Post-secondary schools are using digital technologies to “tweak” educational practices rather than revolutionize them

People who work at Canadian post-secondary institutions expect generative AI will become a normal part of post-secondary education within a few years, according to a report by the Canadian Digital Learning Research Association (CDLRA).

Respondents to two CDLRA surveys also expect that technology used in post-secondary education will continue to increase, including hybrid learning, online learning and greater technology use in all modalities.

The most common types of technology being used in teaching and learning are learning management systems to facilitate interactions, online polling and quizzes, and video-based technologies, according to the report. Extended reality technologies such as virtual and augmented reality are rarely used.

The Pan-Canadian Report on Digital Learning, written by Nicole Johnson (photo at left), CDLRA’s executive director and director of research, is based on the findings of two surveys conducted in the spring and the fall of 2024.

Respondents held a range of roles at all types of Canadian post-secondary institutions (universities, colleges, polytechnics and CEGEPS), and included administrators, teaching and learning leaders, instructional designers and educational developers, institutional researchers, library services staff, student support staff and educational technology specialists.

The results show that of all modalities, hybrid learning is expected to be growing at the fastest rate.

The findings also suggest an overarching perception that fully online offerings will grow faster than in-person offerings over the next two years. In-person and multi-access courses are expected to grow, albeit at a slower pace than online and hybrid approaches.

Respondents viewed the need to accommodate competing priorities as the main reason why students choose to learn online, whereas a desire for interaction is the primary reason students choose to learn in person.

In the spring survey, the vast majority of respondents (87 percent) agreed to some extent that they were interested in adopting new technologies into their teaching practices, and a considerable majority (78 percent) also agreed that they would like to have the option to teach online some of the time.

According to respondents, academic integrity is the most pressing teaching and learning challenge at their institutions, followed by faculty fatigue and burnout.

The impact on faculty workload and technology infrastructure is the most pressing operational challenge, according to administrators at post-secondary institutions.

Confidence in faculty skills and know-how to teach in different modalities decreases as modality-specific technological demands increase, the report says.

Lots of pessimism about the future of post-secondary education

Respondents were invited to leave an open-ended response sharing their reasons for optimism or pessimism about the future of post-secondary education.

The responses associated with feelings of pessimism mentioned factors such as:

• A lack of government funding.
• Inadequate supports for faculty to enable them to better support students.
• The sense that Canada’s current post-secondary education system is unsustainable (including mention of overreliance on international student fees).
• A lowering of educational standards and the observation that students today are not coming out of K-12 prepared for post-secondary education in comparison to the past.
• The feeling that post-secondary education is becoming more transactional (for example, payment for credits as opposed to a genuine interest in learning) and a lower societal interest in post-secondary education.
• Concerns about job market changes that will lead to a devaluing of post-secondary credentials.
• Concern that post-secondary education is adapting too slowly to technological advancements within society, including a sense of frustration that some faculty and administrators seem unwilling to embrace technology.
• Poor management at the institutional level and inequitable workloads.
• A lack of permanent faculty positions.
• Concerns about AI.

The majority of respondents (54 percent) expect the future of post-secondary education to be somewhat different from the current state.

An additional 28 percent of respondents expect the future to be very different, while 16 percent of respondents expect only slight change. Hardly any respondents expect post-secondary education in five years' time to be the same as now.

However, contrary to the narrative that massive change is occurring in higher education, the 2024 CDLRA findings show that while technology use in teaching and learning is increasing, it is mostly applied to widely available technologies (such as LMS platforms, video-conferencing or recording tools, and GenAI), the report says.

The ways that these tools are used in post-secondary education appear to be more about improving efficiency and accessibility (for example, using digital technology to make learning more accessible for the broader population) rather than developing novel and innovative practices, according to the report. “In other words, digital technologies are being used to tweak educational practices rather than revolutionize them.”

The COVID-19 pandemic was an inflection point in digital technology use within post-secondary education and within society in general, the report notes.

Restrictions on in-person gatherings meant that many people became more comfortable using technologies to work and learn remotely.

“Nearly five years later, we certainly see the imprint of pandemic-related practices on our system, mainly through increased demand for more flexible learning options that rely on the use of digital communication tools and platforms.”

Technological advances that enable students to complete assessments from their own homes and the availability of GenAI to students are gradually provoking conversations about improved teaching and assessment practices in response to academic integrity concerns, according to the report.

But, arguably, learning and assessment practices themselves aren’t dramatically different than they were in 2019, the report says. “Changes are happening across the sector, but they do not appear to be happening at a rapid pace.”

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