Key Findings from Tyton’s 2024 Time for Class

Accessibility in digital learning is one of the lead themes of Tyton Partners’ Time for Class 2024 report, Unlocking Access to Effective Digital Teaching and Learning. The newest edition of the annual research report emphasizes the impact of digital learning infrastructure on the ability of students, faculty, and administrators to benefit from the potential of technology.

As the introduction to the report lays out, digital learning is now a fundamental part of higher education — there has been no change in direction since the Covid emergency — but “the promise of digital learning to increase access to education is not being fully realized.”

Tyton Partners’ Managing Director Catherine Shaw, a co-author of the report, says “We’re trying to point out some of the gaps between an institutional perspective and the learner experience in service of improving the outcomes and closing those gaps.”

This year’s Time for Class report surveyed over 3,000 higher education administrators, faculty, and students on topics in digital learning including connectivity, modality, and AI.

Infrastructure

One of the largest challenges to effective digital learning is adequate infrastructure. Limited and unequal access to telecom services, hardware, and software hinder students’ participation in this growing part of the university experience.

Disconnects between faculty and students exacerbate the accessibility gap, a topic covered in last year’s Time for Class report, Bridging Student and Faculty Perspectives on Digital Learning. This year’s survey found one-third of instructors shared concerns about student access to technology. But half the students surveyed experience stress from unstable internet and lack of access to software and devices.

Students tend to prefer digital learning, says Shaw, while faculty prefer the traditional face-to-face classroom experience. For example, as Figure 3 in the report shows, 28 percent of students prefer hybrid compared to only 10 percent of instructors.

Figure 3, Time for Class 2024

These differences in perspective or awareness create unnecessary barriers to student success, some of which can be alleviated by informed faculty. “We’re not meeting students where they are and not providing students with the infrastructure needed to meet their learning preferences,” Shaw says. “How can institutions better prepare or recruit faculty to teach online?”

Unlocking the promise of digital learning

Time for Class 2024 points out that while reliance on technology has increased in recent years, many instructors feel lack of familiarity with data is limiting the way they teach with it. Only 37 percent of faculty surveyed say professional development at their institution focuses on evidence-based teaching practices.

In fact, only 11 percent of instructors reported seeing course-level data disaggregated by race, ethnicity, or financial need. Shaw says that indicates a missed opportunity to increase equity practices in digital learning and better understand students.

“We’re missing out on the potential here,” she says. “We have all this data that lets us ask what we can do to make sure our outcomes are equitable.”

For example, Shaw says, referring to Figure 16 in the report, “We still don’t understand some basic things about our students.”

That is a challenge reinforced in other reports from Tyton, such as Driving Toward a Degree, that show that academic advisors are often working with limited data-informed insights about their students.

Figure 16, Time for Class

Still, Shaw says, “We remain optimistic. We wouldn’t spend our time understanding this ecosystem and tracking the trends if we didn’t think there are viable ways forward to unlock more equitable access to digital learning.”

Generative AI

Students and faculty also vary in their attitudes toward generative AI’s place in the classroom. The survey found students were more likely to embrace and practice with new AI technology, leaving faculty and administrators to play catch up.

“You’ve got student use leading faculty use and administrator familiarity with these tools,” Shaw says. “That disconnect is creating a need for institutions to be clearer about their policy.”

According to the respondents surveyed, 36 percent of instructors and 25 percent of administrators still have not tried generative AI tools, while almost 60 percent of students are regular users, defined as using it once a month or more. Interestingly, almost half of those students opted for paid AI solutions over free versions.

Faculty who used AI tools were less concerned about academic integrity than faculty who had never used it. Similarly, instructors who use generative AI at least once a month were more likely to believe it will have a positive impact on student learning than instructors who do not use it.

The important question, says Shaw, is “Do you believe students will or will not need to know how to use these tools for their future jobs and careers?”

Because of the implications for career success after graduation, Shaw stresses that institutions need to develop clear policies on generative AI. “It’s going to change the lifelong learning journey of students, and we want to make folks aware of that,” she says.

“That’s probably why older students [in the survey] or students who are working already are using these tools. They’re using it for work. Without learning about it, students will flounder.”

About Tyton Partners

Tyton Partners is the leading provider of strategy consulting and investment banking services to the global knowledge and information services sector. With offices in Boston and New York City, the firm has an experienced team of bankers and consultants who deliver a unique spectrum of services from mergers and acquisitions and capital markets access to strategy development that helps companies, organizations, and investors navigate the complexities of the education, media, and information markets. Tyton Partners leverages a deep foundation of transactional and advisory experience and an unparalleled level of global relationships to make its clients’ aspirations a reality and to catalyze innovation in the sector. Learn more at tytonpartners.com.