Authentic Learning Environments In Higher Education

"This book is made up of a collection of peer-reviewed chapters that reflect the construct of authentic learning--learning that is centred on rich, real-world, immersive and engaging tasks"--Provided by publisher.

Part of the groundbreaking Connecting with e-Learning series, A Guide to Authentic e-Learning provides effective, working examples to engage learners with authentic tasks in online settings. As technology continues to open up possibilities for innovative and effective teaching and learning opportunities, students and teachers are no longer content to accept familiar classroom or lecture-based pedagogies that rely on information delivery and little else. Situated and constructivist theories advocate that learning is best achieved in circumstances resembling the real-life application of knowledge. While there are multiple learning design models that share similar foundations, authentic e-learning tasks go beyond process to become complex, sustained activities that draw on realistic situations to produce realistic outcomes. A Guide to Authentic e-Learning: develops the conceptual framework for authentic learning tasks in online environments provides practical guidance on design, implementation, and evaluation of authentic e-learning tasks includes case studies and examples of outcomes of using authentic e-learning tasks Written for teaching professionals in Higher Education who teach online, A Guide to Authentic e-Learning offers concrete guidelines and examples for developing and implementing authentic e-learning tasks in ways that challenge students to maximize their learning. This essential book provides effective, working examples to engages learners with authentic tasks in online learning settings.

This book aims to develop a situative educational model to guide the design and implementation of powerful student-centered learning environments in higher education classrooms. Rooted in educational science, Hoidn contributes knowledge in the fields of general pedagogy, and more specifically, higher education learning and instruction. The text will support instructors, curriculum developers, faculty developers, administrators, and educational managers from all disciplines in making informed instructional decisions with regard to course design, classroom interaction, and community building and is also of relevance to educators from other formal and informal educational settings aside from higher education.

Although emerging technologies are becoming popularised for teaching, learning and research, the relationship between their use and transformative effects on higher education remain largely unexplored. This edited collection seeks to fill this gap by providing a nuanced view, locating higher education pedagogical practices at an intersection of emerging technologies, authentic learning and activity systems. Providing numerous case studies as examples, the book draws from a wide range of contexts to illustrate how such a convergence has the potential to track transformative teaching and learning practices in the higher education sector. Chapters provide the reader with a variety of transformative higher education pedagogical practices in southern contexts, theorised within the framework of Cultural Historical Activity Theory (CHAT) and tool mediation, while using authentic learning as a pedagogical model upon which this theoretical framework is based. The topics covered in the book have global relevance, with research paying particular attention to South Africa, Australia and New Zealand, where the authors are based. The book will be of interest to educators, researchers and practitioners in higher education, as well as those interested in emerging technologies in education more generally.

Online and virtual education is continually integrated in university classrooms. While online learning provides a more cost-effective alternative for students, educators must also analyze the psychology of online learners and identify ways to support their growth and development in their respective instructional settings. Student-Centered Virtual Learning Environments in Higher Education is a collection of innovative research that focuses on connecting contextual analyses of student-focused online instruction with quality assurance principles to improve higher education. Highlighting a range of topics including instructional design, professional development, and student engagement, this book is ideally designed for educators, software developers, instructional designers, educational administration, academicians, and students seeking current research on emerging principles and practices related to designing, implementing, and evaluating virtual teaching and learning.

An accessible resource to develop authentic learning and teaching in higher education, this book challenges conventional teaching practice and presents meaningful and impactful alternatives across disciplines that are research informed, student-centred and achievable. Bringing together a wide range of contemporary examples, this essential text shows how academics from an increasing range of disciplines and fields have shifted their attention away from the restrictions of campus-based education. Using engaging case study material, underpinned by cutting edge research, the text shares innovations from over 50 different institutions, offers practical advice on how to facilitate authentic learning in real world contexts and examines the range of alternative assessment techniques available to the contemporary teacher. A Handbook for Authentic Learning in Higher Education is ideal reading for early career academics exploring approaches to learning, established academics searching for practical guides to emergent pedagogies and all those responsible for leading teaching and learning practices within their department or institution.

Assessment has provided educational institutions with information about student learning outcomes and the quality of education for many decades. But has it informed practice and been fully incorporated into the learning cycle? Conrad and Openo argue that the potential inherent in many of the new learning environments being explored by educators and students has not been fully realized. In this investigation of a variety of assessment methods and learning approaches, the authors aim to discover the tools that engage learners and authentically evaluate education. They insist that moving to new learning environments, specifically those online and at a distance, afford opportunities for educators to adopt only the best practices of traditional face-to-face assessment while exploring evaluation tools made available by a digital learning environment in the hopes of arriving at methods that capture the widest set of learner skills and attributes.

As explored in this open access book, higher education in STEM fields is influenced by many factors, including education research, government and school policies, financial considerations, technology limitations, and acceptance of innovations by faculty and students. In 2018, Drs. Ryoo and Winkelmann explored the opportunities, challenges, and future research initiatives of innovative learning environments (ILEs) in higher education STEM disciplines in their pioneering project: eXploring the Future of Innovative Learning Environments (X-FILEs). Workshop participants evaluated four main ILE categories: personalized and adaptive learning, multimodal learning formats, cross/extended reality (XR), and artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML). This open access book gathers the perspectives expressed during the X-FILEs workshop and its follow-up activities. It is designed to help inform education policy makers, researchers, developers, and practitioners about the adoption and implementation of ILEs in higher education.