Autoethnography as an authentic learning activity in online doctoral education:An integrated approach to authentic learning

Under the constructivist learning paradigm, which emphasises authenticity as a required condition for learning, distance educators have been striving to create authentic learning environments that reflect the real world. However, it is inevitably challenging to make an online learning environment authentic for learners when it is ultimately separated from their real-life contexts. Particularly, in online doctoral education, given the diversity among online learners, even defining “what is real and to whom” is a difficult task. This paper argues that the epistemological approach to authentic learning, based on the constructivist learning paradigm, is not sufficient to make online learning “authentically” meaningful. The paper introduces an alternative, ontological approach stemming from the transformative learning paradigm, and suggests autoethnography as one authentic learning activity that can effectively integrate the epistemological and ontological approaches to authentic learning in online doctoral education. Such a comprehensive conceptualisation of authentic learning, as an integrated process of both knowing and becoming, allows each doctoral student to become a more authentic self across their learning and living environments

What are student inservice teachers talking about in their online Communities of Practice?:investigating student inservice teachers’ experiences in a double-layered CoP

This qualitative case study is the first phase of a large-scale design-based research project to implement a theoretically derived double-layered CoP model within real-world teacher development practices. The main goal of this first iteration is to evaluate the courses and test and refine the CoP model for future implementations. This paper demonstrates the potential synergies between two major approaches to teacher professional development practices: i) teachers’ CoPs development and ii) online teacher education courses. The double-layered CoP model could provide a practical integration of the two approaches by providing student inservice teachers in an online graduate course with meaningful opportunities to participate in two different teachers’ CoPs: i) an internal course CoP and ii) an external professional CoP. Our analysis of student inservice teachers’ CoPs experiences shows that the two layers of CoPs supported each other iteratively through the course period. Several design considerations for the second iteration of the online course design are also addressed

Debating the status of ‘theory’ in technology enhanced learning research: Introduction to the Special Inaugural Issue

This Inaugural Special Issue of Studies in Technology Enhanced Learning has a particular focus on ‘theory’—a contentious matter. Occasionally disparaged as obscure, or alienating, it seems fair to say that theory has never been so deeply embedded in Technology Enhanced Learning (TEL) research as it has become in many other areas of scholarship. One reason is that TEL is often conceived as a ‘practical’ field, with ‘theory’ negatively counterposed against other priorities: methodological innovation, ‘evidence’, ‘best practice’, or, more recently, imperatives towards being ‘data driven’. Furthermore, the use of theory can often be a stumbling block for many novice researchers: even those inclined towards ambition in their use of theory can struggle in getting to grips with the attendant vocabularies, or when actually using particular theories in their own research. Many may come to wonder whether doing so is really worth the effort. The impetus for the present issue is a contention that ‘theory’ really matters for TEL. That contention is widely shared by members of the Centre for Technology Enhanced Learning , a research centre at Lancaster University, UK, which, while part of the Department of Educational Research, has members drawn from a variety of disciplines. Indeed, the initial idea for the issue grew out of a longstanding sequence of discussions within the Centre—which the two present authors, at the time of writing, jointly direct—which have expressed a desire to emphasise the importance of ‘theory’ to others. One earlier idea, for example, had been for the Centre to write a “report” on theory in TEL research. The current Special Issue was taken up, instead, as we came to realise that the idea of collectively writing about ‘theory’ might dovetail with the idea of launching an open-access journal, and that a Special Issue might allow for a more multi-vocal consideration of the subject matter

Studies in Technology Enhanced Learning: A project of scholarly conversation

Starting a new academic journal is, at any time and in any academic field, a serious venture: some might say audacious. How will the journal recruit and persuade those with the time and inclination to write for it? Will it find any kind of readership among its target audience? What mechanisms will it use for production, and what effect will those have on how authors publish, and readers access, its content? How will it differentiate itself from other titles in the area? In this editorial, we seek to address questions of that nature in respect of the new journal Studies in Technology Enhanced Learning. Clearly, it would be both premature and presumptuous to suggest, within an editorial appearing in the inaugural issue, that we have attained any kind of success in relation to the challenges attendant upon establishing a new title. Yet we do contend that the concept behind the journal is novel for the field of technology enhanced learning (TEL). On the basis of that concept—a ‘scholarly conversation’ with the particular characteristics of critical integration, self-awareness and connectedness, all terms that we elaborate below—we aspire to mobilise and nurture a community of researchers around the journal. By doing so, we wish, in turn, to intervene to challenge the existing body of knowledge on TEL, and to develop the field into a more recognisably ‘scholarly’ area of enquiry

Everyone already has their community beyond the screen:Reconceptualising learning and expanding boundaries

Under a prominent recent regime of online education, often represented in the scholarship as a “social constructive learning paradigm”, learning is defined as a social practice that involves a group of students actively participating in collaborative knowledge construction processes. Pedagogical theories and strategies developed and utilised in that regime focus extensively on enabling student-to-student interaction and building communities of learners in online learning environments. In this context, where the notions of “collaborative” learning and learning “community” have gained substantial legitimacy from relevant theoretical traditions, other beliefs about meaningful learning are likely to be harshly criticised or, at best, simply neglected. However, it is not at all difficult to notice a gap between the accepted theoretical ideas of effective online learning and actual pedagogical practices in most online education institutions. Here, I aim to reduce that theory-practice gap by reconceptualising online learning using a double-layered Community of Practice (CoP) model. That module conceptualises online learning as interlinked processes of participation and socialisation in multiple communities across internal and external or online and offline “layers” of learners’ lives. The model helps online course designers and instructors to expand the boundaries of their course environments or designs to reach out to students’ personal and professional lives and to make sense of online learning experiences that are shaped by their interactions with other members of different communities outside the course environments. Using data, three students’ narratives, collected from a series of case studies on learners’ learning experiences in three different types of online courses (or programmes), this article effectively demonstrates how difficult it is to develop a strong CoP nested and sustained within online learning environments, which usually have a close finish. The article further argues that it may be useful for instructional designers to expend their view on learning environment to include distance learners’ life situations beyond their computer screens. Everyone has their own community in which they naturally learn, develop, and live with other members outside the courses. Thus, rather than putting so much effort to form a community inside our learning environment, we may want to think about more effectively support our students to form a stronger and more sustainable community in their lives through being engaged in learning activities in our course

Reconceptualising a good teacher in SMART education:A Foucauldian Critical Discourse Analysis

While using technology in the classroom has been taken for granted as ‘good thing’ or ‘smart thing’, improving students learning, many teacher educators have argued teachers need to develop technology-related professionality. Teachers have been trained to teach with technology for many years, but many teachers still seem to find the effective integration of technology in their teaching challenging and it is yet rare to see smart enough classroom practices. This research aims to understand, based on Foucault’s theoretical notions of ‘discourse’ and ‘power’, the formation of such a gap between the technology-focused educational claims and the actual reality of teachers’ educational practices. The study is situated in a specific educational context of promoting an idea of “SMART education” in South Korea. It will closely investigate a set of claims about technology, teaching, and teachers in the SMART education discourse and their construction, circulation, and influences on teachers’ practices by collecting and analysing language use in various texts. An ultimate purpose of the study is to deconstruct the taken-for-granted assumptions related to the SMART education, which seem to impose certain pedagogical ideas upon teachers, which may not support teachers’ classroom practices in reality

The Introduction of a Double-Layered Community of Practice Model:A New Conceptualisation of Online Learning

The authenticity is a required condition for learning. However, the design of an authentic online learning environment, which is ultimately separate from learners’ real-life environments, is inevitably challenging. This presentation will propose an alternative way of conceptualising online learning and its boundaries, based on a double-layered Community of Practice model as a means to facilitate constructivist online learning. The model conceptualises online learning as interlinked processes of participation and socialisation in multiple communities across online- and offline-“layers” of learners’ everyday lives. The model guides online course designers in expanding the perceived boundaries of the course environments they design to include learners’ offline learning contexts and local living conditions. Instead of having an exclusive focus on providing learners with constructivist learning opportunities within a non-authentic course environment, the model suggests helping learners to engage in more personalised social learning activities situated in their everyday lives. The presentation will draw on a large set of qualitative data collected from a series of case studies that have examined adult students’ distance learning experiences in different kinds of online courses. In doing so, the presentation will effectively demonstrate how difficult it is to develop a strong CoP nested and sustained within online learning environments, which usually have a close finish. The author will further argue that it may be useful for instructional designers to expend their view on learning environment to include distance learners’ life situations beyond their computer screens. Everyone has their own community in which they naturally learn, develop, and live with other members outside the courses. Thus, rather than putting so much effort to form a community inside online learning environment, we may want to think about more effectively support students to form a stronger and more sustainable community in their lives through being engaged in learning activities in our course

Discourses and realities of online higher education:a history of [discourses of] online education in Canada’s Open University

My dissertation research aims to develop a comprehensive account for the current state of online higher education beyond the common social and educational expectations about the adoption of online education. Online education, according to dominant discourses in higher education, is commonly expected to (a) enhance educational accessibility to university education and (b) improve the quality of university instruction. And, this expectation further produces an imperative for its rapid adoption across all higher education institutions. However, my research fundamentally challenges these two rhetorical discourses, by providing an in-depth description of the disjunction between such discourses and the realities of praxis. Drawing on key concepts from Michel Foucault and Mikhail Bakhtin, I trace the historical development of these two discourses as two institutional principles of openness and innovation in an open university. The complex relationships between the institutional discourses and peoples’ practices, mediated by multiple factors are carefully addressed. My analysis reveals that multiple understandings of openness and innovation co-exist within the university, and members take different pedagogical approaches to online education according to their own understanding of those two principles. As a result, openness and innovation often conflict with each other at the operational level, and the conflict is also visible within the ongoing struggles between instructors and learning designers, with regard to the adoption of a particular form of online pedagogical practices. In summary, my findings demonstrate how the adoption of online education may introduce new problems and potentially oppressive power relationships among stakeholders in higher education, unlike the rhetorical claims that simply promote online education as a revolutionary solution for diverse social and educational problems. This disjunction continues to increase and is intensified by the existing instructional theory-practice gap in the academic field of online higher education. I urge that researchers and educators in online higher education as a united group, to make a collective effort to better understand and resolve the ongoing conflicts among the stakeholders and ultimately better serve our online students

Openness and innovation in online higher education:A historical review of the two discourses

This article tackles a critical question of “to what extent can online higher education (HE) be open and innovative at the same time?” To provide a more comprehensive answer to the question, the author takes up a notion of discourse and situates the analysis in a specific online HE setting: Athabasca University (AU). In this article, the author first unpacks how the openness and innovation discourses originally emerged in AU throughout its early years and how the original conceptualization of the two and their relationships have shifted in the more recent years. The results demonstrate that there has been an increasing level of discontinuity between the conceptualization of openness and innovation as independent principles and the operationalization of the two as competing principles in course design practices in AU. Being fully open to diverse student groups and being technologically innovative by integrating a state-of-the-art technology cannot be achieved in a single online course. In addition, being pedagogically innovative by increasing interactivity among students while maintaining the same level of flexibility provided by the independent study model seems very challenging. This article also discusses the institutional conditions that make teaching-oriented innovation more difficult to be achieved

Rethinking the accessibility of online higher education:a historical review

The rapid growth in online higher education, in terms of course offerings and student enrollment, has often been celebrated on the grounds that moving education online is an innovative way to increase the accessibility of university education. This article problematizes a range of assumptions that underpin those claims. To do so, two concepts are deployed: “authentic accessibility” and “programmatic definition”, each of which encourages us to examine actual practice rather than aspirations. This article further deconstructs the commonly held perceptions of online education by presenting conflicting discourses about the purposes of distance education, the characteristics of distance students, and the technologies that have mediated distance education throughout its historical development. The findings highlight the increasing multiplicity of online education practices and realities, and the limitations of typical conceptualizations of those phenomena, which have historically conceptualized distance education as a single domain. The article calls for a more sophisticated approach to considering the quality of online higher education, a value judgement which continuously needs to be understood and discussed in relation to the complex and multi-dimensional issues of increasing the accessibility of university education