Redefining and interrogating pedagogical practices (original) (raw)

When online learning is a must: a case study of emergency remote teaching in higher education

2021

The health crisis caused by COVID-19 has urged face-to-face universities to adapt to the distance-teaching mode. This research seeks to analyse teaching and learning strategies and experiences during the confinement period in the context of the Faculty of Education of the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (N=29 teachers, 227 students). The results reveal that design of the course has reproduced face-to-face practices tending towards content-based learning. Lecturers have experienced difficulties deriving from a lack of digital competence and literacy in online pedagogies and students with reference to the paradigm shift that affect their role and tasks. In conclusion, there are pedagogical and technological changes that are here to stay and that the future of higher education will be hybrid. Teachers are predisposed to continue learning about the use of digital technologies and innovative teaching methods while there is a need to incorporate such competences into educators’ educatio...

The state of Australasian online higher education post-pandemic and beyond

Journal of University Teaching and Learning Practice, 2022

Online learning is not a new phenomenon that had just been discovered in March 2020, it has been developing very strongly for 20+ years. What is new is that we are now realising that what was conceived as being good online learning pedagogy is being challenged by many of the newer student-centred approaches that have evolved in learning and teaching. Not the least because the technologies now allow us to do way more in a more synchronous way, allowing students to work more collaboratively with others. Or maybe it’s more that we have rediscovered some activities that were harder to achieve in the past. Either way, what has also changed in higher education is the emphasis on the student and how providing them with a greater level of agency in their learning presents more traditional educators with new challenges. This paper presents some options for those looking to understand and meet those challenges head on.

Online learning in Australian higher education: Opportunities, challenges and transformations

Student Success, 2019

Higher education is being rapidly transformed by the growth in online learning, with an increasing number of universities worldwide offering degree programs in online, distance modes of study. Australian education has a long history of 'distance education', primarily offered by regional universities. With the digital communication advances of the 21st century, traditional 'correspondence' study has transformed into online learning, with many more universities, both metropolitan and regional, offering undergraduate degree programs that can be completed entirely online. While this can provide a significant opportunity for further widening of participation in higher education, Australian and international research indicates that much needs to be done to improve the higher attrition rates currently associated with online learning. This paper draws on the findings of three separate yet related Australian research projects, to compare student and staff perspectives on ways to improve outcomes in online learning.

The Experience of Remote Teaching in Higher Education: A Scenario of Challenges and Opportunities

Ana Vale , 2023

In March 2020, within a short space of time and no prior preparation, the educational offer of HE institutions shifted from in-person teaching to remote online teaching. All teaching and learning activities started to be conducted through digital platforms and technologies, rarely used before then. This study used qualitative methodology, two data collection instruments were used: semi-structured interviews with 10 teachers from different institutions, and opinion essays about the experience written by 10 students. To analyze the data, we conducted content analysis. The results obtained suggest that this experience of teaching and learning in a digital environment represented a great challenge, both from the teaching point of view and the way students learn. In addition, it boosted the digitalisation of pedagogical action, advocated for more than a decade by the Bologna Process, opening new paths for the reformulation of teaching and learning processes in higher education. This challenging scenario has opened a window of opportunity for a new paradigm of teaching to emerge, based on the use of digital technologies.

Online Pedagogical Practices in the Faculty of Education

This report is a response to local, national and international imperatives in tertiary education. Locally, the Vice-Chancellor, Professor Bill Lovegrove has opened the debate with his request for ideas for improving flexible learning and e-pedagogy as part of a broader initiative of ongoing development at USQ. These efforts are a response to increasingly competitive higher education markets; expectations of transnational education; and the re-conceptualisation of learning communities on a global scale. Nationally, debate surrounds the recent Nelson (2004) report (Backing Australia's Future), which focuses on universities' obligation to demonstrate a strategic commitment to learning and teaching. The report raises a number of critical issues for regional Australian universities such as USQ in the reimagination of the core business of higher education providers and the degree to which they are able to meet the needs of contemporary Australian society. These issues are also being debated internationally with evidence of significant research activity into the role of higher education in postmodern societies and the related studies of lifelong learning, workplace learning, open and flexible learning, adult and continuing education and the impacts of globalization on education.

Learning and teaching reimagined: a new dawn for higher education?

Jisc, 2020

> COVID-19 has fundamentally changed how universities approach learning and teaching > Students, lecturers and leaders see benefits in greater online and blended learning approaches > This may be considered an experimentation phase as we learn about high-quality blended learning at scale 1.1 Learning and teaching is changing COVID-19 caused a digital shift in learning and teaching greater than anything that preceded it. Before March 2020, the overwhelming majority of university teaching was delivered in person, outside those few universities that specialise in online delivery. Our research indicates that, before March 2020, very little university teaching was delivered online. In 2020/2021 almost all lectures are expected to be delivered online, with a blend of online and in-person delivery for seminars and tutorials and priority given to in-person learning for workshops, laboratory practical work and studio work. Leaders expect the balance of face to face and online delivery to even out from 2021/2022 through to 2030. 1 When our country went into lockdown in March 2020, the general conditions for digital acceleration in universities were as favourable as they had ever been: the necessary technology was at a new level of maturity, significant experience had been amassed from previous successes and failures, and staff and students were more digitally aware than ever before.