Flexible Higher Education: Reflections From Expert Experience


Book Description

This unique book analyzes the work of over forty pioneers who helped drive key changes in access to higher education, via distance education. It examines how they defined their challenges, coped with traditionalist resistance, developed new teaching and learning models, and, above all, respected adult learners’ goals and contexts.




EBOOK: Flexible Higher Education: Reflections from Expert Experience


Book Description

"It is both uplifting and challenging. It offers tales of great persistence, self-belief and belief in the community of learners these pioneers were seeking to engage with and influence. It is a wonderful narrative which should be compulsory reading for all those aspiring to influence the shape and content of post-secondary education in their own nations." Widening Participation and Lifelong Learning "Quite simply, this is essential and inspiring reading to prepare the next generation to lead distance education." American Journal of Distance Education What did forty-four leading-edge distance education pioneers in higher education experience and learn over their careers? What concerns and research ideas could they pass on to younger colleagues to consider? What do seven expert commentators find in those lessons and experience that might promote theory-building and practice enhancement for post-secondary education? This unique book analyzes the work of over forty pioneers who helped drive key late twentieth century changes in access to, and learning in, higher education, via distance education. It examines how they defined their challenges, made decisions, coped with traditionalist resistance, developed new teaching and learning models, used various technologies, felt the excitement of innovation, and, above all, respected adult learners’ goals and contexts. The book also assesses the relevance of that experience and skill to today’s contexts. Seven international leaders in adult, distance and higher education assess the pioneers’ reflections to glean the ideas of most relevance for contemporary teachers and administrators. Flexible Higher Education provides key reading for post-secondary educators who are interested in learning and teaching design, technology use, quality assurance, learner access and inclusion, innovation in higher education and respect for reflective wisdom. Commentators: Michael Collins, Sir John Daniel, Yvonne Hillier, Michael Grahame Moore, David Murphy, Diana G. Oblinger and Barbara Spronk.




Flexible Pedagogy, Flexible Practice


Book Description

Flexibility has become a watchword in modern education, but its implementation is by no means a straightforward matter. Flexible and Distance Learning in Higher Education sheds light on the often taken-for-granted assumptions that inform daily practice and examines the institutional dynamics that help and hinder efforts toward flexibility. Contributors to the volume were asked to reflect critically on a series of questions, including: - What precisely is flexible learning? - Who or what is driving the flexibility agenda, and for whose benefit? And who or what is resisting it? - What challenges must be overcome in order to achieve flexibility, and what are some of the compromises it can entail? International in scope, with authors from North America, the United Kingdom, Australia and New Zealand, South Africa, Singapore, and Japan, Flexible and Distance Learning in Higher Education offers a wealth of theoretical insights and practical experience that will be invaluable to anyone seeking to extend the reach of higher education.




Flexible Learning in Higher Education


Book Description

Analyzing the collective experiences of staff from a variety of departments within organizations of higher and further education, this study demonstrates how flexible learning strategies have been adopted to face new challenges.




Self-Determined Learning


Book Description

Heutagogy, or self-determined learning, redefines how we understand learning and provides some exciting opportunities for educators. It is a novel approach to educational practice, drawing on familiar concepts such as constructivism, capability, andragogy and complexity theory. Heutagogy is also supported by a substantial and growing body of neuroscience research. Self-Determined Learning explores how heutagogy was derived, and what this approach to learning involves, drawing on recent research and practical applications. The editors draw together contributions from educators and practitioners in different fields, illustrating how the approach can been used and the benefits its use has produced. The subjects discussed include: the nature of learning, heutagogy in the classroom, flexible curriculum, assessment, e-learning, reflective learning, action learning and research, and heutagogy in professional practice settings.




Flexibility and Pedagogy in Higher Education


Book Description

Flexibility and Pedagogy in Higher Education examines the practical application of flexibility in learning through the creation and development of online learning communities. It provides best practice examples for educators looking to use innovative pedagogies to develop flexible learning experiences.




Ungrading


Book Description

The moment is right for critical reflection on what has been assumed to be a core part of schooling. In Ungrading, fifteen educators write about their diverse experiences going gradeless. Some contributors are new to the practice and some have been engaging in it for decades. Some are in humanities and social sciences, some in STEM fields. Some are in higher education, but some are the K-12 pioneers who led the way. Based on rigorous and replicated research, this is the first book to show why and how faculty who wish to focus on learning, rather than sorting or judging, might proceed. It includes honest reflection on what makes ungrading challenging, and testimonials about what makes it transformative. CONTRIBUTORS: Aaron Blackwelder Susan D. Blum Arthur Chiaravalli Gary Chu Cathy N. Davidson Laura Gibbs Christina Katopodis Joy Kirr Alfie Kohn Christopher Riesbeck Starr Sackstein Marcus Schultz-Bergin Clarissa Sorensen-Unruh Jesse Stommel John Warner




(Re)Generation


Book Description

(Re)Generation contains selected poetry by Anishinaabe writer Kateri Akiwenzie-Damm exploring a range of issues: from violence against Indigenous women and lands to Indigenous erotica and the joyous intimate encounters between bodies. From her earliest work in my heart is a stray bullet and Bloodriver Woman, through her spoken word works standing ground and A Constellation of Bones, Akiwenzie-Damm’s poetry demonstrates how to represent Indigenous peoples in their full complexity, especially as it pertains to bodily pleasure, love, and loss. Akiwenzie-Damm's afterword speaks to the relations and obligations Indigenous peoples have to one another and their other-than-human kin, as she reflects on the resilient work that Indigenous creative work has done and continues to do in spite of colonial violence. She stakes a claim for the necessity of poetry in the face of ongoing colonialism, not only in the present but in the future and for the generations to come. The introduction by Dallas Hunt locates Akiwenzie-Damm within the field of Indigenous literature and meditates on her influence on the field of Indigenous erotica. Kateri Akiwenzie-Damm writes in service of Indigenous brilliance, love, intimacy, and joy, and speaks with an unwavering voice, one that, to paraphrase Akiwenzie-Damm herself, “shakes the earth.”




Universal Design in Higher Education


Book Description

Universal Design in Higher Education looks at the design of physical and technological environments at institutions of higher education; at issues pertaining to curriculum and instruction; and at the full array of student services. Universal Design in Higher Education is a comprehensive guide for researchers and practitioners on creating fully accessible college and university programs. It is founded upon, and contributes to, theories of universal design in education that have been gaining increasingly wide attention in recent years. As greater numbers of students with disabilities attend postsecondary educational institutions, administrators have expressed increased interest in making their programs accessible to all students. This book provides both theoretical and practical guidance for schools as they work to turn this admirable goal into a reality. It addresses a comprehensive range of topics on universal design for higher education institutions, thus making a crucial contribution to the growing body of literature on special education and universal design. This book will be of unique value to university and college administrators, and to special education researchers, practitioners, and activists.




Experiential Learning


Book Description

Experiential learning is a powerful and proven approach to teaching and learning that is based on one incontrovertible reality: people learn best through experience. Now, in this extensively updated book, David A. Kolb offers a systematic and up-to-date statement of the theory of experiential learning and its modern applications to education, work, and adult development. Experiential Learning, Second Edition builds on the intellectual origins of experiential learning as defined by figures such as John Dewey, Kurt Lewin, Jean Piaget, and L.S. Vygotsky, while also reflecting three full decades of research and practice since the classic first edition. Kolb models the underlying structures of the learning process based on the latest insights in psychology, philosophy, and physiology. Building on his comprehensive structural model, he offers an exceptionally useful typology of individual learning styles and corresponding structures of knowledge in different academic disciplines and careers. Kolb also applies experiential learning to higher education and lifelong learning, especially with regard to adult education. This edition reviews recent applications and uses of experiential learning, updates Kolb's framework to address the current organizational and educational landscape, and features current examples of experiential learning both in the field and in the classroom. It will be an indispensable resource for everyone who wants to promote more effective learning: in higher education, training, organizational development, lifelong learning environments, and online.