Digital games have the potential to create active and engaging environments for learning, supporting problem-solving, communication and group activities, as well as providing a forum for practice and learning through failure. The use of game techniques such as gradually increasing levels of difficulty and contextual feedback support learning, and…

It has been widely recognised that transition into higher education (HE) can be challenging for incoming students. Literature identifies three main areas where students may benefit from support: social, practical and academic. This paper discusses a case study that explores the potential of a social networking environment to provide support in…

In this paper, we explore roles that mobile technologies can play in supporting students' transition to second and third year of university degree study, specifically along articulation routes from completing a Higher National Certificate (HNC) or Higher National Diploma (HND) at college. Articulating students face particular challenges associated…

The twenty first century student demands more from universities in terms of engagement that is flexible, accessible and immediate. This means universities revisiting their engagement agenda at a time when financial constraints can least afford expensive technologies and resource dependent engagement solutions. Solutions are likely to be varied…

As technology continues to flatten the world and as Web 2.0 changes the way knowledge is created and shared, tertiary education institutions are turning increasingly to e-learning to extend access to students globally as well as to improve the quality of their learning experience. Learning Management Systems (LMS) currently dominate the delivery…

Research has been fertile in producing studies on pedagogical change and innovation through technology in Higher Education Institutions, namely the integration of the social media in pedagogical practice. However, there is a lack of studies on the integration of the social media in the particular field of lectures. In this context, commonly…

The idea of moving away from battery-type Academic Development Activities and silo modules and programmes towards open cross-institutional approaches in line with OEP are explored within this paper based on a recent small-scale, fully-online study. This brought together academics and other professionals who support learning, from different…

This paper is concerned with how research ethics is evolving along with emerging online research methods and settings. In particular, it focuses on ethics issues implied in a hypothetical virtual ethnography study aiming to gain insights on participants' experience in an emergent context of networked learning, namely a MOOC--Massive Online Open…

The ways our children are using Internet have changed significantly within the last five years: the Web experience is more personalised, social, open, self-regulated and oriented towards ripping, remixing, sharing, following, reflecting. As a result, also e-learning has recently become more social and open, involving the use of personal learning…

We had an Interpersonal Relationships course, a large class, around fifty students, working collaboratively in groups where students from different degrees, academic years, and ages, most of them deaf, tried, and to some extent were able, to communicate. We analyze this example of how diversity can be an asset and how learning management systems…

A person's sense of dignity is a complex phenomenon and is intertwined with their sense of feeling human and being respected as a human being. In 2010, the School of Health and Social Care developed a collaborative lifeworld led transprofessional curriculum for health and social work disciplines harnessing technology to connect learners to a wider…

Contemporary discussions of education in blended-learning environments increasingly emphasize the social nature of learning which emphasizes interactions among students, or among students and instructors. These interactions can occur asynchronously using a text based discussion forum. A text-based discussion forum, however, may not work well for…

Dynamic concepts are difficult to explain in traditional media such as still slides. Animations seem to offer the advantage of delivering better representations of these concepts. Compared with static images and text, animations can present procedural information (e.g. biochemical reaction steps, physiological activities) more explicitly as they…

Teaching and learning is undergoing a dramatic change due to the advancement in telecommunication and IT. Increasingly, online learning platform is playing an important role higher education. The maturity of Internet and emergence of various cloud services catalyse the development of these platforms and student learning behaviour. An example is…

More and more teachers are facing the decision whether they should allow or promote students the use of technology in the classroom. The decision is difficult as there are apparently both advantages and disadvantages in doing either way. In terms of positive impacts, research revealed that the use of digital devices in the classroom setting was…