The charts illustrate how students and teachers perceive the usefulness of four digital tools for teaching and studying. Overall, students viewed most tools more positively than teachers, although teachers showed overwhelming support for video conferencing. Lecture recordings were considered very useful by 57% of students, compared with only 23% of teachers. Similarly, institutional cloud storage received favourable ratings from 46% of students, whereas only 26% of teachers shared this opinion. By contrast, 80% of teachers regarded video conferencing for tutorials as highly useful, while just 30% of students agreed. Instant messaging was also viewed more positively by students (30%) than teachers (8%). Several factors may explain these differences. Students are likely to value lecture recordings and cloud storage because they provide greater flexibility and easy access to learning materials. In contrast, teachers may prefer video conferencing since it enables direct interaction and more effective communication during tutorials. Furthermore, instant messaging may be seen as distracting and less suitable for formal academic purposes. The negative responses support these findings, with 54% of teachers considering instant messaging not useful at all, compared with only 13% of students. Looking ahead, digital tools are likely to become even more widely accepted as universities continue investing in educational technology, although differences in preference may remain.

This report summarises the results of a university survey examining how students and teachers perceive four digital tools used for teaching and studying. Overall, the two groups showed noticeably different preferences. Among students, lecture recordings were considered the most useful tool, with 57% rating them as “very useful”. Institutional cloud storage followed at 46%, while instant messaging and video conferencing were each chosen by 30%. Only small proportions of students regarded lecture recordings and cloud storage as completely useless, at 2% and 3% respectively. Teachers expressed a very strong preference for video conferencing, with 80% describing it as very useful and none considering it useless. In contrast, only 8% found instant messaging very useful, while 54% said it was not useful at all. Cloud storage and lecture recordings also received relatively low positive ratings from teachers, at 26% and 23%. These differences may be explained by the groups’ needs. Students value recordings because they allow lessons to be reviewed at any time. Teachers may prefer video conferencing because it supports live interaction and classroom-style discussion. Instant messaging may be unpopular among teachers because it can be distracting and unsuitable for detailed academic communication.