Earlier this year we ran two RAU staff digital insights surveys – one for academic staff and one for professional service staff. The surveys were managed by Jisc and are part of an annual survey programme. They complement the student digital survey that we ran last year. The academic staff survey asks teaching staff across higher (HE) and further education (FE) about their experiences of digital in their institution and in their teaching practice. This year the Professional Services staff survey ran as a pilot and the RAU was part of the pilot group. The results from the surveys are benchmarked and compared with other institutions in the sector.
Below are some of our key findings.
Response rates
| Academic staff | Professional services | |
| Response number | 24 | 67 |
| Percentage of staff | ~ 50% | ~ 25% |
| Time at RAU | Even split between ‘4 years or more’ and ‘less than 4 years’ | Even split between ‘4 years or more’ and ‘less than 4 years’ |
| Department | From all four schools 2 from Capel |
Operations (43%) Student services (31%) Commercial and Business Development (21%) & others |
Key metrics: Academic staff
- 21% rate the quality of their digital provision (software, hardware, learning environment) as good or above
- 92% can access reliable Wi-Fi whenever they need it
- 50% agree it is easy to design & organise their course materials in the VLE (Gateway)
- 54% rate the support they get to develop their digital role as good or above
- 21% agree software for teaching is industry standard and up-to-date
- 8% agree they are informed about ensuring students behave safely online
Key metrics: Professional services staff
- 58% rate the quality of their digital provision (software, hardware, learning environment) as good or above
- 87% can access reliable Wi-Fi whenever they need it
- 27% agree that our online systems support working as a team
- 34% rate the support they get to develop their digital role as good or above
- 43% agree systems are up to date
- 72% agree systems are reliable
It appears that academics are more unhappy about the quality of the digital provision but happier about the support they receive to develop digital aspects of their jobs. While for professional services it is the other way round. This may be to do with the lack of support for professional services staff training and the requirement for fit for purpose pedagogic tools
Benchmark comparisons: Academic staff
| Question | Our data | UK data |
| Quality of digital provision | 21% | 58% |
| Reliable Wi-Fi | 92% | 85% |
| Support to develop digital role | 54% | 36% |
| Software for teaching is industry standard and up-to-date | 21% | 35% |
| Easy to design & organise course materials in VLE | 55% | 48% |
| Are informed about ensuring students behave safely online | 8% | 18% |
The areas in red are below the sector and the areas in green are above.
Benchmark comparisons: Professional services staff
| Question | Our data | UK data |
| Quality of digital provision | 58% | 68% |
| Reliable Wi-Fi | 87% | 85% |
| Support to develop digital role | 35% | 56% |
| Systems are reliable | 72% | 67% |
| Systems are up to date | 43% | 46% |
| Our online systems support working as a team | 27% | 46% |
The areas in red are below the sector and the areas in green are above.
As you can see there is still lots to be done!
What can we do to help? Academic staff
- Increased recognition by senior management of the importance of supporting innovative and good quality teaching (both digital and non-digital)
- Better celebration of good practice
- Support for a culture where experimentation is accepted and time/resource is allocated to it
- More CPD in digital skills
- Better digital teaching rooms
- Further investment in academic and industry-standard digital tools
- Improvements to Turnitin and integration with Quercus
What can we do to help? Professional services staff
- Better support for flexible and remote working
- More accessible training – from a more formal training structure to informal lunchtime drop-in training, at all levels (beginners to expert), and for new staff
- More guidance, support and videos
- Improve labs set up
- Provide a list of systems with an outline of what they do
- Better equipment – headsets for making calls, AV equipment, laptops for all
The recently developed IT and Digital strategy and action plan addresses the vast majority of these areas including:
- Work to establish a cross-functional group to produce an action plan for developing our student and staff digital capabilities,
- Help to define a set of activities and processes that directly encourage and support staff digital capability e.g: recruitment requirements, appraisals, promotions etc.
Huge thanks to everyone who participated in either of the surveys!
These results were presented to the RAU senior managers by Alun Dawes (Head of IT) on the 10th September. Going forward we hope to run the staff surveys and the student survey on alternate years. If you have any comments on the survey results please do get in touch with IT Services.
While the RAU has had 
