Many aren’t getting courses delivered anywhere anytime and by their pick of platforms

A big majority of Australian students surveyed say it is either important or very important to be able to access course content, anywhere, anytime and by any IT means (for example) phone, tablet, pc, smart TV. But 40 per cent of them don’t know if their university uses AI, virtual reality and the internet of things.  Perhaps not surprising, given 58 per cent of them are on campus for all course content, delivered in lectures and tutes and just 26 per cent say technology innovation in their course is “innovative and progressive.” That’s not what they want, with nearly 60 per cent saying they would like to study either entirely on-line or via blended learning.

The results are in a survey for Technology One, “Australia’s largest enterprise software as a service” company.

“Students expect ubiquitous, any-time, anywhere access to university content the same way we now consume on-demand entertainment like Netflix or Spotify. It’s about instant access when and where it suits the individual, and in bites of ‘snackable study’ or bouts of ‘study streaming’,” Technology One’s Peter Nikoletatos says.

And won’t that go down well with academics who still think the in-person lecture without props is the alpha and omega of university education.

But there’s another stat in the survey that should alarm them more. When asked, “would you attend multiple universities at one time if subjects from different universities could be credited toward a single degree,” 49 per cent said yes.