Dr Anesa Hosein

Students using three types of spreadsheet calculators for understanding expected value were observed remotely. This remote observation involves the use of webcams and application sharing for observing students learning mathematics. The study illustrates how remote observation can be used for collecting mathematical education data and raises questions about the extent to which such a method can be used in future experiments.

Research supervision is a process of fostering and enhancing learning, research and communication at the highest level (Laske & Zuber-Skerritt, 1996). Hasrati (2005, p. 557) argues that supervision is ‘crucial’, ‘pivotal’, ‘at the heart of most research training’, ‘at the core of the project’, and also, ‘the single most important variable affecting the success of the research process.’ Whilst a good deal of student supervision takes place at the face-to-face level, there is a growing trend towards more innovative and technology-oriented approaches, particularly with distance students. This can pose both opportunities and complexities for supervisors. This paper reviews and examines a range of communicative styles that different types of supervision afford. Following, the findings of two case studies are presented which explored the perspectives of supervisors who used verbal and non-verbal synchronous communication approaches when supervising students online.

Three mathematical software types: black-box (no steps shown), glass-box (steps shown) and open-box (interactive steps) were used by 32 students to solve conceptual and procedural tasks on the computer via remote observation. Comparison of the three software types suggests that there is no difference in the scores that students receive for conceptual understanding tasks. Students using the black-box are more likely to explore answers than students using the glass and open-box software.

Research and research methods is an integral part of postgraduate study. However, it is becoming increasingly more common to find students having to complete a research methods course at the undergraduate level. The purpose of this research is thus to investigate undergraduate students' attitudes towards studying research methods. The research also aimed to look at whether students believe that studying research methods provided them with valuable research skills which may make them more employable in the job market. . A questionnaire was given to approximately 360 students at the beginning of their research methods course, that asked students to record what they understood by the term research, what they thought the purpose of research was as well as how they thought this course might contribute to their employability. Students were also asked to fill in a Research Conceptions Inventory. Students were registered in both a face-to-face and blended learning delivery courses. Whilst this study is longitudinal, this paper will only present findings from the first phase of the study and only on the blended learning students. Preliminary results indicate that students generally had a poor notion of the purpose of research and thought its main purpose was to gather information about a particular topic. In terms of employability, many thought the research skill of gathering information will be useful for when going to an interview or doing a job search. These results hope to influence future curriculum design and inform current policy and practice for teaching research methods, which might be instrumental in helping students to become more active researchers.

To explore the affective domains embedded in academic development and teacher practice, a team of academic developers was invited to consider a poem and how it reflects the emotions and feelings underpinning experiences as teachers within Higher Education. We used a method of arts-informed, collective biography to evaluate a poem to draw upon and share memories to interrogate lived experiences. Our research is framed using the lens of pedagogic frailty model to see how affective and discursive encounters are produced and impact us. We contend that collective arts-based and biographical approaches can provide alternative ways for ourselves and teachers to examine their own pedagogic frailty.

Laboratory tasks often focus on mechanical procedures leaving limited time and opportunities for students to build conceptual knowledge. We investigate to what extent introducing simulation tasks to preparation work can enable students to build their conceptual knowledge. We surveyed two cohorts of students taking an electronics module. Laboratory report marks were also analysed across the two cohorts (before and after introducing simulations in the laboratory preparation). No significant difference was found between the cohorts but the maximum marks increased after simulations were introduced. Students perceived that using simulations aided their constructive knowledge and knowledge confidence. Analysis of the free-text responses suggests that students benefitted from the simulation tasks by visualising the theory and concepts, confirming and checking results, and exploring different scenarios before and after the physical laboratory session. These results suggest that laboratory practicals should be supported with simulation software where possible.

Life course theory posits that social, structural, and cultural contexts shape individuals' life outcomes. Using this theory, we investigated whether inequalities in education and employment outcomes for young people with marginalised identities are shaped by the university environment they attended. Based on UK national statistics, universities with similar social, cultural, economic, and physical environments were clustered. These clusters were linked to the Longitudinal Study of Young People in England (LSYPE) cohort dataset to determine whether different university environments predicted differences in outcomes. We observed a mixed picture with no definitive pattern for any marginalised identity. Social and economic environments played a role in predicting education outcomes of young people. Social, cultural, and economic environments were important in predicting employment outcomes. The physical environment did not have any impact. This research emphasises a need for more creative policies within certain universities that address education and employment inequalities.

Nowadays, the competitiveness of any organisations rests dominantly on how they can manage their performance. A host of performance variables such as quality, reliability, and efficiency are recognised as competitive priorities. This paper reviews the criteria and dimensions of performance measures, and discusses six core performance indicators in agribusiness operations with particular reference to the poultrybroiler farms. Besides, a holistic Quality, Reliability and Efficiency view of performance is proposed when developing measures for poultry agribusiness operations.

After spending a year working on the development of a new online Master's programme in higher education, members of the development team were interviewed to reveal their thoughts about the nature of the programme. The dialogue of each interview was summarised as a concept map. Analysis of the resulting maps included a modified Bernsteinian analysis of the focus of the concepts included in terms of their semantic gravity (i.e. closeness to context) and the degree of resonance with the underpinning regulative discourse of the programme. Data highlight a number of potential issues for programme delivery that centre around the use of appropriate language to manage student expectations in relation to the process of learning and the emotional responses this can stimulate, as well as the tensions that can be foregrounded between the demands of teaching and research within a university environment.

How and with whom academics develop and maintain formal and informal networks for reflecting on their teaching practice has received limited attention even though academic development (AD) programmes have become an almost ubiquitous feature of higher education. The primary goal of this mixed-method study is to unpack how 114 academics in an AD programme developed internal (within their programme) and external (outside their programme) learning and teaching relations. A secondary goal is to highlight the affordances of social network analysis (SNA) methods in conjunction with qualitative approaches for academic developers to understand the (in)formal learning processes in their AD programme. The quantitative results indicate that participants maintained 4.84 relations within their AD programme and 3.17 external ties. The qualitative results indicate that most academics developed a range of emotional, academic, and professional support links, which were mostly outside the AD context. Participants needed an outlet to share their feelings, challenges, and frustrations about their teaching and their experiences on the AD programme. These feelings were shared with people they trusted, primarily close friends and colleagues. This study provides a social perspective on the formal and informal relations of AD, and argues that SNA techniques can help academic developers to make these relationships visible.

This paper investigates the underexplored area of othering of migrant academics within their teaching context. Nine personal narratives of migrant academics' teaching were analysed qualitatively for indications of pedagogical othering. Migrant academics indicated the need to align their own pedagogic values and practices with that of their host institutions they work in as they felt their own values and practices were considered less desirable. We argue, from a Gramsci's hegemonic perspective, that the pedagogic adaptation by migrant academics aimed at improving student learning is not problematic in itself, but more problematic is the inequality of opportunity for migrant academics to contribute to pedagogical decisions which can meaningfully influence the departmental culture. Lack of pedagogic democracy where the 'home' academic environment has a monopoly of knowledge and a hegemonic position regarding learning and teaching can compromise the student-learning experience by limiting articulation of alternative pedagogical perspectives by the migrant international academics.

The selection of the pedagogical approach plays a crucial role in determining the learning approaches that students engage with (e. g. surface or deep learning) and the knowledge and skill transfer. This paper maps the existing student-centred pedagogical practices in European Studies (ES) using a worldwide survey conducted within the framework of the Innovating Teaching and Learning of the European Studies (INOTLES) project. This research investigates to what extent the ES teaching uses student-centred approaches worldwide and what are the factors that influence the practical application of these methods. The results do not highlight clear recurring patterns of interaction between the major indicators related to instructors' profile, course profile and the selection of the innovative teaching approaches. A certain degree of uniformity and consistency is revealed in the practical application of innovative ES teaching worldwide across various disciplines. While this finding may represent the evidence of a high degree of exchange of practices and internationalization of teaching ES, it requires further research.

Narratives of Academics' Personal Journeys in Contested Spaces provides theoretically-informed personal narratives of 11 emerging and established leaders in learning and teaching in Australia, Finland, New Zealand, Singapore, the UK and the USA. The academics' narratives focus on how the individuals have navigated to their current leadership role in learning and teaching whilst negotiating contested identities, such as gender, and physical and social marginalised spaces, such as interstitial (middle) leadership positions. These international narratives provide unique perspectives on the sense-making of academics as they reflect on their learning and teaching leadership journey and how these journeys are shaped by their contested identities and the marginalised spaces they inhabit. Often such identities and spaces are not recognised in higher education which may lead to even more isolating and challenging leadership journeys. The book contributes to our understanding of the subjective experiences that academics encounter in their leadership journeys. Further, the personal narratives included in the book capture how the contested identities and marginalised spaces influence the learning and teaching leadership practices in various educational, cultural and national contexts.

'Academics' International Teaching Journeys' provides personal narratives of nine international social science academics in foreign countries as they adapt and develop their teaching. The team of international contributors provide an invaluable resource for other academics who may be exposed to similar situations and may find these narratives useful in negotiating their own conflicts and challenges that they may encounter in being an international academic. The narratives provide a fascinating reference point and a wide range of perspectives of teaching experiences from across the world, including Europe, Australia, North America and the Caribbean.

The introductory chapter situates the conceptualisation of learning and teaching leadership in higher education, an area not robustly represented in the research literature. The chapter describes the book's focus, which is to examine leadership through the lens of case studies that capture the lived experiences of academics and the incidents that have helped them demonstrate and develop as learning and teaching leaders. Through the sharing of these learning and teaching leadership case studies, there is a celebration of the uniqueness of the incidents that may contribute to the development of learning and teaching leaders; yet there are also similarities of opportunities and challenges between the accounts.

This paper explores the state of flux within civil engineering education with universities facing demand from the ever-evolving industry to develop graduates with the desired skillsets and values. It discusses the transition in pedagogic approaches towards learner-centred models and evaluates the implementation of the Project-Based Learning (PBL) tool to shape the next generation of practicing civil engineers. A case study application of such a tool is explored in the form of the Design, Assemble and Dismantle (DAD) Project delivered during the first year of the civil engineering undergraduate programme at the University of Surrey. This Project is of an experiential nature where the student is placed at the centre of the pedagogic process. In order to fully understand the advantages of integrating this pedagogic tool in higher education in terms of enhancements it can make to the attributes developed and growth experienced by students, interviews with 20 participants of the DAD Project between 2015-2021 were conducted. The collated reflections depict the Project as an effective mechanism for developing an array of skills and values, including problem-solving, team working, leadership, communication, and cultivating a shift in mindset whereby students become more holistic, active, and conscious learners with a greater sense of accountability; all of which are paramount for the challenges of the 21st century.

Background Online gaming motivations are differently associated with career interests. However, very little is known about online gaming behaviour based on the actual games played and how career interests are reflected in what people play. Hence, we investigated the actual gaming behaviour of individuals from an extensive secondary data set to further support gamers’ future career planning and professional training. Methods The study comprised 16,033 participants playing a different number of games on Steam. Our study was based on the 800 most played games only and included participants where we had access to gender and job details. We employed a secondary data analysis approach by using an existing data set (O’Neill et al., 2016), looking into the actual gaming behaviour of Steam users and additional administrative data (i.e., job details and gender) provided by Game Academy Limited. We used logistic regression on the participants’ top ten games, allowing us to investigate any possible associations between different professions, gender, and the games played. Results We found that IT professionals and engineers played puzzle-platform games, allowing for enhanced spatial skills. Managers showed an interest in action roleplay games where organisational and planning skills can be improved. Finally, engineers were associated with strategy games that required problem-solving and spatial skills. There were apparent gender differences too: females preferred playing single-player games, whereas males played shooting games. Conclusion Our study found that online gaming behaviour varied between different job categories, allowing the participants to gain different soft skills. The soft skills gained could assist gamers with training that leads to a particular career path. The reasons for these findings and suggestions for future research will be discussed.

There is an increasing focus on structural and social determinants of inequalities in young people's mental health across different social contexts. Taking higher education as a specific social context, it is unclear whether university attendance shapes the impact of intersectional social identities and positions on young people's mental health outcomes. Multilevel Analysis of Individual Heterogeneity and Discriminatory Accuracy (MAIHDA) was used to predict the odds that mental distress during adolescence, sex, socioeconomic status, sexual identity, ethnicity, and their intersections, were associated with young people's mental health outcomes at age 25, and whether this differed based on university attendance. Data from the Longitudinal Study of Young People in England cohort study were analysed with the MAIHDA approach, and the results did not reveal any evidence of multiplicative intersectional (i.e., aggravating) effects on young people's mental health outcomes. However, important main effects of social identities and positions (i.e., an additive model) were observed. The findings suggested that being female or identifying as a sexual minority increased the odds of young people experiencing mental health problems at age 25, although the odds of self-harming were half the size for sexual minorities who had attended university. Black and Asian individuals were less likely to declare a mental illness than White individuals. Young people who grew up in a more deprived area and had not attended university were more likely to experience mental health problems. These findings imply that mental health interventions for young people do not necessarily have to be designed exclusively for specific intersectional groups. Further, university attendance appears to produce better mental health outcomes for some young people, hence more investigation is needed to understand what universities do for young people, and whether this could be replicated in the wider general population. •MAIHDA was used to analyse young people's mental health outcomes at age 25.•Intersectional effects were examined both in and out of the university context.•There was no evidence for multiplicative effects on young people's mental health.•Additive models were most suitable for understanding mental health inequalities.•Interventions might be best targeted at broad social group memberships.

Provides insights into what it takes to be a leader in teaching and learning. Offers ideas and suggestions about various teaching and learning initiatives that you can adopt at your university. Will help shape the understanding of cultural differences and similarities in teaching and learning leadership; providing significant guidance, particularly for international academics as they work between countries.

The sources and types of information that prospective university students access during the recruitment phase have been widely researched. However, there is limited research on the usefulness of the learning and teaching (L&T) information provided by universities to prospective students in describing their own learning experiences of the programme. The study investigates the meaningfulness of the efforts of HEIs in (1) providing L&T information to prospective students and (2) attending to guidance from government bodies on L&T information that universities should make available to prospective students. Findings based on secondary data analysis of L&T information available for prospective students on 36 university websites and the students’ satisfaction scores of their perceived learning experience whilst on programme indicate that only a small proportion of information provided on university websites reliably reflects the students’ actual learning experience on the programme. Furthermore, the study provides guidance on the L&T information universities should feature on their programme webpages which is likely to be a more realistic indicator of their actual learning experience.

•Conflicts exacerbate the mathematical knowledge gaps of university students•Transport systems, education systems, and utilities contribute to the knowledge gap•Changing demographics such as marriage affects students’ attendance•Online learning can afford a method to reduce mathematical knowledge gaps In conflict zones, young people's education is affected because of a lack of regular schooling. This results in young people having knowledge gaps which affects their engagement at universities. This study investigated university lecturers’ perceptions of their students’ mathematical knowledge gaps using a socioecological approach. Fifteen university lecturers from STEM disciplines (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) in Liberated Syrian were interviewed. Mathematical knowledge gaps were perceived to be exacerbated by the poor infrastructure of schooling systems, transport systems and utilities as well as the changing demography of the students. These were percived as contributing to poor attendance and engagement. The move to online learning during the Covid-19 pandemic appeared to enable students to reduce their knowledge gaps by raising attendance. The continuation of online learning is hence recommended for students studying in a conflict zone to reduce knowledge gaps.

In undergraduate degrees in the social sciences, research courses are usually a compulsory component of the curriculum. This chapter explores the pedagogical engagement, through the lens of acculturation theory, that is needed for creating scientific thinking skills via research courses. We posit that students who choose their discipline voluntarily are more likely to pedagogically engage (i.e. integrate or assimilate) into their discipline’s research paradigms. However, those students pursuing a discipline which was not their first choice may be less engaged in developing scientific thinking skills within these compulsory components and may be more likely to adopt a pedagogically disengaged (i.e. segregated) approach. The chapter explores the implications of these different pedagogical engagement approaches for students and how teachers may create learning environments to develop their scientific thinking skills.

The Green Paper Fulfilling our Potential: Teaching Excellence, Social Mobility and Student Choice (BIS, 2015) suggests that the UK Higher Education (HE) landscape will be transformed, with greater emphasis on the quality of teaching and dissemination of high-quality learning and teaching (L&T) information to students. The latter is important for achieving the Government’s widening participation agenda. Previously, a survey of the websites of 38 HE institutions found that limited information was provided to prospective students on several aspects of L&T (Hosein and Rao, 2015). This research study analyses interview data from quality assurance and marketing personnel in eight British universities to identify the reasons for this information gap on HE institutions websites. The findings indicate that both institutional and individual practices influence the quality of L&T website information. The recognition of these contributory factors may facilitate the provision of quality information and guidance on effective ways of addressing these.

In this reflection, we explore the issue of internationalisation with respect to the academic staff. We argue that universities are employing international academic staff to meet their internationalisation agenda without considering actively how to use their pedagogical knowledge and expertise to create an internationalised environment.

Neoliberalisation of academia has led to an increasing recruitment of doctoral students in teaching roles. Whilst there is evidence of doctoral students being engaged in teaching roles and the reasons for doing so, there is a pressing need to understand their experiences and to develop effective support practices to help them in their roles as teachers. Using borderlands theory as a lens, the thematic analysis of case study data from doctoral students in two English universities indicates that although they were navigating similar borderlands, the structural inequalities posed by their institutions led to differential support for their teaching roles and teacher identity development. The paper highlights the need for aligning doctoral roles to academic roles. It concludes by challenging the precarious support available for doctoral students, and proposes recommendations for the holistic development of doctoral students as competent and successful teachers (and researchers) in an increasingly precarious academia.

In higher education, despite the emphasis on student-centred pedagogical approaches, undergraduate research methods pedagogy remains surprisingly teacher-directed although undergraduate research itself is student-centred. Consequently, research methods students may believe becoming a researcher is about learning information rather than a continuous developmental process. To combat this idea, a reflective student-centred pedagogical approach is evaluated for encouraging students’ development as researchers. In this study, undergraduate research methods students piloted a research method and produced a reflective essay on their research experience which were qualitatively analysed. Analysis indicated that students demonstrated an awareness of both their research skills such as choosing an appropriate research instrument and their researcher identity such as their metacognition of their competence. Pedagogical approaches which encourages ‘reflection on action’ in the research curriculum therefore helps students to articulate their researcher identity and build their research skills confidence and should be actively promoted.

Girls’ uptake of physical science, technology, engineering and mathematics (PSTEM) degrees continues to be poor. Identifying and targeting interventions for girl groups that are likely to go into STEM degrees may be a possible solution. This paper, using a self-determination theory and self-socialisation framework, determines whether one girl group’s, “geek girls”, video gaming behaviour is associated with their choice of undergraduate degree by using two secondary datasets: a cross-sectional study of the Net Generation (n = 814) and the Longitudinal Study of Young People in England (LSYPE) dataset (n = 7342). Chi-square analysis shows that girls who were currently PSTEM degree were more likely to be gamers and engage in multiplayer gamers. Further, using logistic regressions, girls who were heavy gamers (>9 hrs/wk) at 13-14 years were found to be more likely to pursue a PSTEM degree but this was influenced by their socio-economic status. Similar associations with boys and PSTEM degrees was not found or weak. Therefore, girls were self-socialising or self-determining their identity groups through gaming. This research can provide the basis for whether encouraging gaming in adolescent girls can help them onto PSTEM pathways.

The purpose of this article is to explore how Early Career Academics (ECAs) cope with their complex and multiple transitions when starting their new role. By focussing on the participants’ lived experiences in a professional development (PD) training program to discuss and share practice, we explored how ECAs developed and maintained social network relations. Using social network analysis (SNA) with web crawling of public websites, data was analyzed for 114 participants to determine with whom they shared practice outside PD (i.e., external connectors), the seniority of these connectors, and similarity to their job area. The results highlight that ECA networks were hierarchically flat, whereby their sharing practice network of 238 external connectors composed of their (spousal) partner and (male) colleagues at the same hierarchical level. The persons whom ECAs were least likely to discuss their practice with were people in senior management roles. The results of this study highlight that the creation of a community of practice for discussing and sharing of practice from PD programs appear to be insular. Activities within the organization and the formation of learning communities from PD may become lost as most of the sharing of practice/support comes from participants’ partners. Organizations may have to create spaces for sharing practice beyond the PD classroom to further organizational learning.

In this study, members of a higher education department explore their research activity and how it influences their practice as academic developers in a research-led institution. Whilst the research activities of the team members appear diverse, they are all underpinned by a shared set of professional values to provide an anchor for these activities. Research-as-pedagogy and the relationship between the discourses of research and teaching are explored using Bernstein’s knowledge structures. The authors conclude that differences in research focus (horizontal discourse) provide dynamism across a department and that stability is provided through the underpinning core values inherent in the vertical discourse.

The ability of students to assess their own performance accurately may allow them to self-regulate their learning through metacognitive monitoring. This research investigates factors affecting undergraduate radiation physics students’ ability to self-assess their work accurately in a mathematical subject test. The factors investigated are demographics, mathematics confidence, prior mathematical attainment and prior level of mathematical knowledge. Students’ accuracy of their self-assessment was found to be associated with their prior mathematical attainment and their overall mathematics confidence. Students with good and poor prior mathematical attainment self-assessed more accurately than students who had a moderate level of prior attainment. These results have implications for how students may determine their own learning strategies and the use of summative self-assessments.

This paper investigates the underexplored area of othering of migrant academics within their teaching context. Nine personal narratives of migrant academics’ teaching were analysed qualitatively for indications of pedagogical othering. Migrant academics indicated the need to align their own pedagogic values and practices with that of their host institutions they work in as they felt their own values and practices were considered less desirable. We argue, from a Gramsci’s hegemonic perspective that the pedagogic adaptation by migrant academics aimed at improving student learning is not problematic in itself, but more problematic is the inequality of opportunity for migrant academics to contribute to pedagogical decisions which can meaningfully influence the departmental culture. Lack of pedagogic democracy where the ‘home’ academic environment has a monopoly of knowledge and a hegemonic position regarding learning and teaching can compromise the student-learning experience by limiting articulation of alternative pedagogical perspectives by the migrant international academics.

This article presents results from a longitudinal survey of first‐year students’ time spent on living and learning technologies at university, their frequency of using specific learning technologies and their competence with these tools. Data were analysed from two similar surveys at the start and at the end of the academic year for students studying 14 different courses in five different universities (four place‐based and one distance‐learning) in England. The younger students used information and communication technologies (ICT) for social and leisure purposes more frequently than older students. The older students were more likely to use it for study. The frequency of using ICT was related to students’ perceived competence in the tool. University mode of study also influenced how students appropriated their ICT time. These results might have an impact on the repurposing of living technologies for use as learning technologies.

The emerging literature related to feedback literacy has hitherto focused primarily on students’ engagement with feedback, and yet an analysis of academics’ feedback literacy is also of interest to those seeking to understand effective strategies to engage with feedback. Data from concept map-mediated interviews and reflections, with a team of six colleagues, surface academics’ responses to receiving critical feedback via scholarly peer review. Our findings reveal that feedback can be visceral and affecting, but that academics employ a number of strategies to engage with this process. This process can lead to actions that are both instrumental, enabling academics to more effectively ‘play the game’ of publication, as well as to learning that is more positively and holistically developmental. This study thus aims to open up a dialogue with colleagues internationally about the role of feedback literacy, for both academics and students. By openly sharing our own experiences we seek to normalise the difficulties academics routinely experience whilst engaging with critical feedback, to share the learning and strategies which can result from peer review feedback, and to explore how academics may occupy a comparable role to students who also receive evaluation of their work.

Although participation in academic speaking events is a key to developing disciplinary understanding, students for whom English is a second language may have limited access to these learning events due to an increasingly dialogic and active higher education pedagogy which places considerable demands on their oracy skills. Drawing on the Oracy Skills Framework we explore disciplinary tutors' and students' expectations of oracy skills required for disciplinary study. An analysis of both quantitative and qualitative data found that disciplinary tutors placed importance on the cognitive dimension of oracy skills such as argumentation and asking questions, whilst students placed importance on linguistic accuracy. The findings also suggest that tutors and students lack a shared metalanguage to talk about oracy skills. We argue that a divergence of expectations and lack of shared terminology can result in compromising students' access to valuable classroom dialogue. The paper concludes with a number of practical suggestions through which both tutors and students can increase their understanding of oracy skills.

Undergraduate students sometimes pursue degrees that are aimed at allied jobs. This research examines how students in one allied professional degree, Education Studies, conceptualise their pre-professional ideology and how these ideologies relate to their intended career trajectory. The research draws upon a year-long qualitative survey of over 70 undergraduates. Students’ professional ideology and career path were initially linked to the corresponding professional degree i.e. Teacher Education. Over the year, students’ conceptualisation of their pre-professional ideology changed but their career trajectory remained relatively constant. These findings imply students were conforming or socialising into the expectations of their allied professional discipline but did not have an expectation to follow that career path. The research findings have implications for helping students to be realistic about their career trajectory and ensuring that they are prepared for an appropriate job.

This paper reports on the results of a two-year study carried out in five different universities in the UK on different facets of learner experiences of digital technology use. Two self-completion surveys were administered- one in the beginning and another one towards the end of the academic year. The results showed that distance learners aged 25 years of age and younger were a distinct demographic group, in so far as they displayed some characteristics and behaviours typical of students of the same age group, but studying in a place-based university, while in terms of other characteristics they were more akin to older distance learners. The differences between distance learners of different age groups were fewer towards the end of the year, which stresses the impact of university experience in analyzing student learning. Limitations of the study and its implications are considered in the light of their likely significance for research and practice in the field. © 2011 IADIS.