1. Understanding Student Use of Digital Learning Resources
Glenda Morgan Chuck Dziuban
Patsy Moskal Flora McMartin
Alan Wolf Josh Morrill
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2. Why Study Use of Digital Resources
How people interact with scholarly content is changing
Roots in NSDL and other digital library initiatives
People had only studied how faculty used specific collections
No one knew how faculty found & used materials
But it gives us some provocative insights into how people work, and teach and learn and the implications of that knowledge is fairly profound
Brewbooks

3. We Started Out Looking at Faculty Use of Digital Resources
2006 – 2009 – National survey of STEM instructors regarding their use of digital resources in teaching (n=4,439)
2009 – Large international survey of Physics instructors (n=9,275)
2011 – National study of Social Science faculty (n=1,037)

4. Research Questions - Faculty
What do faculty members do with the online digital resources they find at digital libraries, online collections, etc.?
Do faculty value digital resources?
How do faculty use digital resources for teaching purposes?
What are the barriers to their use of resources and digital libraries/collections?

5. How different are faculty from one another?
When we look at traditionally identified faculty populations, we saw few differences.
The type of institution where they serve
The amount of time that they have been teaching
Even discipline was less a factor than expected
Differences in the types resources used
As far as these traditional groups go, we have a homogenous population

6. Types of Digital Resources
Type of Resource
% Use Very Frequently
How Used
Digital images - visual 42
Lecture
Prof. Dev. as Teacher
Animations 11
Review/Study aid
Data Sets 22
Research/PBL
Teaching, Learning Exercises 28
Online scholarly resources 49
Grants, Scholarship
What is the relationship between how people value resources and how they use them?
I would argue that it is the frequency of use is not a proxy for quality of use, which is much harder to measure. So we do not know whether there is a contradiction between how faculty value the resources and their frequency of use.

7. Digital Resources – other findings
Google favorite starting point for searching
Iterative process (satisficing)
Tend to use DRs developed by others ‘as is’, regardless of the type of DR (digital image, data set, etc.)*
Importance of
Peer review – 50%
Organized to find materials quickly – 40%
Supplemental teaching materials – 8%
Supplemental PD materials – 2%

8. Motivations Strong Agreement Agreement Ambivalent
Top – Improve student learning (Social desirability?)
Stay abreast of professional developments
Keep material fresh
Help students learn difficult concepts
Agreement
Incorporating DR’s in class is fun
Saves time
Ambivalent
Accommodation for students with disabilities

9. Barriers to use Agreement Ambivalent Disagreement More time
More useful DR available
More/better training in
Ambivalent
Institutional rewards for use
Disagreement
More dependable technology
Not access to technology
Greater priority to institution
Photo Credit: Brandon

10. Physics & Social Science Instructors
Results tend to parallel those of larger study
All valued DRs highly
Similar broad patterns of digital resource type – but some interesting differences across disciplines
Barriers are the same regardless of demographic e.g. social science discipline, type of school

11. Frequency of Use of Digital Resource by Type
Never Use
Rarely Use
Occasionally Use
Frequently Use
Mean
Freq %
Use of Still Images/Photos
Physics 30 2
174 13
479 35
690 50
3.31
Social Sciences 98 9
187 18
299 29
394 38
3.01
All Disciplines
391 8
626
1508 32
1945 42
3.12
Use of Simulations 44 3
167 12
615 45
534 39
3.20
464
218 21
199 19 77 7
1.88
1596 34
1003
1195 26
509 11
2.14
Use of Online Datasets
375 28
484 36
354
139 10
2.19
237 23
164 16
306
240
2.58
1175 25
833
1210
1018 22
2.49
Use of Learning Exercises
125
457
525
3.02
319 31
151 15
254
215
2.39
766
700
1429
1287
2.77
Use of Videos and Animations 37
129
597
578 43
3.28
166
144 14
325
2.81
Use of Audio
546 41
494
221 17 6
1.87
537 52
203 20
138 54 5
0.93
1 = Never Use; 2= Rarely Use, 3 = Occasionally Use, 4= Frequently Use

12. Frequency of Use of Digital Resource by Type
There are significant differences in utilization of different kinds of resources
This example is use of simulation:

13. Conclusions about Faculty
Data are still relevant – Instructors change more slowly than the educational landscape?
Need activation to overcome barriers and encourage adoption
Knowing about & valuing resources does not always translate to use
Intrinsic motivation is a powerful force (but people do not have limitless reservoirs)
Students are a powerful extrinsic motivator
Faculty tend not to turn to online resources that focus on teaching improvement

14. What instructors think of student use of resources?
This question always sparks debate BUT …. For those who would like student use supervised, it is too late

15. But it does raise the question
How do students use digital resources in their learning?

16. Student Study – 2011 - 2013 Qualitative data analysis
Interviews & focus groups
Survey instrument development
Survey
Case study of Physics students & other intensive users
Summary Report & findings
Survey data analysis
Follow up interviews & focus groups

17. Research Questions - Students
Do student believe DRs contribute to greater learning?
What are the circumstances that motivate students to look for DRs?
Where to students start searching?
What criteria to students use to assess DRs?
What barriers to students face in finding & using DRs?
What kinds of DRs do students prefer?
How to DRs contribute to student learning?
Do students value “collections”?

18. Qualitative Findings
Students making far more independent use of DRs than anticipated
Students desire content that is well organized and that teachers teach it to them
They seek information/explanation when teachers are doing a poor job of it.
Students seek video, but it is unclear if they prefer it
Differences between recordings of full lectures vs. chunks.
Students may be turning to new or different content providers faster than we discover them e.g. YouTube channels
Students may value collections more than their propensity to turn to Google may indicate, especially when directed to ‘authoritative’ sources

19. How and Why Students Use Digital Resources

21. Learning happens both inside and outside
Formal Syllabus
Learning happens both inside and outside
Outside is the realm of the “free range learner”
Learners have always been a bit “free range”
Hypothesis
That we are seeing more free range learning – or a different type of free range learning
Who are the free rangers?
Are there different types of free ranger?
Free Rangers
Demographics
Motivation
Barriers
Non Free Rangers
Are there students who don’t free range, and why not?
What are they doing to fill that role

22. Quantitative Data Collection
Trying to determine what kinds of learners students are

23. Student Survey Lines of Inquiry
Where do students turn when they run into problems with schoolwork
Where do students turn when they are interested in a topic
General motivations for studying and academic work
Use of digital resources in class and students preferences

24. Student preferences about the “collection-ness” of data

25. Additional Lines of Inquiry
Perceptions about college affordability
Questions about textbook use and affordability
Wikipedia use
Technology ownership
Demographics

26. NSDL Evaluation
Survey strategy

27. Survey Strategy
Used data gathered from focus groups to formulate and refine questions
Brainstorming sessions to tie the survey to our objectives and formulate a plan

28. Pilot survey Online survey Conducting pilot Ease of data collection
Ease of administration
Conducting pilot
Asked 2 faculty at UCF to advertise
to their classes
~50 responses
Asked students for feedback regarding questions that were confusing

29. Some preliminary pilot survey results
NSDL Evaluation
Some preliminary pilot survey results

30. Likely to do the following to help with course material

31. Use of technology in class

32. Prefer frequent use in class
Video/
Audio
E-books
Wikis/
Blogs
Simulations/
Online games
Mobile
Apps
Other
Websites

33. Steps taken in the past year to reduce textbook costs
Checked
out from
library
Found materials online
Shared
book
Didn’t
buy book
Rented
book
Borrowed book
Other

34. Technology Ownership
100
Own
Have access to
Plan to purchase
(n=51)

35. Survey Strategy Using survey administration company
Maintain large database of people
Can pre-screen on demographics
National sample
Removes researcher pressure on participants
Sample size of 10,000-20,000
Plan on 10% response rate

36. Questions Glenda Morgan gmorgan@illinois.edu
Patsy Moskal
Alan Wolf

37. Acknowledgements & Co-Conspirators
Flora McMartin
Josh Morrill
Chuck Dziuban
Ellen Iverson
Lynette Hoeltter