK education sector and now owned and managed by Jisc. Institutions using the Tracker receive detailed guidance on how to customise and launch the survey in BOS, how to access and analyse their data, and how to benchmark it against the rest of their sector. There is also question-by-question guidance on interpreting and responding to the findings. Tracker users join a thriving community of other people and organisations, all committed to understanding the digital experience of learners and empowering them to work for change.
All of the guidance is freely available from this blog, though be aware that from June to September 2017 it is in the process of being updated.
More information
Institutional case studies from 7 of the original 24 pilot institutions are available here.
Institutional snapshots from 14 of the second phase institutions are available here.
To receive more information about the Tracker please contact: Sarah Knight or Tabetha Newman.
If you are sure you want to go ahead with the Tracker, please complete this sign-up form and review the first Guide – Planning to use the Tracker, available from the top of our Guidance page.