Exploring higher education students’ perspectives on factors affecting use, attitudes and confidence with learning technologies

Abstract

The use of technology in higher education has become unavoidable. Between the “pivot” to online teaching during the COVID-19 pandemic and pressure from universities to integrate technology innovatively within courses, educators are increasingly turning to technology. In turn, all students are expected to engage successfully and rapidly with technology, irrespective of their level or background. It is therefore important to understand students’ attitudes and confidence towards technology, and how this drives their use, in order to keep students engaged. This study explores the factors that affect students’ use, attitudes and confidence with learning technologies. 11 volunteers from a UK university were interviewed about their experiences with technology. A thematic analysis was carried on the interviews, which found that there are a number of key factors underlying the participants’ attitude and confidence with technology. Students strongly considered the purpose and convenience of a technology before choosing whether to accept or reject it. Other factors included familiarity with particular technologies, and the use of an emerging universal iconic language, a new finding from this study. In addition, this study contributes five key recommendations surrounding competence, design and ownership which should be considered when educators are contemplating the use of technology in their higher education classrooms, whether online or face-to-face. It is important to think about these implications and how we as educators use these technologies going forward in a post-pandemic and technology-rich world.