by Katy Jordan, Janja Komljenovic and Jeremy Knox
The SRHE Digital University Network was launched in 2012, with a view to present “critical, theorised and research-based perspectives on technologies in higher education”. As the landscape of digital technologies being used in different ways across the higher education sector is subject to change over time, we took the opportunity through the 2023 SRHE conference session to reflect on what the Digital University means and think about the future of the network. We invite you to contribute to this debate and participate in our future events.
Looking back
From 2013 onwards, the Digital University had been included in the annual SRHE conference themes. We drew upon the archive of SRHE conference papers on the website, to look for patterns and themes in papers associated with the theme over the past decade. From the archive, we gathered 122 papers under the Digital University theme. We noted details like the date, authors, location, and research methods for each paper. To gain an overview of the types of topics covered, each paper was tagged with up to three keywords, which were visualised as a network to see thematic clusters.
Looking at the yearly distribution of Digital University papers, there are typically 10 to 15 papers each year. In 2015 and 2021, there were more, in the latter case possibly because of a focus on online learning due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Examination of the research methods used showed that mixed methods approaches are particularly important, with a wide range of methods being used, including digital methods.
The network analysis of keywords suggested that the topics covered in the papers broadly fall into six clusters: EdTech and learning design, Critical perspectives, Institutional perspectives, Literacies and multimodality, Online and blended learning, and Social media and identity. Over the ten years, some clusters stayed the same, while others, like ‘Social media and identity’ and ‘literacies and multimodality,’ were more common in the early years.
Co-occurrence network of topic keywords associated with the papers within the sample. Node size is scaled according to frequency, and nodes are colour-coded according to clusters.
Discussing the network
We hope that the analysis can be the start of a wider conversation with the Digital University Network community, about what the Digital University means and where to focus activities in the future. We have launched a blog site for the network, which includes the short paper reporting the analysis, acts as an archive for information about previous events, and creates a space for comments about the future. We will also use the blog site as a place to post information about future events – so we would encourage readers to ‘subscribe’ to the blog, in order to keep up-to-date about future events.
Future plans
In 2023, the network held events on topics including sociotechnical imaginaries in education, universities and unicorns – new forms of value in digital higher education,, and the political economy of EdTech. For 2024, in addition to responding to suggestions from the community, events will be planned around social media in higher education, STS in studying ‘the digital’ in higher education, and research methods and the Digital University.
If you are interested in topics related to the Digital University network, please do visit the blog, and (i) comment to let us know about topics you would like to see covered by the network in the future, and (ii) subscribe to the blog to receive notifications about future events, at: https://srhedigitaluniversity.wordpress.com/
Dr. Katy Jordan is a Lecturer in the Department of Educational Research at Lancaster University, where she is a member of the Centre for Technology-Enhanced Learning. Her research interests broadly focus on the use of technology in a range of educational contexts and has published extensively in the field, with particular interest in relation to digital scholarship, open education and equity.
Dr. Janja Komljenovic is a Senior Lecturer at Lancaster University in the UK. She is also a Research Management Committee member of the Global Centre for Higher Education with headquarters at the University of Oxford. Janja’s research focuses on the political economy of knowledge production and higher education markets. She is especially interested in the relationship between the digital economy and the higher education sector; and in digitalisation, datafication and platformisation of knowledge production and dissemination. Janja is published internationally on higher education policy, markets and education technology.
Dr. Jeremy Knox is Associate Professor of Digital Education at the Department of Education, University of Oxford, and an Official Fellow of Kellogg College. His research interests include the relationships between education, data-driven technologies, and wider society, and he has led projects funded by the ESRC and the British Council in the UK. Jeremy has previously served as co-Director of the Centre for Research in Digital Education at the University of Edinburgh.
