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No description available.

No description available.

No description available.

The economic, political and social climate in the UK has, in recent years, provoked some of the most profound changes to higher education since its inception in the Middle Ages. In addition, the pace of internet technologies and computer access has given rise to a far greater number of fully online courses offered by campus-based universities as well those, such as The Open University, which have traditionally offered a blend of online and face-to-face learning. But research reveals that adapting face-to-face and blended methods is challenging for higher education lecturers, particularly when teaching part-time or entirely remotely from their institutions. This three-year qualitative study investigates what type of professional learning contributes positively to the online teaching identities of part-time lecturers. Using a phenomenological, narrative approach it reveals what type of professional learning better equips lecturers for full online engagement and to what extent these needs are being met. It concludes with a series of recommendations for future development and professional learning which have relevance to all those who work in a fully online teaching environment.

This research set out to examine developments in reuse and repurposing of online digital resources within higher education (HE) in the United Kingdom (UK) over a period (2003-2010), when the emphasis of educational resource reuse and repurposing activity shifted from reusable learning objects (RLO) to open educational resources (OER). It aims to contribute to understanding of this transition, and locates this shift within a broader picture of UK HE activity within the UK, and a wider understanding of reuse of learning resources in digital, online form. The research presents a review and critical examination of the environment in which reuse practice occurred. It does this through macroenvironmental, mesoenvironmental and microenvironmental level reviews. The microenvionmental review is presented through research analysis of five case examples from UK HE and a sixth example from HE in Ireland. The mesoenvironmental review examines the significant changes in resource facilitation and practice during the research period. This thesis is particularly concerned with identifying and understanding how reuse of digital online learning resources was facilitated in practice, and whether reuse occurred, or occurred in the form(s) anticipated. The thesis identifies and examines themes and factors which appeared to have influenced, or had potential to influence, reuse in each case. Cross-case comparison offers a synthesis of the research observations. Finally, a structured approach to classifying factors is suggested based on this research. This leads to generalisable recommendations of how to facilitate digital online resource reuse in the future.

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This thesis reports the findings from the examination of online group work processes used by undergraduate, foundation level students on the UK Open University course 'T171: You, your computer and the net'. The qualitative research was undertaken by a practitioner researcher, utilising both the roles of researcher and tutor in the study. The in-depth research was conducted over a three year period, 2003 - 2005, with three consecutive tutor group cohorts. The virtual ethnographic study into the online group processes identified themes which emerged using a constructed grounded theory approach. Research into computer mediated conferencing in the online learning environment is well documented at postgraduate level. The course, T171, has also been extensively researched using quantitative research methods. This study builds on this earlier research, specifically focusing on group work. The emergent findings identify the long term impact of netiquette and how this influenced and impeded the development of constructivist learning. The online learning environment of FirstClass ™ conferencing affords collaborative and cooperative learning, yet cognition was restricted through adherence to netiquette. The emotional tensions experienced by the group, and in particular absent group members, were also concealed by the observance of netiquette. The findings of this study are significant as they address key features of recent Government reports: 'Higher Ambitions', 'Part-time Study in Higher Education' and 'On-line Innovation in Higher Education'. The findings will also inform course teams when planning group work activities for novice learners within the online environment. The methodological approach, using virtual ethnography and constructed grounded theory, together with the validation process contributes to the development of a model for practitioner enquiry into virtual learning environments within an educational setting.

The advent of computer-mediated communication (CMC) and the Internet has created significant opportunity for online education. Research on this topic has addressed its effectiveness, but as yet little attention has been given to the technology appropriation process in this context. This thesis adopts a social constructivist perspective. To enhance the understanding of online education, the study argues for abandoning the notion of technology as a passive tool and, instead, for considering the contextual issues which surround it. In order to understand how learning and technology appropriation takes place, the organisational and cultural setting needs to be considered. From this underlying conceptual position, the thesis constructs a theoretical framework using theories of collaborative and situated learning in combination with technological frames analysis. Applying this framework, an empirical study is performed on the implementation of an online education system at a traditional U.K. university. Research findings suggest that student perception and interpretation of technology and of online education are strongly influenced by their understanding of the institution, and these perceptions alter students' subsequent behaviour towards technology during the learning process. Furthermore, the study reveals that student appropriation of technology changes in accordance with the surrounding context and their realisation of the educational value which emerges from their interaction with the system over time. The theoretical contribution arises from applying to the study of online education the social constructivist approach to information systems. The methodological contribution lies in demonstrating the value of the interpretive approach for understanding online education on campus. Empirically, the thesis has significant value for educationalists by highlighting the contextual issues that affect student appropriation of technology and the consequent learning outcomes.

This thesis is about learning as a <i>relational effect</i> in local practice <i>situations</i> – how the ‘network’ of learning both enables and constrains in an analytical sense the transformations and innovations of teaching and learning with technology. The educational value of technology in educational institutions has been elusive to say the least.  Models and frameworks have been devised, revised, extended and revisited to explain and to provide a set of guidelines on how technology may be integrated for effective teaching and learning or how it may finally emancipate education from its traditional transfer model to a more constructivist model of collaboration and learning communities. The thesis is less interested in how technology may enhance teaching and learning <i>per se</i>.  Its main focus is <i>‘what happens where technology is</i>’. This thesis considers an alternative approach.  It investigates the effects of technology use by focusing on the <i>relationalities </i>of both human and non-human elements.  The interactions of these elements produce and maintain structures and activities.  At the same time, it is the very structures and activities that they organise and re-create that enable and constrain their relations.  In short, the ‘network’ of learning is rather complex. The thesis does not move away from this complexity.  Instead it proceeds to investigate two practice situations in the same English university in an ethnographic approach that follows the leads and links of the conditions of networked learning by <i>to-ing</i> and <i>fro-ing</i> between physical and virtual environments.