2023/24 UK further education learners digital experience insights survey findings
The digital experience insights survey for further education learners took place between October 2023 and April 2024. Participating FE colleges and sixth form colleges were able to select their own survey period within these dates, typically a three to four week window.
There were 7,765 respondents from 23 organisations. 15 of these were based in England, five in Wales, two in Scotland and one in Northern Ireland. These 23 organisations represent 9% of all further education providers in the UK.
The highest number of responses from a single organisation was 1,681 learners (42% of their total learner population) and the mean number of responses was 373 per organisation (on average 7.2% of the total number of learners in each organisation that participated). However, seven of the 23 organisations contributed fewer than 100 responses.
A survey indicating the digital experience of higher education students is run simultaneously and results can be found on our 2023/24 HE students report.
Through Jisc’s digital experience insights service, organisations can gain valuable data to inform strategic, operational and digital investment decisions, evidence year-on-year improvements and demonstrate return on investment. Organisations that take part have access to their own data to assess their unique situations as well as benchmarking data. Full information about the digital experience insights surveys is detailed on our information page.
Executive summary
Our 2023/24 digital experience insights survey for learners in further education asked a range of questions about learning using digital technologies, including core questions asked each year about the environment for learning using digital technologies, opportunities to develop digital skills, the overall support provided for learning using digital technologies, and the devices used for learning. These core questions enable progress in these areas to be tracked over time and allow us to identify which elements of further education learners’ digital experience can be celebrated and which parts may need intervention.
Our surveys over the last few years have indicated that further education organisations have made sustained progress in the quality of digital learning provided to learners. This area has progressed from 66% of learners offering an above average rating for their organisation in the 2020/21 survey to 72% in 2023/24. More modest progress has been made in the digital learning environment, with year-on-year improvement culminating in a 74% above average rating this year. After a pronounced decline in learners giving above average ratings in 2021/22, colleges have reached a 68% above average rating this year in the support offered to learners for effective digital learning.
Looking at the constituent elements of the three areas noted above points towards a range of positive benefits that learners receive from using digital technologies in their studies, and indicates the wide range of ways in which organisations effectively support their learners. Most learners were happy with their organisation’s digital learning environment and the quality of the digital learning on their course. They enjoyed the flexibility that digital technologies offered them to learn on or off campus, at a pace that suited them, and with the opportunity to use a wide range of digital learning content. This included resources uploaded by staff on to colleges’ VLEs, as well as the wealth of information and learning materials on the wider internet. Most learners agreed that learning resources were accessible to them (66% agreed, 3% disagreed) and were offered to them at the right level and pace (50% agreed, 6% disagreed). An increasing number of learners also said that learning resources were engaging and motivating (44% agreed, 8% disagreed) – an area that has seen steady year-on-year improvement since 2019/20. Many respondents to the survey’s free text questions appreciated the range of communicative possibilities offered by collaborative applications, and the improved ability to work on group work and to interact with their classmates and lecturers or tutors. Others wanted their courses to make better use of more interactive technologies to make learning more engaging.
Some learners were not fully able to realise the benefits of digital technology in their learning. Over two-thirds (41%) said they did not have a suitable computer or device for learning. 5% of learners said they only used a smartphone. Free text comments also indicated that many struggled with devices with poor battery life or processing speeds that could not meet the demands of their courses and the software they were expected to use. Where learners required support with accessibility features, they were not always offered it (68% were offered support if they needed it). We asked about a range of cost of living issues directly for the first time, and the results indicated that a significant number of learners potentially faced problems with their learning as a result of financial circumstances. More than a quarter (27%) took on paid work to mitigate cost of living expenses while studying, and around a quarter either used campus facilities to avoid personal costs (26%) or, conversely, stayed away from campus to avoid travel costs (23%). These cost of living issues tended to impact learners aged 19 and above more than learners aged 16 to 18.
Organisations should continue to support different modes of teaching and learning and may need to investigate how on campus infrastructure and support for off campus learning can continue to be improved to enable this. The vast majority of teaching took place mainly on campus (81%). Few (2%) learners reported having their taught classes mainly online. However, many learners showed a preference for some form of online learning (31% preferred a mixture of on campus and online learning, 9% preferred to learn mainly online). Wifi connectivity issues were problematic for many learners (60% reported wifi problems this year compared to 56% last year). As in last year’s survey, this was primarily an on campus problem (49% of learners reported wifi issues on campus, compared to 18% off campus). In addition, learners also faced issues with mobile data costs (45%), and had problems with accessing the systems they needed (44%). Free text responses also indicated that learners faced issues with slow college computers and network issues (eg in computer labs or on loaned laptops), and a lack of charging points for devices.
Many felt that they were well supported by their organisation to learn effectively using technology (68% rated their college’s support as above average). However, this has seen little movement since the 2020/21 survey. When looking at support in individual areas of digital competencies and skills, some areas have seen improvement. There were notable increases in the percentage of learners who said they received training in basic IT skills (53%), handling digital information, data and media (23%), and support for avoiding plagiarism (35%). However, overall support and guidance could still be improved, since fewer respondents than last year said they received guidance about the digital skills needed for their course (52%). Less than half (40%) felt they had the time to explore digital tools and skills. In the free text responses, learners echoed some of these findings, noting a need for more support for specialist software and general digital skills and competencies.
We hope that further education organisations respond to some of the issues that learners note to be problematic, and explore some of the ways they could improve the overall support provided to learners on and off campus to use digital technologies effectively in their learning. This will help to improve the ‘above average’ ratings in future editions of this survey, and consolidate some of the areas which have seen year-on-year improvement. Throughout the report we point towards areas where some demographics of learners may have experienced a deficit compared to other groups. We will explore some of these issues further through a number of spotlight reports to be published on the digital experience insights website later in 2024 and 2025.
Full report
Download our 2023/24 UK further education (FE) learners digital experience insights survey findings [pdf].