Information and digital literacy in education via the digital path

In this session, we will present data from a University of Leeds ESRC Newton funded research grant conducted in collaboration with the University of Cape Town. We will contextualise the study in the existing literature around marketization, unbundling and digital technology, and give an overview of our research in South Africa. We will then focus on data collected from the UK higher education sector, through desk research and interviews with senior HE leaders. Our session will involve a presentation of our research data, including demonstration of novel interactive visualisations. Participants will be able to view these visualisations themselves during the session, and manipulate the data. We will pose several critical questions to the audience during the session, and invite responses digitally through a Padlet wall. At the end of the session, we will take questions from the audience about our research findings. The session strongly relates to the theme of critical perspectives of learning technology, as our research project is focussed on the benefits and challenges of the growth in unbundled online learning from universities, and the impact this is having on access, equality, flexibility, institutional mission and the changing nature of higher education.