Student and Faculty Voices

STUDENT AND FACULTY VOICES RESULTS FROM THE 2023 EDUCAUSE STUDENT AND FACULTY SURVEYS Experiences with and attitudes toward technology

2023 EDUCAUSE Student and Faculty Survey Experiences with and attitudes toward technology October 2023

Prepared by Academic Technology Experience, Division of IT Jonathan Engelberg, PhD Megan C. Masters, PhD, Alia Lancaster, PhD, Tiffany Pao, MEd, Blaize Shiebler, Chao Min Wu, Lucy Hess, and Kiersten Straley

Cover image generated using generative AI: “small figures at bottom right corner of picture consulting on laptops; university quad; big empty white sky above them with space for text” prompt. Adobe Firefly Image 2. 2 November 2023, firefly.adobe.com.

TERPS & TECH

TERPS & TECH

How UMD is meeting students' evolving technology needs.

Bridging technology, teaching, and innovation In summer 2023, UMD administered simultaneous EDUCAUSE technology experience surveys to students and faculty. These surveys, part of a national research effort, provide new insights into the needs of the UMD community, showing the ways in which student perceptions (n = 519, response rate = 6.5%) align more often than not with those of faculty (n = 145, response rate = 14.5%).

Technology at UMD is meeting students' needs.

UMD's technology systems and services are meeting students' academic needs. Three in four students (76%) said they are satisfied or very satisfied with the institution's technology support and services, and 76% are satisfied with their instructors’ use of technology - mirroring most faculty (89%) who self-assessed their use of teaching technologies as "competent" or "advanced".

Faculty rely on UMD's technology and instructional support.

Training and support provided by DIT and the Teaching and Learning Transformation Center (TLTC) empower faculty to offer satisfying and inclusive academic technology experiences. The majority of faculty rely on UMD for technologies and tool support (97%), instructional support (86%), and professional development opportunities (71%). Faculty cited a lack of time, not a lack of need, as the primary barrier to seeking even more support.

The most important technology-related training topics, according to faculty:

Both students and faculty prefer in-person learning and teaching experiences.

The majority of faculty (71%) prefer teaching a typical course in-person, feeling that they are better able to engage and connect with students, and most students (52%) also prefer in-person course experiences.

However, respondents in both groups recognized that certain online components and digital materials can play a role in enabling greater flexibility and additional learning opportunities.

Students and faculty prefer to be in-person for most live activities.

Group Activities

Office Hours

Exams

9 in 10 faculty prefer to make asynchronous resources like presentation slides and homework assignments available online, matching 9 in 10 students in last year's survey who said these online resources are important.

Communication is important to students, and they prefer different methods of communication depending on the context.

When students were asked how UMD could improve its technology services and supports, a common theme (reflected in 16% of comments) was expanded communication and outreach. Students said they prefer to receive campus-related information through email, whereas ELMS-Canvas is best for conveying course-related information.

Want to reach students on social media?

Questions or comments? Email us at acadtechfeedback@umd.edu

2023 EDUCAUSE Student and Faculty Survey Experiences with and attitudes toward technology October 2023 Report Prepared by the Academic Technology Experience Team: Megan C. Masters, PhD | Jonathan Engelberg, PhD | Alia Lancaster, PhD

Executive Summary The higher educational landscape has undergone dramatic changes in recent years, and the University of Maryland (UMD) continues to lead in responding to the evolving needs of its population. As UMD furthers its commitment to reimagine learning, the Division of Information Technology (DIT) plays a key role, providing greater flexibility and support through enhancements to on-campus classroom technologies, expanding IT services and internet infrastructure, and driving innovations, such as hybrid learning classrooms. The Teaching and Learning Transformation Center (TLTC) also stays at the forefront of new and emergent teaching technologies, providing workshops and guidance as new tools such as generative AI change the ways that students and faculty engage with and think about pedagogy. We are only beginning to see and track the effects that broader changes, such as those to admissions policies both at UMD and nationwide, will have on student populations and their needs surrounding academic technologies.

In light of these and other developments among the UMD campus and community, as well as nationally, it is as important as ever to assess how UMD’s technology systems, supports, and services are meeting the needs of its students and faculty. The nonprofit association EDUCAUSE recently named institutional resilience as the core theme of its top ten issues for IT in higher education in 2024, referring to the need for institutions to adapt to the changing academic and technological environment. How is UMD rising to the challenge?

Our participation in the annual EDUCAUSE student survey, as well as their biannual faculty survey, provides a window into this question. Both surveys were produced by EDUCAUSE as national research efforts, allowing UMD to better understand its own student and faculty populations and see how their perspectives compare to national benchmarks. This year’s student survey addressed topics including overall technology services, internet services, and hybrid learning, while the faculty survey focused on their perceptions around learning modalities (in-person, hybrid, or online) and support provided by the university (instructional, technological, and professional). The findings point to ways in which UMD is developing its institutional resilience by investing in technologies and support for students and faculty that strengthen the academic technology experience for both groups.

Academic Technology Experience | DIT

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Main Findings 1. Technology at UMD is meeting students’ needs. 3 out 4 students (76%) said they are satisfied or very satisfied with technology support and services, and 76% are satisfied with their instructors’ use of technology. Additionally, 9 out of 10 students feel UMD is at least average (if not cutting edge) with its use of technology to enrich student learning.

Nearly half (49%) of students are satisfied or very satisfied with UMD’s internet services, and UMD students are similar to other students across the U.S. in their self-reported satisfaction with all of these services.

2. Faculty rely on technology and instructional support, with 97% using technology or tool support and 86% using instructional support sometimes or often. These findings highlight the central roles that DIT and TLTC fulfill in supporting teaching at UMD. 3. Both students and faculty continue to prefer in-person learning and teaching experiences. 71% of faculty and 52% of students prefer in-person course experiences.

However, there are certain circumstances in which students feel that online learning components can enhance or add flexibility to their in-person learning experiences.

4. Communication is important to students, and they prefer different methods of communication depending on the context. For courses, students prefer receiving information through ELMS-Canvas, whereas they prefer emails as the main way to receive general information about news and activities on campus. Social media was a distant second preference for the latter, with Instagram being the social media platform of choice (94% prefer to receive information on Instagram).

Figure 1. Key statistics from UMD respondents to the 2023 Educause survey

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Executive Report Administration Details Separate student and faculty surveys were administered from July 18 to August 4, 2023 (see Figure 2, below). The surveys were accessed through a link in an email invitation co-signed by the Assistant Vice President of Academic Innovation and Technology at UMD. To incentivize participation in this year’s survey, participants were offered entry in raffles for $100 Amazon gift cards (distributed to one randomly selected student and one randomly selected faculty).

Target populations included 8,000 students and 1,000 faculty who were invited to participate in their respective surveys. Students were required to be undergraduates and at least 18 years of age. Faculty were required to have taught at least one course in the past 12 months, and graduate students were ineligible to participate.

To best represent the UMD student population, a random, stratified sampling method was employed with groups weighted by class year, such that the invited proportion of freshmen, sophomores, juniors, and seniors matched their relative proportions of the enrolled undergraduate population as of Spring 2023. This process led to email invitations being sent to 1,047 freshmen (13%), 1,871 sophomores (23%), 2,128 juniors (27%), and 2,953 seniors (37%). Faculty were randomly sampled with no stratification. In all, 519 students and 145 faculty responded, representing response rates of 6% for students and 14% for faculty.

Due to survey administration towards the end of the summer, it is likely that most undergraduates considered their upcoming status when asked to report class standing. Thus, despite freshmen representing 13% of the invited population, only 1% of respondents reported that they are freshmen; many likely considered themselves sophomores for the current academic year (21% of survey respondents). After carefully matching the expected percentage by class with those invited, we relabeled students’ reported class standing as “rising class standing.” Since many of the survey questions are most relevant to their past year’s experience, we also created a variable that we labeled “AY 2022-2023 class standing,” which is what we used in some of the visualizations below that break down a specific result by class standing.

This year’s survey afforded a few opportunities to compare faculty data with related questions from the student survey, as well as last year’s student survey. However, none of these questions were directly parallel– i.e., the wording did not exactly match between any faculty and student questions– and therefore, caution is warranted when interpreting results comparing these two groups. The original survey questions are included when these differences are present.

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Figure 2. Timeline of the 2023 EDUCAUSE survey administration nationally and at UMD.

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Findings Technology at UMD is meeting students’ needs.

About three in four students (76%) indicated that they are satisfied or very satisfied with technology support and services at UMD, as well as with their instructors’ use of technology (see figure 3, below). These perceptions likely contribute to their judgments of UMD’s technology profile overall, with 9 in 10 students believing that UMD is at least average (73%), if not cutting edge (17%), with respect to its adoption and use of technologies to enrich the learning experience.

Figure 3. The percentage of students who reported that they are satisfied or very satisfied with UMD’s technology services and supports (left), and the percentage of students who feel that UMD is “average” in its adoption and use of technologies for the learning experience.

Further analyses were conducted to determine what factors might correlate with students’ overall satisfaction rates. The most notable finding here is perhaps the lack of major group differences: Across the board, around 70-80% of students said they are satisfied or very satisfied with UMD’s technology-related services and support, regardless of their 2022-2023 academic year standing (freshmen: 77%; sophomores: 71%; juniors: 78%; seniors or above: 76%) or whether they are in STEM versus non-STEM majors (76% versus 77% satisfied or very satisfied, respectively), to name a few factors that are likely to correlate with differential academic technology needs. UMD’s array of technology systems and services, including core academic tools and supports that serve the entire campus community such as ELMS-Canvas

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and Terrapin Tech, and those that fulfill more specialized functions for targeted groups (e.g., mobile polling or accessibility tools), appear to meet the needs of most student groups.

Note that faculty were not asked about their satisfaction with technology, but nearly 9 in 10 (89%) reported that they feel competent or advanced with their use of technology for teaching, somewhat concording with the general satisfaction felt by students.

Students have high expectations for internet services.

One factor that might contribute to students’ overall perceptions of technology at UMD is their experience with UMD’s internet. Overall, about half of students (49%) indicated that they were satisfied or very satisfied with internet services at UMD, whereas about a quarter (26%) said they were dissatisfied or very dissatisfied (the remaining 25% of students selected a neutral response). This is on par with data from a national sample benchmark, where 52% of students from universities across the U.S. were also satisfied or very satisfied with their institution’s internet services. Although not directly comparable, another contextual datapoint comes from the 2022 UMD EDUCAUSE survey results, where 43% of students reported that they either had never experienced unstable internet connections, or had not to an extent that it caused them stress 1. Thus, UMD students’ satisfaction with internet services is similar to that of other U.S. institutions and is similar to if not better than the past year.

Importantly, when students were asked in an open-ended question what their institution could do to improve the services and support they are receiving, the most common responses related to improving WiFi reliability, coverage, or speed (representative of 92 out of 334 text responses, or 28%). An additional question, following up with students who reported difficulties accessing the internet on campus, revealed that issues related to reliability, unpredictability, or spotty coverage were among students’ greatest concerns (representative of 43 out of 69 text responses), perhaps more so than issues related to speed (23 comments) or logging in (20 comments) 2. Many students directly linked these issues with their ability to complete schoolwork, supporting a potential relationship between their satisfaction with internet and their overall academic experience: “Campus wifi (both eduroam and UMDiot) are unreliable and continually cut out while sometimes attempting to complete important, time sensitive, course assignments.”

“It is not horrible but it is not reliable which is difficult because most of our school work is online.”

Further evidence to this point is an observed relationship between satisfaction with internet services and general satisfaction: Of those who are satisfied or very satisfied with internet 1 The question did not specify if the unstable internet experience was on or off campus.

2 For more information on all open-ended questions and their analysis, please see the Thematic Analysis of Open-Ended Questions

section in the full report.

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services, 88% indicated they are satisfied or very satisfied with UMD’s technology services and support overall, compared to only 54% of students who are not satisfied with UMD’s internet (see Figure 4, below). This relationship is not necessarily causal, however, and it is possible that some students happen to register as more satisfied or dissatisfied with technology across different scales.

Figure 4. Students’ level of satisfaction with technology services and support overall at UMD, broken down by their level of satisfaction with internet services at UMD.

Another point of reference for understanding students’ perceptions towards on-campus internet services is to examine their experiences with off-campus internet. A majority of students (56%) said it was easy or very easy to get access to a reliable internet connection on-campus, compared to 3 in 4 (75%) saying the same for their off-campus connections of choice. A number of factors likely contribute to this difference, among them the demands of installing and maintaining a reliable network infrastructure for a university campus compared to an apartment or home (the preferred off-campus work setting for 74% of students), and the fact that a reliable internet connection is likely an important determinant of where students choose to work offcampus in the first place. Nonetheless, it is valuable to know the mental comparison that students may be making to their off-campus experiences when they are unsatisfied with UMD’s network.

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Faculty rely on technological and instructional support.

Turning to findings from the faculty survey, a key takeaway was the extent to which faculty rely on institutional support from UMD for technology, pedagogy, and career-building opportunities.

Almost every faculty respondent said they sometimes or often use technologies and tools provided by UMD (97%); most also use instructional support (86%), professional development (71%), and networking opportunities (64%) provided by the university.

Faculty were further surveyed on the kinds of support that are most important to their teaching (see Figure 5, next page). Regarding technologies, faculty cited both online instructional technology (e.g., video conferencing tools like Zoom; 90% responded slightly to very important) and on-campus instructional technology (e.g., AV tech; 88%) as those most important to their teaching, whereas they ascribed somewhat less importance to more novel technologies like artificial intelligence (58%) and extended reality (32%). Similarly, almost all faculty (93%) cited help with the effective use of instructional technologies like Zoom and classroom technology as an important type of instructional support, along with instructional design support (92%).

Taken together, these findings highlight the key roles of DIT’s Classroom Technology Support (CTS) team, Learning Technology Strategy (LTS) team, and TLTC in providing instructional technologies as well as guidance on how best to use them to enhance pedagogy. Indeed, when asked about the most helpful thing the institution does to support their teaching, many faculty referred to classroom technology or IT support (17 out of 78 comments) and/or instructional support (20 comments), with 14 faculty mentioning TLTC by name: "I really appreciate TLTC. It gives me cutting edge ideas and supports those with best practices. I especially enjoy and take advantage of the learning circles with small groups of faculty peers. Although it is never in my subject matter, it often supports my efforts at diversity and inclusion."

“The teaching center on campus is great, responsive, informative, helpful. They have been a great support to me over the last few years. And even before the pandemic, I took advantage of an opportunity to learn instructional design through a yearlong program that was really helpful.”

“The hotline is available to answer questions. Technicians are available in real time to come troubleshoot technology issues in the classroom.”

For their part, students expressed appreciation for faculty who made effective use of instructional technologies like ELMS-Canvas, suggesting that instructors’ investments in learning these tools are worthwhile. Said one student: “Professors who truly understand the CANVAS platform are invaluable. They have the entire course set up properly with no issues and have access to all the appropriate resources available right through the course page.”

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The professional development areas that faculty cited as most important included accessibility and accommodations (94%), inclusivity and student belonging (94%), and assessment and learning design (88%; see Figure 5 below). These topics all map onto workshops and trainings offered by TLTC, such as those centered around ELMS-Canvas Accessibility Tools, Decentering Whiteness, Universal Design for Learning, and Neurodiversity in the Classroom, many of which were among the most highly attended workshops last Fall.

Faculty rely on technologies, instructional supports, and professional development opportunities provided by UMD. How important are the following [technologies/instructional supports/professional development topics/areas] for your teaching? % rated slighty to very important

Technologies

n = 117 - 121 Online instructional technology

90%

On-campus instructional technology

88%

Analytics tools

78%

Adaptive learning tools

66%

Artificial intelligence (AI) Extended reality (VR or AR)

58% 32%

Instructional supports n = 119 - 120

Adequate prep time

100%

Policy supporting flexibility in teaching modality

93%

Help using instructional technology effectively

93%

Instructional design

92%

Help with using personal technology effectively

87%

Teaching assistant(s)

85%

Professional development topics n = 115 - 117

Accessibility and accommodations

94%

Inclusivity and student belonging

94%

Assessment and learning design

88%

Online instructional technology

86%

On-site instructional technology

85%

Learning management systems

84%

Learning analytics

81%

Adaptive learning tools

65%

Artificial intelligence Extended reality technologies

65% 47%

Figure 5. The percentage of faculty who rated various technologies, instructional supports, and professional development topics as slightly, moderately, very, or extremely important (as opposed to not important).

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A further analysis broke down the types of professional development areas, technologies, and instructional supports that faculty regarded as important based on whether the faculty member rated their competence with technologies for teaching as beginner or competent (75% of faculty) versus advanced (25%). Interestingly, we found that both groups of faculty rated the tools and supports in the above figure similarly. However, there were a few exceptions: faculty respondents who rated themselves as advanced were more likely to report that professional development related to certain technologies, including both on-site and online instructional technology, are important to their teaching (Figure 6, below).

Figure 6. The percentage of faculty who rated professional development topics as slightly, moderately, very, or extremely important, broken down by faculty who rated their own competence with teaching technologies as advanced versus those who rated themselves as competent or beginner. The items shown are those with an at least 10 percentage-point difference between the groups.

When faculty do not use support from UMD, they cited not having enough time as the primary barrier (71%), twice as much as any other factor; very few felt they do not need support (13%; see Figure 7, next page). These findings suggest that, although UMD provides most of the instructional, technology, or professional support that faculty find important, not every faculty member is able to take advantage of them to the same degree. This might be an area for further research as it is unclear from the question which type of support (i.e., instructional, technology, professional development, or networking) is most impacted by the barriers listed in Figure 7.

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Figure 7. The percentage of faculty who indicated each factor prevents or discourages their use of institutional supports; red is used to highlight those who said they do not have enough time. Note that percentages do not add to 100% because respondents could select multiple factors.

Both students and faculty continue to prefer in-person learning and teaching experiences.

Faculty feel better able to engage students in-person.

This survey marked the first EDUCAUSE survey administered at UMD to gauge faculty attitudes towards hybrid and online course modalities since the full return to campus in 2021. Most faculty, like most students, experienced these modalities for the first time during the pandemic: Only 29% of faculty respondents said they had taught a hybrid or online course before March 2020, compared to 70% who taught one during the move to remote learning in March 2020. In 2023, the majority (72%) are back to teaching completely in-person, with a smaller percentage teaching primarily hybrid courses (7%) or a combination of modes (e.g., different courses that are in-person, hybrid, or online; 17%). Recall also that this survey was administered during the summer, when relatively more hybrid and online courses are offered at UMD.

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Overall, most faculty (71%) prefer to teach a typical course in-person 3, with over half (55%) indicating that they would prefer to teach all of their courses in-person in a typical term. Many of their concerns with hybrid and online modalities seem to relate to the ability to engage and connect with students (see Figure 8, below). These findings somewhat mirror instructors’ reports from experience surveys administered in 2020 and 2021, which showed that instructors felt more engaged with their students during the in-person semester of Fall 2021 compared to the online semester of Fall 2020.

Figure 8. The percentage of faculty who agree with statements about feeling connected with students, feeling able to engage them, and feeling that the quality of their teaching is best, broken down by teaching modality.

Faculty text responses reflected these perceptions. When asked about how their experiences with technology impacted their modality preferences, many (15 out of 87 responses; 18%) pointed to their difficulties engaging students during online courses: “Zoom is fine for administrative meetings but it is not very effective for in-class teaching.

Students are less engaged, get less out of it, and are less motivated about the material. Inperson is more effective, more engaging, and more motivating.”

“One thing I despise about online teaching is that students typically turn off their cameras and mute their microphones. I refuse to record class sessions because it seems to discourage participation, but even without recording, students are so reluctant to engage. In 3 The EDUCAUSE survey questions used the terminology “on-site” rather than “in-person”. This report

uses “in-person” for consistency with UMD terminology conventions, except when directly stating a survey question that referred to “on-site”.

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a classroom I can see the looks on people's faces and get a sense of whether students understand what I'm talking about or not. In a Zoom classroom, I'm talking to a brick wall. It's quite dreadful.” “... After Covid, I feel extremely competent at teaching online courses - but it is more work for me and I believe that students struggle to remain engaged.”

“I find it more difficult to discern from my students whether they comprehend the materials when we are on zoom. There is less engagement and they are more distracted.”

These preferences aside, a similar number of faculty comments (18 out of 87 responses; 21%) did express appreciation for the ways in which online instructional technologies have expanded their options for flexibility – both for themselves and their students – or enabled them to offer materials or experiences (e.g., virtual guest lectures) to supplement students’ in-person learning.

“I still prefer teaching in person, but I am more likely to use online technology for certain aspects of teaching. This includes, for instance, that if I get sick I may still teach but do it online. I now record all my in-class lectures so that students who miss class or who want to prepare for an exam can use the recordings as a resource. I can offer a wider array of guest lecturers if they can do their lecture virtually.”

“Zoom has opened up options for speakers, seminars, and presentations. It also offers students who cannot attend in person a chance to be present for lectures and discussions. Programs like Canvas offer students more access to materials, lectures and discussion options.”

“The extent to which Zoom has developed has created far greater opportunities for teaching. Once a user understands the basics, one can get very creative with the teaching options that exist on the platform. In this, it has made some of the webinar events that we host in Extension far easier to facilitate.”

Such comments highlight that faculty are finding ways to leverage the affordances of both inperson and online learning to optimize their teaching, a trend corroborated by systems data showing the continued, steady use of Panopto and Zoom even after the return to campus. The student data presented below suggest that they share the desire for online components to complement their in-person learning.

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Students prefer in-person courses but also desire some online course components.

For the most part, students converge with faculty in preferring in-person learning. About half of students (52%) agree or completely agree that they prefer in-person course experiences, whereas only a third (32%) prefer online courses (Figure 9, below). Notably, however, when asked about either in-person or online experiences, a third of students (33-35%) indicated no preference at all. These data hint at the idea that, to some extent, students are flexible with respect to class modality, or perhaps that the overall modality of a course is not the only factor determining their preferences. More nuanced data below suggest that instructors’ effective use of in-person and online tools, depending on the course component, plays an important role 4.

Figure 9. The percentage of students who agree, feel neutral, or disagree with the statement “I prefer more traditional, on-site experiences” (left); the percentage of students who agree, feel neutral, or disagree with the statement, “I personally prefer online course experiences.”

When students were asked to choose directly between in-person or online formats, the majority suggested they would prefer to be in-person for nearly every kind of course experience (Figure 10, below). However, the level of consensus varies depending on the activity in question. The largest majority of students agreed that they prefer to be in-person for collaborative learning experiences like lab or interactive work (88%) and group activities (76%), 4 Another explanation is that the question wording of “I prefer more traditional, on-site experiences” led to a higher percentage of neutral responses than if the word “traditional” had not been included. That is, non-traditional (i.e., not lecture based) in-person courses can be engaging and innovative, but those types of courses may not be reflected in the question. While the EDUCAUSE survey does provide a sense of students’ overall IT experience, UMD staff are not able to write or change any questions.

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possibly mirroring the feelings of faculty who feel that in-person interaction is important to engaging students. However, students were somewhat more mixed with respect to other course components such as office hours with their instructor (57% prefer in-person, 43% online). In fact, in a separate question, the majority of students (65%) suggested that the best way instructors could organize office hours is to allow some students to participate in-person and others online. These data– which continue trends found in the 2022 EDUCAUSE survey, and also might concord with systems data showing that the majority of Zoom meetings at UMD are one-on-one (53% of all meetings in Spring 2023)-- offer an example of how practices and technologies that were adopted during remote learning can persist to introduce more flexibility to the in-person learning experience.

Students prefer to be in-person rather than online for almost every kind of live course activity.

Thinking of your typical course experience, how do you prefer to engage in each of the following "live" activities? % responded "Online from my own space" versus % responded "On-site in the same space with the instructor and/or other students."

In-person

Online

Lab or interactive work

88%

Group activities

76%

Instructor lecture

64%

12% 24% 36%

Peer/tutoring meetings

62%

38%

Class discussions

61%

39%

Giving a presentation

58%

42%

Office hours with instructor

57%

43%

Research

56%

44%

Exams

46%

Majority prefer in-person

54%

n = 336 - 358

Figure 10. The percentage of students who said that they prefer to be in-person (or “on-site”, in the survey terminology) versus the percentage who said they prefer to be online for given live course activities.

Furthermore, most students also indicated a general preference for flexibility, with 4 in 5 (80%) agreeing that every student should be able to participate in course activities in whatever ways work best for them (Figure 11, next page). Truly hybrid learning such as this requires a cultural shift and technological support, such as that provided by UMD’s Learning Environment Modernization plan, and is highly dependent on the instructor and college. Nonetheless, this finding does underscore the importance of innovative efforts such as the Hybrid Learning 2023 EDUCAUSE Survey Executive Report

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Environment (HyFlex) classrooms that blend in-person and online learning, and Open Learning courses that offer greater flexibility than traditional synchronous courses.

Figure 11. The percentage of students who agreed with a series of statements about students having flexibility in course participation.

Also continuing trends seen in the 2022 survey, these preferences vary by class standing and housing status. For example, 66% of freshmen prefer in-person course experiences compared to 43% of sophomores, 51% of juniors, and 41% of seniors, and a higher percentage of students who live on campus prefer in-person courses (60%) compared to students who live off campus (51%). Interestingly, however, these differences between groups might have decreased since 2022. Figure 12 below shows that subsets of students who previously showed the strongest preferences towards in-person learning– including underclassmen, students who do not work or work fewer than 20 hours, and students who live on-campus– have converged towards other students, whose preferences have remained relatively more stable.

Note that the 2022 and 2023 questions differ in important ways, including the fact that the 2022 question asked students to indicate their overall preference directly between “face-to-face” versus online course modes, whereas the 2023 survey asked about students’ level of agreement with the statement, “I personally prefer more traditional, on-site course experiences.”

However, while such differences in wording and question format might account for some apparent shifts in attitude overall, they less easily explain the interaction effects seen here, with some groups showing greater changes since 2022 than others.

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Figure 12. The percentage of students who said they prefer face-to-face learning in the 2022 survey and the percentage of students who agreed with preferring “traditional, on-site” experiences in the 2023 survey, broken down by class standing (top left), working hours (top right), and on-campus versus offcampus housing status (bottom).

One possible explanation relates to the fact that the 2023 survey was administered entirely in the summer, whereas the 2022 survey was administered both in the summer and fall. Students who responded as freshmen in the fall of 2022 would have just started college, whereas those classified as freshmen in the current survey had completed an entire year at UMD: it might be the case that they felt less of an imperative for in-person experiences after they felt established at the university. It is also possible that we are still seeing students come to a post-pandemic balance with regards to their needs for both in-person experiences and the flexibility afforded by online learning. An initial desire to do everything in-person following the return to campus, particularly among certain subsets of students, may have given way to more heterogeneous preferences for some activities to be in-person and others to be available online. (Recall that a large percentage of students who did not agree with “preferring” in-person experiences in 2023 selected a neutral option, including 18% of freshmen, 39% of sophomores, 35% of juniors, and 52% of seniors– the majority of that class.)

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Students and faculty largely agree about which online materials are important, but students would prefer more online materials overall.

When asked about digital course materials, faculty and students often agreed as to which materials should be made available online. Figure 13 below shows, for several types of course materials, the percentage of faculty in the current survey who said they prefer to make that material available digitally, compared to the percentage of students in the 2022 survey who said it is very or extremely important to access that material online (students were not asked this question in the 2023 survey). As can be seen, students and faculty agreed that homework assignments, presentation slides, and required readings should be accessible online, whereas components such as discussions, group activities, and interactive content are less essential.

Note that these attitudes are likely not independent: students might have come to rely most on digital materials that faculty prefer to make available.

Faculty and students agree about the importance of online access to homework, slides, and readings, but faculty are more selective about making other materials available online. % of faculty who said they prefer to make each material available digitally % of students who said each material is very or extremely important to access online

Faculty Students Homework assignments

89% 91%

Presentation Slides

89% 90%

Required readings

86% 86%

Video

76% 78%

Class handouts

67% 77%

Class/lecture notes

63%

Quizzes

59%

Recorded lectures

79%

48%

Collaborative/shared documents

63% 82%

45%

Exams

41%

Audio

39%

Study guides

69% 55%

34%

DIscussions

86%

29%

Group activities

61%

21%

Peer teachers/tutors Interactive engagement with content

77%

51%

Office hours/meetings

59%

13% 8%

90%

59% 47%

Faculty n = 123 Student n = 497 - 521

Figure 13. The percentage of faculty who said they prefer to make each course material available digitally in the 2023 survey, and the percentage of students who said it is very or extremely important to access that material online in the 2022 student survey.

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There are, however, some group differences here, most notably the fact that students would prefer to have access to almost every kind of material online, whereas faculty are somewhat more selective. A variety of explanations could contribute to these differences, including nuances related to the wording of the questions. For example, many faculty respondents may have said that they prefer not to make a study guide available digitally because they do not want to provide a study guide at all, not because they are opposed to the digital aspect per se (as indeed they are not, for materials such as required readings, presentation slides, and homework assignments). Other differences likely reflect differing goals and priorities between students and faculty: it is perhaps unsurprising, for example, that faculty are more likely to prefer a controlled, in-person environment for exams.

Nonetheless, the importance that students ascribe to digital materials is not easily dismissed.

When asked to write about a time when their instructor used technology in a way that made their learning experience better, a plurality of students (83/320 comments, or 26%) referred to instructors uploading materials online. It is likely that students now anticipate or appreciate fully online materials in part due to their experiences with remote learning, and in part because of the general academic technology landscape, in which ELMS-Canvas has become an essential learning platform (with 86% of all courses published in Spring 2023, representing 4,079 courses, and over 800,000 total materials uploaded since 2014). Their preferences for digitally available materials further reflect their general desire for flexibility in terms of how they engage with course content: “I am disabled, so I am a huge fan of recorded lectures available online in case I am not well enough to attend class (also to help with studying later). That, and simply being up to date with announcements through ELMS is very helpful.”

“I appreciate online supplemental material access to improve my studying. I also appreciate when professors use online office hours to meet with students. It allows for flexibility and more available times to meet.”

Communication is important to students, and they prefer different methods of communication depending on the context.

When asked about their preferred methods for receiving information, students’ responses differed depending on whether they were asked about receiving general information about campus news and activities, versus course-related information from their instructors (see Figure 14, next page). Over two-thirds of students (70%) prefer to receive campus-wide information over email, whereas the majority (55%) prefer to receive course information from instructors through ELMS-Canvas. These data highlight the role that ELMS-Canvas now plays as a centralized hub for course communications. Given that most students log onto ELMS-Canvas every day (72% of the student population on a typical day in Spring 2023), it

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follows that many prefer to receive academic-related messages and announcements within that platform (i.e., narrowcasting to a degree).

Students prefer to receive general campus information over email and course information through ELMS-Canvas.

Which of the following is your preferred method for receiving [information from your instructors about your courses/general information from your institution about campus news and activities]?

Campus information

Course information

Social media Text messages Learning management system Paper Mobile app

70%

34%

Email 0%

12%

3% 8% 4%

55%

2% 0% 2%

ELMS-Canvas announcements and messages

4%

Institution's website

2% 2%

Phone call/voicemail

0% 0%

Other

0% 0% n = 432 - 433

Figure 14. The percentage of students who said they prefer to receive course-related information, and (from a separate question) the percentage who said they prefer to receive campus-related information via each listed method.

Social media represented a distant second preference for students to receive campus information. Of these, the overwhelming majority (94%) indicated that Instagram is their preferred platform for receiving information. Taken together, these findings suggest that an effective way to reach students about campus news, activities, or events is through an email campaign, possibly supplemented by Instagram posts.

Although no survey questions asked students what they wanted to receive communications about, their text responses implied the importance of regular communication across different 2023 EDUCAUSE Survey Executive Report

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domains. For example, when asked about how UMD could improve its technology-related services and supports, 54 out of 332 students (16%) mentioned issues related to communication. Responses ranged from students who suggested they were satisfied with UMD’s technology services overall, but felt that more could be done to make students aware of them, to students with specific grievances that they felt better communication could address: “I actually think it's pretty good. I just wish students were made more aware of all the perks we pay for with our tuition. For example, UMD gives us access to Adobe Creative cloud among other things. I think these benefits need to be made more aware to students.”

“Make things like IT services more advertised and more accessible for students so that they are aware what options are available for them.”

“I wish that the school would communicate whether the internet goes down or not. It would help greatly instead of having students reload their screens continuously without any positive result.”

Similarly, when asked about how instructors used technology to enhance their learning, 34 out of 318 students (10%) referred to communication, e.g., instructors using ELMS-Canvas to post timely announcements, send reminders, or answer questions on discussion boards. Note that for coding these comments, communication was narrowly defined and not inclusive of implicit means of communication such as uses of the ELMS-Canvas calendar and well-organized modules, which many additional students referenced.

“The use of ELMS for communication, assignments, and even exams always made the class easier and better organized.”

“My linguistics professors would send ELMS announcements relating to the class in a timely manner that made it easier to plan out my day.”

For at least some students, then, communication is another element linked to their perceptions of technology at UMD – both in the sense that they want to know about the technology services and resources available to them, and that they appreciate instructors who use technology to facilitate communication with their students.

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Conclusion The core theme of EDUCAUSE’s Top 10 issues in higher education IT for 2024 is institutional resilience – the need for institutions to adapt to contemporary needs and opportunities.

Assessments of student and faculty perceptions provide essential data points for understanding how UMD is adapting to transformations in the technological and academic landscape. The present findings suggest that UMD is rising to the challenge of developing institutional resilience. Most students are satisfied with their technology experiences both in and out of the classroom, and the university’s technology resources and services appear to meet needs across varied student populations. Most faculty use and rely on the technologies, instructional supports, and professional development opportunities that UMD provides. Both students and faculty are happy to be teaching and learning in-person, but are also discovering ways that ELMS-Canvas, Zoom, Panopto, and other online technologies can enhance or add flexibility to certain course experiences. This last trend aligns with similar data from the 2022 student survey, suggesting that the community is finding its balance regarding the use of in-person and online academic technologies.

One important reminder from these data is that, as much as students’ and faculty’s interests sometimes diverge, more often than not, they both benefit from the same investments in technology, technology support, and training. Faculty, for example, are broadly positive about their interactions with key institutional services provided by DIT and TLTC, and students are positive about instructors who know how to leverage core academic technologies effectively. By strengthening its technological and instructional support for faculty, we strengthen the student technological experience in turn.

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