College instructors still aren’t that impressed with
technology in the classroom. In fact, faculty responding to the 2016 Inside Higher Ed Survey of Faculty Attitudes on Technology said they thought the quality of teaching and learning hasn’t been helped by
data-driven assessments and accountability efforts, other than to keep
politicians off their backs.
Just 27% of faculty members said technology has
improved the quality of instruction at their institutions, while the percentage
of respondents who said using ed-tech helped to improve degree-completion rates
was about the same. On the other hand, 65% agreed that efforts in ed-tech were
meant to pacify outside groups.
The survey found that fewer administrators and faculty
members said that technology led to significantly improved student outcomes,
making it hard to justify the investment. Both groups think institutions are
taking the right steps to protect personal information from cyberattacks.
“Faculty members are still worried that online
education can’t deliver outcomes equivalent to face-to-face instruction,” wrote
Carl Straumsheim in an article for Inside Higher Ed. “They are split on whether investments in ed-tech have
improved student outcomes. And they overwhelmingly believe textbooks and
academic journals are becoming too expensive.”
