What learning means to you: Exploring the intersection between educational and digital lives of university students through digital narratives

Abstract

The inclusive nature of the student experience in higher education has been recognised by a growing number of researchers (Arambewela & Maringe, 2012). Understanding how the whole experience is affected by students’ emotions, connections and use of technologies is essential for higher education providers and professionals in a post-digital context (Verdonck, Greenaway, Kennedy-Behr, & Askew, 2019). Conducted in 2018 and 2019, the Work. Live. Play. Learn (WLPL) project series collected digital stories from 143 university students about their technology empowered holistic learning experience. These stories covered topics around how students’ educational, digital and personal lives intersected with the use of social media and learning technologies. Apart from providing access to more expansive and accessible learning spaces, the use of technology also revealed the challenges in the transitive state many students are facing, such as social isolation, pressure and engagement with disciplines (Barnett, 2007). While exposing some complexity in their learning experience, the students also engaged in actively seeking for ways to better their own learning experience. The findings and digital narrative method in this study can be used sustainably in getting students’ feedback and understanding modern learning to design better educational experiences for students.