By Pubudu Gunawardhana (Learning Technologist, Curriculum Development)
What students are telling us
Every year, the Jisc Digital Experience Insights survey provides data on how students are experiencing their learning. This year, two key themes stood out: students want access to teaching materials before their sessions, and they want to be able to access recorded teaching sessions afterwards. What strikes me about these comments is that students are not asking for less work or for teaching to be made easier. They are asking for the conditions that allow them to engage more deeply and more independently. That is a significant distinction, and it is one that two of our core digital learning commitments are directly designed to support.
Our commitments
Providing students with access to teaching materials at least 24 hours before a session is one of the simplest ways to support preparation, confidence, and meaningful engagement (UoD Digital Learning Baseline: Teaching session content available at least 24 hours in advance).
Equally, access to recorded teaching sessions—or an alternative digital summary where recording is not appropriate—enables students to revisit key concepts and learn more flexibly at their own pace (UoD Digital Learning Baseline: All teaching sessions will be recorded).
Taken together, these two practices create something more than a before-and-after structure for content delivery. They create the conditions for a continuous and self-directed learning cycle — and the research on how students learn helps explain why this matters so much.
A self-regulated learning perspective
Barry Zimmerman’s model of self-regulated learning describes how effective learners do not simply receive information — they actively plan, monitor, and reflect on their own learning processes. Zimmerman identifies three phases: forethought, performance, and self-reflection. What is compelling about these two practices is how naturally they map onto each of these phases.
During the session itself — Zimmerman’s performance phase — students who have already encountered the material are better positioned to monitor their own understanding in real time. They can compare what they thought they knew with what they are now hearing, identify the gaps, and engage more purposefully with discussion and activity. The session becomes a space for testing and deepening understanding rather than simply receiving it for the first time.
After the session, recorded teaching supports Zimmerman’s self-reflection phase. Students can return to content that was challenging, revisit explanations that they did not fully grasp and consolidate their learning before assessments. Self-regulated learners are not simply motivated — they are strategic. They make choices about when and how to revisit material based on their own assessment of where they need to improve. Recordings give students the raw material to be strategic in exactly this way.
Supporting every student
The benefits of this approach extend well beyond learning theory. When we design with advance access and recorded sessions as standard, we are not making special provision for particular groups — we are making good teaching more accessible to everyone.
Consider the range of students in a typical cohort. A student with a specific learning difficulty may need more time to process complex material before engaging with it in a fast-paced session. An international student navigating highly technical content in their second or third language may need to hear an explanation more than once before it fully makes sense. A commuter student travelling for 90 minutes each way may only have time to engage with preparatory material on their phone during the journey. A student managing caring responsibilities alongside their studies may need the flexibility to revisit a missed session at 10pm rather than 10am.
None of these students is asking for a lower academic standard. They are asking for the flexibility to meet the standard we set for them.
From expectation to design principle
It can be tempting to read these practices as operational requirements — items to tick off before the semester begins. The student feedback suggests something more interesting. Students who commented on these themes were describing, in their own words, how they learn. They were telling us that preparation and review are integral to how they engage with their studies, and that when these are not available, their ability to learn is genuinely diminished.
That reframes what these practices ask of us. Uploading slides 24 hours in advance is a simple act. But behind it is a design decision: to treat student preparation as a legitimate and valued part of the learning process. Recording a teaching session takes a moment to enable. But behind it is a commitment: to extend the reach of teaching beyond the walls of the room and the hour of the session.
When we view advance access and recorded teaching through this lens, they stop being requirements and start being principles — ones that are grounded in evidence, shaped by student experience, and oriented toward the kind of inclusive, flexible, student-centred learning environment we are working to build together.
References:
Zimmerman, B. J. (2002). Becoming a self-regulated learner: An overview. Theory Into Practice, 41(2), 64–70. https://doi.org/10.1207/S15430421TIP4102_2