Online learning tops UK universities’ tech wish list

Research has revealed that online learning tools are the most important technology for British universities and these tools are twice as popular than any other type of tech. A new survey, from Jisc and ucisa, also found that 68 percent of higher education (HE) digital leaders feel the effective use of this technology is key to their digital transformation projects.

Improving student experience is the biggest driver for tech adoption (91 percent) followed by improving workforce productivity (71 percent), saving costs across the organization (41 percent) and improving staff morale (11 percent).

When it came to barriers needed to be overcome before digital technologies are embraced at UK universities, organizational culture (70 percent) was at the top of the list, followed by financial constraints (48 percent) and a lack of capability or capacity in IT (41 percent).

In terms of online learning, some higher education digital leaders raised concerns that such tools undermine the worth of a physical campus but almost half (48%) of academic staff have digital tools embedded into their workflows.