Capturing the invisible: Non-institutional technologies in undergraduate learning within three New Zealand universities

Abstract

Research in Internet-enabled learning tends to focus on technologies implemented by institutions or staff. In reality, students learn with technologies that go beyond institutional offerings. This misalignment risks universities' approaches to online technologies being partially relevant to student learning. To understand student experiences, we followed hermeneutic phenomenology, interviewing 22 students from three New Zealand universities. Content and thematic analyses showed that students used non-institutional technologies to augment institutional offerings. They experienced institutional technologies as being overloaded with information, and non-institutional technologies as enabling them to process information expediently and take control of their own learning. We also identified differences between high and low-achieving students in technology use, which were associated with motivation, awareness of technologies, and metacognition. Our study highlights the role of non-institutional technologies in learning, which has implications for future research, for the design and implementation of institutional technologies, and for preparing students to learn with technologies.