Gravity Assist; Propelling higher education towards a brighter future
Report of the digital teaching and learning review
Sir Michael Barber
February 2021
The first national lockdown in March 2020 sparked a rush of activity in universities and colleges to transition them from in-person teaching to online delivery. That was done at great speed under intense pressure. By the time this review was commissioned in June, there was already a wealth of expertise and innovative practice to explore.
This report by the Office for Students attempts to capture the lessons of an extraordinary phase of change. They conducted 52 interviews with digital teaching and learning experts, including StREAM users from universities such as the Nottingham Trent University, University of Brighton, University of Leeds, and Teesside University which aims to focus on sharing what they have learned, support reflection and prompt further action from what has been discovered.
This report also highlighted how learning analytics can help to provide targeted student support such as with the case of Nottingham Trent University:
‘The student dashboard, developed with technology partner Solutionpath, is designed to help students to manage their own learning and enable university staff to better support students. It aggregates data about students’ engagement with their studies and presents it in an easy-to-use format. Students receive a daily engagement score of high, good, partial, low or very low.‘
