What Students Want and Need

by Carolin Flerlage

A digital education platform for universities was developed in Schleswig-Holstein as part of the Future Skills project. The aim was to provide students with flexible, hands-on continuing education in digitalization and artificial intelligence. The IPN surveyed students' needs and preferences to take them into account when designing the content.

As part of the Future Skills project, a digital learning platform for universities was developed in Schleswig-Holstein, offering freely accessible online courses on digitalization and artificial intelligence. The focus was on designing digital educational content students would actually use. The goal of the IPN’s research accompanying the project was to provide recommendations for designing a digital education platform tailored to specific target groups. Both the motivational and cognitive prerequisites of the students were to be considered. The following questions were addressed: What needs and motivations drive students to use digital educational content? What digital skills do they possess? And are there differences between students in different fields of study?

To answer these questions, an online survey was conducted at all universities in Schleswig-Holstein at the start of the 2021–2022 winter semester. The study surveyed attitudes toward digital media, self-efficacy, and self-assessments of digital skills, as well as anticipated difficulties, motivation, and preferences regarding the design of digital educational content—such as preferred subject areas. The respective academic departments of the participants were also taken into account. A total of 1,644 students from eight universities in Schleswig-Holstein participated.

What motivates students?

The study identified three main motivators for students’ use of digital educational content:

1.    Flexibility (the ability to learn anytime, anywhere),

2.    Usefulness (professional and personal relevance), and

3.    Collaboration (interaction with other students).

Regardless of their field of study, students were particularly motivated when the digital educational content allowed flexible learning and the course content was directly related to their academic studies. However, they placed less emphasis on opportunities for collaboration. This suggests that digital educational content should be tailored specifically to individual learning processes, while collaborative elements could be incorporated into appropriate learning situations

Subject-specific offers are important

Students in STEM fields (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) as well as in the social sciences and humanities (non-STEM) thus share a similar underlying motivation for using digital educational content. At the same time, there is a clear need for subject-specific courses. Both groups primarily prefer basic knowledge and current topics directly related to their own field of study.

Not all STEM Students are the same

It is interesting to note that there are differences among STEM students. Participants in the study who were majoring in a natural science discipline differed from other STEM students (hereafter: TEM students) in several ways:

• Attitudes toward digital media: TEM students rated digital media more positively overall than students majoring in natural sciences

• Technical aptitude and digital skills: TEM students demonstrated greater technical aptitude and rated their digital skills higher than students majoring in a natural science subject.

• Expected difficulties: Compared to TEM students, students majoring in a natural science subject expected more difficulties in using digital educational content.

These attitudinal and cognitive differences between students in the natural sciences and students in a TEM discipline could be due to different ways of thinking and working within the STEM fields. While the natural sciences often rely on experimental and empirical methods, engineering and computer science tend to take a model-based and constructive approach. Therefore, digital educational content should be developed not only to suit specific subject groups but also to be precisely tailored within individual subject groups. With regard to the areas examined—flexibility, collaboration, and usefulness—there were no differences between students in TEM subjects and those studying a natural science subject

Conclusion

The results show that digital educational content should be subject specific to provide targeted support to students. The study also highlights the importance of course content focusing on practical application. Given some students feel uncertain about using digital educational content and anticipate difficulties, learning opportunities should be designed to address these concerns specifically. The desire for flexibility in terms of time and location should also be considered when designing these programs. The finding that collaboration opportunities are of limited importance in digital learning also raises the question of whether social interaction should be fostered more strongly through in-person classes.

The follow-up project, Digital Learning Campus (DLC), builds on this by deliberately combining digital offers with in-person formats. At the same time, a network of universities and companies in Schleswig-Holstein is being established to specifically prepare students for the demands of the professional world. Research at the IPN is also supporting this project, helping to understand the needs of students and other target groups so that they can be incorporated into the design in terms of both motivation and cognition.

About the author:

Dr. Carolin Flerlage studied chemistry and mathematics with the aim of becoming a teacher. She is currently a research scientist at the IPN in the Department of Chemistry Education. Her research focuses on the needs and motivation of students in the context of digital education. The findings presented here are part of her dissertation. flerlage@leibniz-ipn.de

Further resources:

Digital Learning Campus website: https://dlc.sh

Flerlage, C. (2024). Alles eine Frage der Einstellung?: Einflussfaktoren auf die Motivation zur Nutzung und Erstellung von digitalen Bildungsangeboten bei Studierenden des Lehramts und der MINT-Fächer. https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:gbv:8:3-2024-00008-4

Flerlage, C., Bernholt, A., & Parchmann, I. (2023). MOOCs in der Hochschullehre – Motive und Erwartungen von Hochschullehrenden und Studierenden. Zeitschrift für Hochschulentwicklung, 18(1). DOI: 10.3217/zfhe-18-01/10

Flerlage, C., Bernholt, A. & Parchmann, I. (2023). Motivation to use digital educational content – differences between science and other STEM students in higher education. Chemistry Teacher International, 5(2), 213-228. https://doi.org/10.1515/cti-2022-0035