The Universities and Colleges Information Systems Association (UCISA) have just released a report on the outcomes of the 2008 survey on the use of technology enhanced learning in the UK Further and Higher Education sectors. 

There’s a wealth of valuable information here, particularly when viewed in the context of the surveys conducted in 2001, 2003 and 2005.  Like the 2008 Horizon Report, streaming media, mobile computing, and podcasting and other Web 2.0 activities are identified as major trends emerging as support priorities, with use of eassessment, eportfolios, blogs and wikis being surprisingly prevalent.

The statistics for VLE use within institutions are of particular interest.  In response to the question ‘what VLE, if any, is currently used in your institution?’, Moodle has a clear lead over second-placed BlackBoard; however, when looking at enterprise-wide adoptions Moodle is in a very poor third place behind BlackBoard and WebCT, suggesting that while community-based open source solutions effectively meet pedagogic needs at departmental level, institutional management may prefer the apparent security of lock-in to traditional vendor-and-client models.

Eassessment systems are also addressed.  Eassessment tools are the most common centrally supported systems used by students, followed by blogs, podcasting and with eportfolios in fourth place.  Respondents identified BlackBoard as the most commonly used eassessment system, followed by QuestionMark Perception, but this result should be viewed with caution as BlackBoard was also identified as the most commonly used blogging tool despite the fact ‘that BlackBoard does not have a hosted blogging tool’.  The report suggests that respondents may be confusing the VLE itself with third party plugins such as Learning Objects, which does at least suggest a seamless user experience

There’s a great deal more intriguing information in the report, including full data from the 2008 survey and a longitudinal analysis between the 2001, 2003, 2005 and 2008 surveys.