Research in Digital Learning in Higher Education

A critical hermeneutic approach to analysing online discussions

2025-02-17T12:21:55+00:00

For three decades, the internet has played host to an increasing number of open public forums, where opinions are formed and action instigated (Graham, 2015; Persily, 2017). My current doctoral work explores how students engage in one such online space, and the implications this may have for educators looking to improve students’ capacity to communicate well online. This presentation will outline my development of a methodology based on critical theory—in particular Jürgen Habermas’ Theory of Communicative Action (1984, 1987)—to conduct a novel type of discourse analysis that treats text-based asynchronous online discussion as both person-to-person interaction and as publication.

Bridging design prototypes (BDPs)

2025-03-21T10:19:27+00:00

For sustainable and equitable education in flexible learning, design of learning resources should start with understanding needs, wants, and context of each member of a classroom community. So, teaching staff and learners can relate or connect to each other in this shared educational experience. Maintaining learners motivated, rigor in the classroom, managing disruption, and retaining diverse learners requires changes in how technology is used, curriculum is designed, and students understood (Bovill & Woolmer, 2019; Porter et al., 2024; Vaughan et al., 2023).

Designing for one-size-fits-all might not bring about meaningful learning and foster connection for students who could be time-starved, reside outside of main centres, studying while working, caretaking or with disabilities. In a face-to-face classroom, teaching staff more often than not tend to adapt, transform, and innovate resources to account for student diversities. The same tendency should be possible in an online classroom. So, the relevance of these resources to learning outcomes are not devalued by students due to a perceived lack of understanding of their circumstances or conditions.

To support digital access and equity, it has been recommended to “include human-centred design [HCD] in the construction of culturally sensitive, accessible, flexible learning” (G. Gomez et al., 2022, p. 27). The bridging design prototype (BDP) approach is a human-centred design method for individual designers or small organisations with incomplete multidisciplinary teams and limited resources. A bridging design prototype is a fully functional rapid prototype built with features familiar to a user community and with novel features that a designer incorporates after careful analysis of relevant data. It capitalises on a user community’s prior knowledge (i.e. the knowledge a user already has about a situation or an activity) and recognises their context realities. These characteristics bring user communities into the development process early while a designer or team employs it for learning about the user community, the context and the practice. Experimentations should not require the presence of designers. By functional, it means all features should operate. But, BDPs are not necessarily minimum viable products, as the digital or tangible materials with which they are built could have a limited lifespan (Gomez et al., 2020).

Informed by concepts drawn from four design methods and one learning theory (figure 1), this approach emerged during my doctoral research and enabled the development of a BDP for preschool concept mapping that teachers would accept to incorporate into real activities with their children. This BDP (also known as the Authoring Kit for Preschool Concept Mapping) helped me (the designer) gain entry to real settings and made it possible to investigate issues in preschool concept mapping from an interaction design perspective (Gomez, 2010). Outside of my own research, early childhood experts have used it to inform their own concept mapping research on metacognitive skills and science education (Cassata-Widera, 2008; Cassata-Widera, 2009) or promote bottom-up adoption of concept maps as a new didactic tool to teach children with speech impairments (Kicken et al., 2016). A critical reflection on the work of Kicken et al. showed that the BDP approach might be useful in autonomous design projects seeking community design, decentring external designer participation, and enabling users (i.e. teaching staff) to become designers of their own interactive applications (Gomez, 2020).

In higher education, this approach has been used to research suitable technology to enhance engagement, feedback, and connection in asynchronous distance education (Gloria Gomez et al., 2022). This technology has enabled health professions (midwifery and ophthalmology) to carry out “co-creation in the curriculum” that is co-design of learning and teaching within and the duration of the course (Bovill & Woolmer, 2019). Student-led assignments can be in the form of asynchronous online journal clubs and wiki projects provide opportunities for students and academic staff (Gomez et al., 2024; Petsoglou & Stoop, 2020). Work placement experience discussion documents promote connectedness and network learners with other learners, and with lecturers and experts (Daellenbach et al., 2022).

To enhance uptake and dissemination of learning resources in an academic institution, BDPs were developed using self-publishing technologies or “non-designer” software: a website and resources for first year students (Gomez & van der Meer, 2010), a teaching profile booklet, and videos for tutoring and demonstrating.

Seeing my colleagues (i.e., primary teachers, speech therapists, and support staff) improving BDPs on their own or replacing them with a completely new prototype made evident to me that this approach could enable teaching staff to design their own novel educational resources with little or no participation from an external designer. Weiner et al. (2020) provide a reason: “everybody who works in education is a designer, though they may be working in different design spaces, each requiring different specificities of expertise, background knowledge, tools, and practices” (p. 781).

The diagram (figure 1) provides a step-by-step guide showing how the BDP principles are organised and interact with each other during the human-centred design process of an educational resource (Gomez, 2023). These six principles could guide/help teaching staff individually or in collaboration to:

Carry out careful analysis of relevant data to inform resource design.
Develop resources with features familiar to all members of a classroom community to enhance adoption.
Determine when novel features should be included as part of a resource design, and plan for extra support if needed.
Inform feature design based on a good understanding of the prior knowledge and the context realities of students and teachers alike, including those with diverse cognitive, physical, and socio-cultural capabilities.

This approach might be significant to current research in digital learning because teaching staff wanting could use it to innovate their teaching practices (Cook & Cook, 2023; Luongo & Case, 2023; Porter et al., 2024) while they collaborate with their learners to design for “one size does not fit all”. Vaughan et al. (2023, p. 13) have related this phrase to Gordon’s statement that says “the balance between face-to-face learning and online learning differs, depending on the nature of a university, the context in which it sits, and the nature of different subjects and how they are typically taught” (2021, p. 1).

An investigation into the mechanics and affordances of digital escape rooms

2025-02-18T09:45:40+00:00

Increasing in popularity, escape rooms offer an educational opportunity to offer such activities in the classroom. Digital escape rooms take aspects of physical escape rooms and apply them to digital environments using technological affordances and technically mediated devices such as computers, mobile devices and VR headsets. This work-in-progress paper investigates game mechanics and the affordances (Norman, 2013) of digital escape rooms to understand how players are engaged in play in digital escape rooms. This has been explored through a small-scale qualitative study of eight ‘educators’ with experience of escape room play. Semi-structured interviews were used to identify examples of mechanics used to engage players in digital escape rooms and their associated affordances. Through thematic analysis several game mechanics and their affordances were identified. Participants demonstrated particular interest in spatial mechanics which is an exploration in this paper. The findings indicate that digital tools offer opportunities to increase access, flexibility and create mixed reality experiences for players. Manipulating digital spatial boundaries enhances player immersion and interaction with digital tools, creating opportunities for discovery, teamworking and adventure. These findings offer insights into design implications for digital escape rooms for use in education.

Moving Beyond the Comfort Space

2025-03-03T14:17:43+00:00

This paper showcases work in progress currently being carried out to explore ways generative artificial intelligence (gen AI) can support post-secondary instructors. The study is taking place on a campus located on the west coast of Canada. The methodological approach selected is participatory action research; an instructor is collaborating with two graduate students to review the learning activities and assessment tasks present in two Masters of Education courses taught by the principal investigator. The team is using prompt engineering to explore ways to implement Universal Design for Learning (UDL) more widely within these components. The gen AI are being reviewed collectively for their fitness to purpose. A set of graduate students participants having taken these courses in the past, will later be selected to offer feedback as to whether the versions of the courses redeveloped with genAI more effectively meet the needs of diverse learners. It is hoped that the study will highlight the degree to which instructors can rely on genAI to explore UDL in more depth and select strategies that otherwise remain outside of their habitual zone of comfort in relation to inclusion.

Helping Students to Improve the Standard of Their Writing with Generative AI

2025-03-21T08:02:29+00:00

The University of Sunderland has been partnering with Studiosity for the past three years to provide an additional student support service which helps students to improve the quality of their academic writing. Their Writing Feedback service offers students the opportunity to submit draft pieces of writing for feedback on their grammar, level of writing, referencing, etc., with the feedback being provided by academic staff recruited from leading institutions throughout the world on a 24/7/365 basis, in under 24 hours.

In response to the mainstream adoption of generative artificial intelligence software solutions, Studiosity have developed the Writing Feedback+ service where student’s work is evaluated by AI, with the major benefit that feedback can now be provided to students in near real time.

As part of the development process for this new service, Sunderland were offered a pro bono trial for up to six months, and for use with a discrete cohort of up to 5,000 students. We chose to use this between May and August 2024 on our distance learning service which has approximately 4,000 students. This paper will examine the trial in more detail and explore some of the data which is now available on student usage and feedback.

Utilising Virtual Reality for Enhanced Police Training and Development

2025-02-17T12:14:59+00:00

Utilising Virtual Reality for Enhanced Police Training and Development

The use of Virtual Reality (VR) in policing degree programs offers a transformative approach to teaching various elements of modern policing, from digital investigations to domestic violence scenarios[1].

VR provides immersive, 360-degree environments that simulate real-world scenarios, allowing students to experience situations in a classroom they might encounter as police officers. This experiential learning enhances engagement and knowledge retention compared to traditional lectures or role-playing.[2]

VR can create simulated crime scenes involving digital devices, allowing students to practice forensic techniques in a safe and controlled environment. They can learn to identify, evaluate and collect, digital evidence, such as computers, mobile phones, USB’s, SIM cards and other digital devices.[3]

VR can simulate domestic violence scenarios, enabling students to practice de-escalation techniques, assess risk factors, and understand the dynamics of abusive relationships. This can be particularly valuable in developing empathy and improving decision-making in high-stress situations.[4]

One key aspect is a focus on the efficiencies of conducting VR in a simulated environment rather than a real-world setting. This eliminates physical room setup challenges and allows for individual participation at a time, which can be scaled to save time, space, and resources. Additionally, it supports reflective practice, as there is no requirement to be on location. However, it is important to acknowledge that this approach may not be suitable for everyone, and alternative options—such as a URL-based solution—should be available to ensure inclusivity.

In today's economic climate, cost and time efficiency are crucial. Solutions can significantly reduce training overheads by reducing the repetitive time instructors spend facilitating scenario-based role-play activities.

VR has the potential to transform policing education by providing immersive, realistic, and engaging learning experiences. By incorporating VR into their programs, universities can better prepare students for the challenges of modern policing and equip them with the skills and knowledge they need to serve their communities effectively.

The workshop will showcase how these VR scenarios provide a safe and controlled environment for students to learn and practice essential policing skills, enhancing their preparedness for real-world challenges. We are eager to gather feedback from participants on their experiences with these VR scenarios. This feedback will be invaluable in further refining and improving the use of VR technology within our policing education programs.

We would welcome the opportunity to discuss this all further through the workshop and explore how these approaches could be implemented effectively.

After a hands-on demonstration of the differing platforms and scenarios, we invite participants to engage in further discussion to explore the effectiveness and practicalities of implementing these approaches.

[1] College of Policing. (n.d.). Using virtual reality to educate students about staying safe. Retrieved from https://www.college.police.uk/support-forces/practices/using-virtual-reality-educate-students-about-staying-safe.

[2] Meyer, O., et al. (2019). Virtual reality for police training: A systematic review. Computers in Human Behavior, 92, 278-291.

[3] Jarmon, L., et al. (2021). Virtual reality training for digital forensics investigators. Digital Investigation, 36, 101062.

[4] Antser. (n.d.). Antser VR Programme for Frontline Policing. Retrieved from https://www.antser.com/antser-vr-programme-police/.

Exploring AI and the future of digital learning through fiction

2025-03-03T14:23:56+00:00

Introduction. The increasing integration of AI in higher education necessitates nuanced discussions, to move us beyond simplistic utopian / dystopian narratives (Bearman, Ryan & Ajjawi, 2022; Hermann, 2023). These binary views significantly influence perceptions, design, and development of AI, often overlooking crucial social contexts. The assumption that technology offers easy solutions (Andrews, 2015), coupled with a sense of technological inevitability, ignores critical concerns about dehumanization (Reid, 2014), loss of agency, and the potential for exacerbated inequalities (Blythe et al., 2016). By creatively imagining future uses of AI (Selwyn, 2020; Houlden & Veletsianos, 2023; Cox, 2021), we can gain critical insights into the present, creating proactive engagement with the practice and politics of digital technologies in higher education, rather than passive acceptance.

Aims for the session. The workshop uses a participatory workshop format centred around creative writing prompts, using the relatable example of AI agents. AI agents are systems delegated to independently make decisions on our behalf (Maedche et al., 2019). These systems have the potential to support productivity and free up time for more meaningful work (Khaokaew et al., 2022). The workshop posits that using fiction offers a unique space, detached from current realities, to examine underlying perceptions about this emerging technology. Our questions are: What do the fictional writing tasks reveal about participants’ expectations and hopes for AI agents in learning? How do participants envision changes to the core dynamics of teaching and learning, such as personalisation, or collaboration? What values emerge from participants' fictional narratives as important for guiding the development and use of AI agents in education?

Expected outcomes. Building on findings from prior workshops (Dixon & Cox, 2025), we anticipate that the fictional prompts will enable participants to articulate their hopes and concerns more openly than traditional formats. We expect participants' responses to reveal a complex interplay of anxieties (e.g., job displacement, algorithmic bias, eroded human connection) and aspirations (e.g., enhanced personalised learning, increased accessibility). By surfacing these often-unspoken concerns, the workshop will create thoughtful dialogue about the ethical and practical implications of AI in digital learning.

Plan for engagement. The workshop will include a brief overview of the research and an explanation of the fictional prompt activity. Participants will engage in several short writing exercises, followed by sharing their reflections in a facilitated group discussion. We will conclude by exploring the usefulness of fiction in this context. Consent will be sought to analyse the anonymised written responses for a future research article. The findings will contribute to understanding the perceptions and limitations of AI agents, empowering stakeholders to adopt a purpose-driven rather than technology-first attitude to technology implementation.

Strap in you’re at Banford now!

2025-03-21T10:28:19+00:00

As higher education continues to reel from pandemic, austerity policies, generative AI (GAI) tools, and a war on DEI work, we are witnessing the impacts of polycrisis. Leaders across the sector have argued for snapping back to the powerful experiences of face-to-face (and the leveraging of the billions spent on infrastructure to sustain those experiences). In 2025 we continue to hear from venture capitalists selling digital tools that they say heralds “efficient” academic work, “the irrelevance of assessment”, and “the death of the essay”. Arguments about rigour in measuring a student’s learning, and the role of GAI tools in the workplaces of the future (or, now?) fuel calls for analogue assessment over digital flexibility.

This immersive and playful workshop is set in September 2025. We’ve been through some of the most disruptive times for education in a generation. Through that disruption we saw glimmers of the bright future that digital has been promising since we first had access to computers. Now those working at the forefront of online and digital are faced with demands for physical teaching and pen-and-paper exams. Voices of politicians, senior academics, and administrators are filled with reverie for an imperfect analogue past, railing against all that is digital, whilst simultaneously senior leaders, and governments pay homage to the silicon valley ideology, believing that “edtech will save us”.

Participants will assume the role of University of Banford staff, navigating a series of interactive, hyper-reality exercises over the course of the 90 minute workshop to:

Rethink curricula in response to sudden strategic pivots
Address the perceived tensions between analogue and digital practices and approaches to education
Co-create innovative and novel solutions to the challenges that are developed through the exercises.

Using hypothetical scenarios and gamified simulations, delegates will explore the implications of a fully analogue university. They will then work to rebuild a model for a digital-first university reconstructing staffing, skills, and strategic frameworks. Finally, they will experience a version of a postdigital, AI centred institution. Participants will work together to traverse the transitional, uncertain spaces of a post 2020 university using these hyper-realities, to develop a deeper understanding of strategic priorities, and gain insights into the pressure from real world situations. The use of time-limited activities and structured rules to the scenarios will immerse the participants in the imagined, but deeply real world of Banford, to help them navigate their own realities.

Aims and Outcomes

Participants will:

be able to identify the challenges and opportunities of the current higher education landscape, for learning designers, academics, educational developers and technology professionals, particularly in light of the pandemic and the emergence of new digital tools.
be able to co-design strategies for balancing digital and analogue teaching practices and ensuring that innovation in teaching and learning is deeply embedded in institutional strategy.
develop an understanding of the potential threats and opportunities that generative AI tools, such as ChatGPT, pose to online pedagogy and assessment, and the roles of workers across the HE sector.

Exploring the relationship between pedagogic decision-making and digital learning behaviours: activity design

2025-03-03T14:21:39+00:00

This workshop will provide participants with an opportunity to explore how students in digital learning environments behave when prompted to undertake certain types of Learning Activities (as described by frameworks such as ABC Learning Design and OULDI). Participants will use Ketso, a collaborative learning workshop format (fuzzy felt for academics!) to explore and map this relationship and link it back to how pedagogic decisions are articulated by academics/learning designers and understood by students once translated by learning activities.

Outcomes:

Participants will understand the concept the ‘learning behaviours’ and the kinds of behaviours students may undertake in digital learning environments

Participants will collaboratively establish approaches for explaining how pedagogic decisions map onto learning activity design

Participants will map how connections between learning behaviours and pedagogic decision-making could be made

Copyright Anxiety and Digital Learning

2025-03-03T14:23:11+00:00

Digital learning provides a number of benefits to students and educators, but brings with it a number of ethical and legal considerations. Copyright is a particular challenge, because activities which were unproblematic in the classroom or lecture theatre raise a range of questions when transferred online; as we saw during the Covid-19 pandemic (Secker and Morrison, 2020). Is it ‘fair’ to incorporate copyright protected content such as text, music and video into learning materials and who is responsible for making risk-based decisions which could be challenged by a copyright owner?

This workshop will share findings from a recent research study into ‘copyright anxiety’ in higher education, undertaken at City St George’s University of London, Bodleian Libraries, University of Oxford and the University of Alberta in Canada. The research surveyed over 500 members of staff in higher education in the UK and Canada to explore whether copyright law and its interpretation ‘chills’ innovative teaching and research practices.

Our research tested a survey instrument known as the Copyright Anxiety Scale (Wakaruk et al, 2021) and conducted 7 focus groups with 32 staff working in higher education in the UK and Canada. Almost 20 years ago Hobbs et al (2007) reported on the pedagogical costs of “copyright confusion” meaning teaching materials were less effective and there could be the perpetuation of misinformation. Our findings reveal concerns about copyright continue to impact on teaching and learning, research activities and the services that libraries can offer. Almost 60% of UK respondents and 52% of Canadians, reported they worry they do not know enough about copyright and 25% say they have abandoned projects of avoided activities because of copyright issues. We will discuss the impact that copyright has on digital learning activities in higher education.

The workshop presenters have been running regular webinars since the pandemic to support the higher education community and try to ensure copyright is not a barrier to online learning. They also co-Chair the Association for Learning Technology’s Copyright and Online Learning special interest group and have developed several educational games (Secker and Morrison, 2022) to teach about copyright in a playful way.

Workshop aims:

Share findings from the copyright anxiety research
Discuss some of the reasons for copyright anxiety and provide participants with an opportunity to share their own experiences
Consider what institutions and the higher education community can do to build greater levels of understanding about copyright so that it does not unduly restrict digital learning activities in higher education.
Provide an opportunity for participants to share their own ideas about how to address copyright anxiety as part of their own practice.

Workshop: Strategic Development of AI in Teaching and Learning

2025-03-21T10:09:44+00:00

The workshop session will allow participants to take a strategic view of the development of artificial intelligence (AI) in learning and teaching (T&L). No prior knowledge of artificial intelligence will be required, and a range of experience and knowledge will enhance the experience of participants. The workshop design is based on a new ‘lens’ tool which aligns to the Jisc Beyond Blended strategic pillars (Beetham, MacNeill & McGill, 2024). The tool includes prompt questions which will be used to stimulate discussions about AI in blended learning and teaching.

The AI in T&L Strategic Lens is a new adaptation of the existing Jisc Beyond Blended strategic lenses. The lenses are a tool which provide perspectives on designing blended learning and they are positioned within the organisational digital culture and knowledge development components of the Jisc Digital Transformation Framework (McGill, 2023). The lenses were developed by the Jisc Beyond Blended authors (Beetham, MacNeill & McGill, 2024) and include 6 perspectives: holistic strategic issues; learning space design; learning platform design and implementation; teaching time and workload; equality, diversity and inclusion; data collection and analysis. The new AI in T&L Strategic Lens has been created by the workshop facilitator, Alison Purvis, to supplement and complement the existing Jisc Beyond Blended lenses. The development is being shared with the original Beyond Blended authors. The lens been designed to explore strategic aspects of AI in blended learning and teaching. Participants will be able to contextualise their thinking and contributions to discussions based on their role and the strategic projects that they are involved with.

Reimagining learning by playing with paradox and ambiguity

2025-02-18T09:43:27+00:00

Higher education depends upon binary articulations to explain its role, strategies and methods. This paper explores some of the paradoxes that result from this and the apparently contradictory and self-defeating nature that results in an impoverished pedagogy at a time when imaginative pedagogies are needed. (Barnett, 2012) The dependence of the sector on inflexible binary thinking and the dangers of pedagogic obfuscation and misdirection is first explored. Paradox and ambiguity are considered as potentially positive, informing and disruptive framings for reimagining higher education learning environments and practices.
An analytical review of pedagogic innovations is presented as vignettes drawn from longitudinal research into the use of digital technologies, media-enhanced learning spaces, and multimodalities. With reference to ‘pedagogies of ambiguity’ associated with studio-based learning (Vaughan et al. 2008), the paper concludes by making the case for embracing paradox and valuing ambiguity as the basis for a contemporary conception of pedagogy in which individuals are instilled with greater agency.

Becoming a Digital Scholar: the impact of teaching digital literacies and open educational practices on an accredited Master’s programme

2025-02-17T12:54:39+00:00

Drawing on Weller’s (2011) notion of the digital scholar, this research uses phenomenography to explore higher education staff attitudes to digital literacies and open educational practices. Participants completed accredited modules in educational technologies, digital literacies and open practices and the research examined the impact of these modules on their understanding of the terms and their wider academic practices. The study concludes that staff digital literacies are often perceived through the lens of students as ‘digital natives’ (Prensky, 2001). There are four categories of experience in relation to staff digital literacies including some who lack confidence, some who stay in their comfort zone, those who are willing to develop their digital literacies and those who recognise it’s an ongoing process and goes beyond technical skills. Meanwhile most staff have a more limited understanding of open educational practices, some equate it with open access research, but others share the values of openness and find learning about this topic transformational. Limitations include the small sample size, and further research is recommended. The findings suggest that the accredited modules allowed staff to deepen their understanding of critical issues related to how higher education is engaging with digital technologies to support scholarship.

Assessing the confidence of sociology students on using quantitative research methods through Technology Enhanced Learning

2025-03-21T10:22:10+00:00

This research aims to investigate the ways Technology Enhanced Learning can facilitate the learning of quantitative research methods in social sciences degrees. Specifically, how sociologists tend to avoid statistical modules due to anxiety and inadequate teaching methods. Digital competency of sociologists is a crucial debate in the literature and technological developments provide a useful tool for learning, which however in not being exploited enough. This study explores how Computer Based Learning, Computer Assisted Learning and Computer Supported Collaborative learning sessions can address the increased statistics anxiety observed in students that study social sciences.

The analyses corroborated the main assumptions drawn in the relevant literature. Students in social sciences tend to present social anxiety and dissociate from quantitative methods, lacking a crucial tool for their future as social scientists. Technology enhanced learning methods were found to be effective in the acquisition of knowledge and understanding of quantitative methods. Participants highlighted the need of technology to be an integral part in learning, that extended communication between students and teachers is beneficial, that future technologies must be an ongoing part of curriculums and institutions should focus on equipping students with the ability to use digital tools for their future employment.

Consequently, further research is recommended on the ways institutions should respond to the digital transformation of the social sciences and education, on how to integrate new technologies without ignoring the beneficial contribution of current and established methods, and on what the future brings for contemporary social sciences in the dawn of artificial intelligence.

‘The End of Learning Design?’: A critical perspective on the cost/benefit of leadership, transformation, and crisis in higher education

2025-02-17T12:39:38+00:00

This study explores the existential challenges of identity, institutional value, professional status and career progression that have shaped learning design and designers in higher education through sequences of recurring crisis. Drawing on the data from a sequence of co-generative dialogues, it analyses reflections, outputs and iterations on a series of provocative, challenging workshops ran in Europe and Australia in 2023. Each workshop used a fictional university as a catalyst with participants engaging with hyperreal scenarios to examine the future of learning design amid crises. The study concludes that while learning designers demonstrate resilience and adaptability in crisis situations, they also face conflicting and unevenly experienced challenges of marginalisation, job insecurity, and potential obsolescence, both institutionally and personally held. We argue that the sustainability of learning design depends on designers' ability to integrate their roles holistically within universities rather than becoming siloed in technology or support functions. We highlight the need for learning designers to frame their capabilities as opportunities during crises, rather than merely as threat mitigation tools.