bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Unraveling networked learning initiatives
Authors: Rusman Ellen , Prinsen Fleur , Vermeulen Marjan
Published: October 2024

Networked learning happens naturally within the social systems of which we are all part. However, in certain circumstances individuals may want to actively take initiative to initiate interaction with others they are not yet regularly in exchange with. This may be the case when external influences and societal changes require innovation of existing practices.
This paper proposes a framework with relevant dimensions providing insight into precipitated characteristics of designed as well as ‘fostered or grown' networked learning initiatives. Networked learning initiatives are characterized as "goal-directed, interest-, or needs based activities of a group of (at least three) individuals that initiate interaction across the boundaries of their regular social systems".
The proposed framework is based on two existing research traditions, namely 'networked learning' and 'learning networks', comparing, integrating and building upon knowledge from both perspectives. We uncover some interesting differences between definitions, but also similarities in the way they describe what ‘networked' means and how learning is conceptualized. We think it is productive to combine both research perspectives, since they both study the process of learning in networks extensively, albeit from different points of view, and their combination can provide valuable insights in networked learning initiatives. We uncover important features of networked learning initiatives, characterize actors and connections of which they are comprised and conditions which facilitate and support them. The resulting framework could be used both for analytic purposes and (partly) as a design framework.
In this framework it is acknowledged that not all successful networks have the same characteristics: there is no standard ‘constellation' of people, roles, rules, tools and artefacts, although there are indications that some network structures work better than others. Interactions of individuals can only be designed and fostered till a certain degree: the type of network and its ‘growth' (e.g. in terms of the quantity of people involved, or the quality and relevance of co-created concepts, ideas, artefacts and solutions to its ‘inhabitants') is in the hand of the people involved. Therefore, the framework consists of dimensions on a sliding scale. It introduces a structured and analytic way to look at the precipitation of networked learning initiatives: learning networks. Successive research on the application of this framework and feedback from the networked learning community is needed to further validate it's usability and value to both research as well as practice.
Socialization and Social Capital in Online Doctoral Programs
Authors: Brett Clare , Lee Kyungmee , Oztok Murat
Published: October 2024

Online doctoral programs are gaining in popularity, both among students and institutions. However, research to date on the effectiveness and popularity of such programs has looked largely at either measures of student satisfaction or of administrative effectiveness and design. Further, previous research has also tended to focus on the early part of doctoral study, particularly coursework. This mixed method study, conducted on three different programs within in a department of educational research in one university in UK will contribute to the literature in two important ways. First, it will look specifically on current and recently graduated student experiences from of the thesis component of the doctoral program using a demographic and experiential survey and following up with more in depth interviews to better understand students' motivation and goals for enrolling in their program and what kinds of academic experiences and knowledge they both bring to, and receive from, their program. Second, we will analyse the data through two lenses, that of academic socialization to help identify how academic identity changes over time, and that of social capital to help us understand the individual trajectories of students through their programs. Results will contribute both theoretically and practically to our understanding of student experience of the thesis process in online doctoral programs.
MOOCs, openness and changing educator practices
Authors: Czerniewicz Laura , Glover Michael , Deacon Andrew , Walji Sukaina
Published: October 2024

The practices and perceptions of educators formed through the creation and running of a Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) provide a case study of how educators understandings of ‘openness' change (Beetham et al 2012, p 3). We are interested in how educators engage with open education resources (OER) and openness as part of developing open online courses, and how this informs their practices and attitudes afterwards. Deepening understandings of these changes is important for informing strategies involving helping educators in adopting productive open educational practices. Our research question is how do educators' practices change or not change when using - or not using - OER in and as a MOOC? We are interested in whether and why educators adopt open practices in their MOOCs. We employ an Activity Theory (AT) conceptual framework as a heuristic tool to track and thickly describe educators' practices and perceptions. This frame enables us to locate educators' practices - in a context of mediating nodes, i.e., tools/artefacts, rules, divisions of labour, and community - as they strive towards and consider their object. The object upon which the educators act is the development of a new interdisciplinary field. We focus on the role of two mediating artefacts introduced into the activity system, namely Creative Commons (CC) licenses and the ‘MOOC design'. We describe how the open aspect of these artefacts mediate and affect educator's perceptions, attitudes and educational practices in the context of their object-directed activity system. We draw predominantly on semi-structured interviews with the MOOC lead educators and the MOOC learning designers. Interviews were conducted at two time intervals, before and after the MOOC has run. From this we craft two activity systems. We have categorised our findings according to Beetham et al's dimensions of open practices. Further, two broad themes emerged from the data analysis. These are Affordances of the MOOC and Reflection on educational practices.
Third Spaces of Learning in Open Courses
Authors: Koseoglu Suzan
Published: October 2024

In this case study, I present an interpretive exploration of five open participants' learning experiences in a massive open online course (MOOC), which was offered by a higher education institute in the United States as a general education course in research writing. There were two types of enrolment in the course: formal (students who enrolled in the course for credit, six sections) and informal (open participants). Open participants had access to the public activities of the learning community, but they did not receive any academic certification, evaluation, or grading from the instructors.
Blogging was central to all educational activity in the course. Learners and instructors openly blogged during the course and beyond in response to the class assignments and on other areas of interest. In this study, participant blogs are conceptualized as social spaces created by a multitude of interactions (e.g., with content, instructors, other learners, the imagined audience). These spaces were a starting point for the researcher to examine five open participants’ learning activities in the course. Primary data collection methods included interviews, participant observations, and document and artefact analysis. Thematic analysis of data illustrates how open participants participated in the course in multifaceted and unique ways and created third spaces of learning— spaces where the scripts of formal and informal learning intersect and create opportunities for learning to occur in emergent ways (Cronin, 2014; Gutierrez, Rymes, & Larson, 1995).
I present two typologies that point to the self-directed and emergent nature of open participation within those spaces: (1) open participants created unique course histories through their blogs, (2) open participants did not follow the formal learning path. These findings suggest that the traditional markers of success in formal education (e.g., sustained engagement, course completion, directly measurable outcome) might be insufficient to frame participants’ involvement in open online courses. The diversity in learner goals and roles calls for a need to shift the focus of open online courses from the end product to the learning process and challenges formal narratives of success and failure in open online courses.
CmyView: Walking together apart
Authors: Carvalho Lucila , Freeman Cristina Garduño
Published: October 2024

Networked learning practices are impacting the field of cultural heritage, both tangible and intangible, with implications for the way in which places of cultural significance are understood, managed, documented, engaged with and studied. Our research explores the intersection between walking, photography, technology and learning, investigating how mobile devices can be used to foster community participation and assess social value within a networked framework for digital heritage. The paper introduces CmyView, a mobile phone application and social media platform in development, with a design concept grounded on both digital heritage and networked learning perspectives. CmyView encourages people to collect and share their views by making images and audio recordings of personally meaningful sites they see, while walking outdoors. Each person’s walking trajectory (along with their associated images and audio files) then becomes a trace-able artefact, something potentially shareable with a community of fellow walkers. The aim of CmyView is to encourage networked heritage practices and community participation, as people learn to assess their own and experience others social values of the built environment. Drawing on a framework for the analysis and design of productive learning networks, we explore the educational design of CmyView arguing that the platform offers a space for democratic heritage education and interpretation, where participatory urban curatorship practices are nurtured. CmyView reframes social value as dynamic, fluid and located within communities, rather than fixed in a place. The paper presents preliminary findings of the activity of a group of four undergraduate students at an Australian university, who used CmyView to explore the immediate surroundings of their campus. Participants interacted with the platform, mapping, capturing, audio recording their impressions and sites of interest in their walks. In so doing, they created shareable trajectories, which were subsequently experienced by the same group of participants on a second walk. The paper concludes with a discussion about the impact of our research for the design of mobile technologies that embrace participation and sharing, through a networked learning perspective. The paper brings together concepts that sit at the intersection of previously separate fields, namely digital heritage and networked learning, to find their synergies.
Non-commissioned Officers' learning through Work in the Finnish Army
Authors: Pekkarinen Otto
Published: October 2024

Lifelong learning and competence development is crucial to organizations' success in today's world. As part of public governance in Finland the Finnish Defence Forces view themselves as a learning organization and workplace learning is considered to be a central tool for competence development in the military. A case study about learning through work was conducted in one army unit's three companies. The case study was a part of a larger study analysing networked learning in the conscript-training companies of the Finnish Defence Forces. The study aims to bridge the located research-gap by providing theoretical insights on the collective and individual workplace learning practices of instructors. Theoretical tools offered by knowledge-creation theory and cultural-historical activity theory were used. The knowledge-creation metaphor of learning views learning as collective artefact-mediated activity to produce something new. Cultural-historical activity theory highlights the meaning of culturally-mediated tools and artefacts in moulding the object of activity. A second important point of entry for the study was the realisation that studying individuals learning activities required to situate the learning individuals in their activity system. Drawing from these theoretical foundations workplace learning was understood as object-oriented activity in which tools and personal networks of the subjects play a major role in the individual and collective learning processes. Combining the theoretical foundations with analysing documents and norms concerning competence development in the FDF provided the starting point for an abductive process the researcher used to state the research questions. The analysis focused on the agency of the non-commissioned officers and the expansive and restrictive features of the studied companies as well as the tools, artefacts and personal networks important to learning. Empirical data was collected with semi-structured interviews and egocentric network interviews. The data was analysed with phenomenography and the visualised egocentric networks were analysed qualitatively. The preliminary results suggested that the organization viewed itself as expansive and supportive towards learning. However social affordances and active guidance towards learning were lacking. Active agency was required to succeed in the studied military organization and certain tools were well-known and commonly used in competence development, but new tools were not actively developed. It seems that there is a need to actively create and consolidate new learning practices. Personal networks play a major role in the instructors learning and they can be surprisingly broad and different, which suggests that they are carefully and personally constructed through one's work history.
Teachers defining mobile learning
Authors: Jaldemark Jimmy , Randevåg Lena
Published: October 2024

From a historical perspective, new ICTs have rapidly been introduced in the development of higher educational settings. Such introductions have led to new ways of bridging the boundaries of time and space. In recent decades, this development has conveyed that mobile devices and social media have found their way into the teaching practices of higher education settings. However, before being implemented in the ordinary activity of teaching practices of higher education, these applications are often embraced in development projects that aim to raise the quality of higher education. One particular problem that arises in such projects is how teachers understand and conceptualise the areas of focus of the projects. One issue in projects that emphasises the introduction of mobile learning in higher education relates to how teachers define and conceptualise mobile learning. This short paper emphasises aspects of this problem. It aims to discuss and analyse emerging conceptualisations and definitions of mobile learning in higher education teaching practices. The study deals with the research question: What emerging conceptualisations and definitions of mobile learning in the teaching practices of higher education appear among teachers who participate in a development project? The project is currently in the first stage, including preliminary results from the analysis of empirical data from interviews and from observations of online teaching within six courses in a Swedish higher education institution. The interviews comprised open-ended questions. Online observations include data taken from two sources; the first source includes online dialogues of students and teachers recorded in learning management systems and various social media applications; the second source includes documents related to the teaching in the sampled courses. The initial analysis indicates that in the studied development project, different conceptualisations and definitions of mobile learning emerged. Various meanings were emphasised by the teachers of what mobile learning means and how it relates to the design of courses and to their work as teachers. Such differences might relate to interests, knowledge, beliefs and how they link mobile learning to their own processes of life-long learning. Nevertheless, the emerging definitions of mobile learning from the included teachers are preliminary in this stage of the research. To reach a more thorough understanding of the research question, the empirical data need further analysis. Moreover, the results need to be illustrated with excerpts from the interviews and the data recorded in the LMS and the additional applications applied in the studied educational settings.
When we have never been human, what is to be done? Exploring posthumanism within the context of networked learning
Authors: Haxell Ailsa
Published: October 2024

This paper contributes to the growing interest in a posthuman turn within education. While posthumanism has been of interest in the humanities and in social sciences, a lack of conceptualisation of posthumanism within networked learning has been to networked learning’s loss. In this paper, I engage with this concern throughresponding to a question posed by Donna Haraway, “When we have never been human, what is to be done?” In the first of three movements, I bring forward the very ordinariness of our posthuman condition. Conceptualising posthumanism as a very ordinary manifestation allows for conversations that need not wait for the arrival of, nor self-identification with, an exotic or semi-alien entity. There is no need to wait for some evolutionary manifestation involving some sense of advanced or superior beings. We need not wait on the arrival of some oddity. Taking, the very ordinariness of the posthuman condition as our common state, the second movement then brings forward appreciation for relationality. This second movement follows a logical progression from accepting ourselves as being made in association to seeing other entities as similarly co-constructed. This second movement positions technology as more than a mediator. Rather than technology being positioned as something we might use, technology is presented as an actor of influence both shaped and shaping. In the third movement, a more political stance is brought to designs for networked learning. A decentered approach to network learning allows not only for the influence of myriad actors to be traced but also provides a challenge for how the voices of quieter actors might be heard. Theorising networked learning and design for networked learning, begs the question as to whose stories are told and whose perhaps should be. In the telling of such stories, however, representation becomes a challenge: In whose language should such stories be told? Should a story be told in the in the storytellers “voice” or does it require the language a reader is accustomed to? In this short paper, I make use of an experimental method to bring forward the voice of an otherwise silent actor. In this particular telling, there is a playful provocation for a narrative told differently. With the ability to hear voices different to one’s own, a glimpse of realities different from one’s own might then be known.
Effective team formation in networked learning settings
Authors: Spoelstra Howard , Van Rosmalen Peter
Published: October 2024

Professional development can be achieved by interacting with the abundance of learning materials provided by Internet-based services and by collaborating with other learners. However, knowledge sources are scattered across the Internet, while suitable co-learners are hard to find. Learning professionals require strong self-direction powers to fully benefit from these resources. However, these are not readily available in all learners. Based on social-constructivist/connectivist collaborative learning theory and team formation theory, a model is presented for the effective formation of teams engaging in structured collaborative learning. The model describes the creation knowledge domain representations by centralising learning materials from various sources. It allows learners to define structured learning tasks and provides an answer to the question whether a particular learning task can be addressed sufficiently well in the knowledge domain. Based on team formation theory, it provides the means to form teams of mutual learners and peer-teachers based on bridgeable knowledge differences (an interpretation of Vygotsky's "zone of proximal development") and personality aspects. The model also allows recommending suitable learning materials to the teams. A selection of tools is presented to afford an implementation of the model. These consist of an implementation of the method of Latent Semantic Analysis, a validated learning team formation algorithm and the Big Five personality test. The model is subsequently tested. The results of this test indicate that representations of knowledge domains can be successfully created and that the fit of learning tasks to the learning materials in the domain can be assessed. An experiment with learners (n=64) shows that the implementation can successfully assess prior knowledge and that collaborations based on prior knowledge differences do lead to knowledge gains. Furthermore, learners highly appreciate the learning materials suggested. However, the evidence for a level of knowledge difference between learners at which learning becomes most effective is currently limited. The results are discussed, and conclusions and directions for future research are included.
Why and How Do Members Provide Help For Others Within Online Communities?
Authors: Hanif Hafiz , Hammond Michael
Published: October 2024

This paper looks at how and why people help others in the online communities to which they belong. It begins with a discussion of the motivation to help both as it has been discussed as a trait of being human as well as a practice within online community. It discusses the importance of helpfulness for sustaining community life and the different motivations (both altruistic and personal interest) members have for offering help. It then reports on a study of an online group of independent game developers within the online community GameSalad. The study utilised a mixed method approach for data collection, including exploratory observation, online survey, and remote individual interviews. Data collection took place over a period of 11 months. The focus for this particular paper is that part of the study dealing with help and draws primarily on the interview data. Here five themes were identified: motivation; modes; preferences; effect; issues, each with a number of sub-themes. Some of the reasons for giving help were predictable from the literature. In particular, helpers were aware of the need to sustain the community and in many cases felt an obligation to offer help as a return or ‘pay forward’ for the help they had received in the past. Those giving help were motivated by community mindedness, empathy, self-confidence and sense of self. The paper goes on to throw new light on the strategies used for giving help and the circumstances under which help is more likely to be offered. In particular, while the giving of help depends on ‘mood’, this mood is generated when helpers feel they have the available time, relevant expertise in order to help but also when those asking for help have asked in an appropriate manner and provided sufficient contextualisation. Help was generally offered by signposting past debates and by producing bespoke artefacts to demonstrate particular features of the software. It is suggested that participation, and the giving of help, within a community is shaped by past patterns and traditions.
Teaching Presence in MOOCs
Authors: Koseoglu Suzan , Koutropoulos Apostolos
Published: October 2024

Despite the rapid growth of massive open online courses (MOOCs) in recent years, a fundamental question is still being debated widely in the education community: how to design and deliver MOOCs and move them away from the banking model of education (Freire, 1974), in which the teacher has traditionally been the central authority. Our goal in this paper is to improve the MOOC pedagogy through the lens of teaching presence. We argue that teaching presence is much more than just a facilitation strategy; rather, teaching presence is about creating a meaningful and receptive relationship between and among learners. To accomplish this we propose that instead of a single facilitative role there is a diversity in teacher roles. Teachers can themselves become learners in their own classrooms, as well as enabling and encouraging learners also take on the role of teachers in this open learning process. This leads us to propose the notion of hybrid presence, a construct that emerges out of authentic relationships among esteemed co-learners (Rheingold, 2014) in an open educational environment. This hybrid presence is particularly evident in community-based MOOCs. To aid in the design and facilitation of such MOOCs we propose three interrelated learning design principles aligning with the notion of hybrid presence: prepare to cede authority, embrace plasticity, and be present with fellow learners.All the learning design principles we propose highlight approaches that are responsive to the affordances of connectivity and diversity on the World Wide Web. In the first principle cede authority we suggest that MOOC instructors see themselves as conveners of MOOCs, and that they see the learners as co-learners in their educational journey. The second principle embrace plasticity draws attention to the importance of being receptive and responsive to the direction and nature of learner voices in distributed networks. Finally, in the last principle be present with fellow learners we suggest using tools that foster mutual empathy and awareness for both learners and teachers to be present in the environment in authentic ways. Each principle is illustrated with specific examples from different types of community-based MOOCs, such as Change11 MOOC, Rhizomatic Learning, MobiMOOC 2011, and UNIV 200: Inquiry and the Craft of Argument.
Using Distributed Scrum for Supporting an Online Community
Authors: ¨Söderback Jörgen , Hrastinski Stefan , Öberg Lena-Maria
Published: October 2024

One purpose of higher education is to prepare students for a modern and ever-changing global society characterized by increasing complexity and collaborative environments. Scrum is an agile, widely used framework for project management dealing with the development of complex products. Scrum projects are conducted in small, empowered teams with intense communication, interaction and collaboration between the team members, facilitated by a servant-leader Scrum master. Scrum has been commonly used in professional software development and is also now being adopted in other areas, including education. There have been few studies of the application of Scrum in higher education and very few of them have studied distributed Scrum in an online context.
An online learning community has several positive effects for students such as increased learning, engagement, retention and lower risks for isolation and dropouts. Participating in and contributing to a team is dependent on a sense of community, which can be difficult to build up in a distributed environment where members are geographically dispersed and do not have the possibility to meet and communicate face to face.
This study examines to what extent and how distributed Scrum can support building an online learning community, from a student perspective. Twenty students, enrolled in an online course in distributed software development, participated in four Scrum projects as members of distributed Scrum teams, each team consisting of five students. Students' perceptions were investigated by conducting semi-structured interviews. The interview transcripts were analyzed according to Rovai's four dimensions of a classroom community. The results indicate that students were very satisfied with their distributed Scrum projects and that they experienced a high degree of flexibility during the projects. The Scrum process promoted and initiated communication and interaction among students and they learned how to communicate and collaborate effectively in an online environment. The transparency in Scrum was perceived as a key factor to open communication and effective collaboration and also contributed to increasing their motivation and engagement in the projects. Another interesting outcome of this study was understanding the importance of creating a team with members who are similar regarding competence level, ambition and preferences in working schedule.
A practical action perspective and understanding on becoming a networked learning educator
Authors: Hodgson Vivien , Watton Emma , Ralph Neil
Published: October 2024

In the paper we examine one of the enduring issues in networked learning of the reticence of academics to work with and/or run networked learning courses mediated by technology. The paper is based on an analysis of the situated practice of members of an academic department and the work done in becoming a networked learning educator. It builds on the recent interest in practice based studies (PBS) that has led to an increase in looking at learning and knowing through the doing of practice. Following Schatzki, (2001) we see practice as an embodied and materially mediated activity around practical understanding. The research approach we have chosen to look at this is that associated with ethnomethodology; which has a long-standing interest in the understanding of practical action. In the paper we offer an account of the social fact of the competent university teacher as constructed in what Garfinkel (1967) refers to as ‘common understanding’ exhibited in the methods used and descriptions of practice-in-action of members of the department. Further we suggest that members of the department exhibited three emerging practical understandings of a networked learning pedagogy;- Need to have an integrated design framework to a NL programme that is clear to students but also to staff- Any such framework needs to be able to accommodate differences in personal staff styles and ways of engaging with students- The framework should build on existing understandings, methods and work done by members on the development of pedagogical design and frameworksWe go on to examine an account of designing an online module and the practice-in-action exhibited by Emma, one of the authors, in becoming a networked learning educator. For illustrative purposes we focus on the methods used and work done in Emma’s practice-in-action in an account entitled 'shifting responsibility to students'.We conclude with the suggestion that the pattern and rhythm of the module could be used as a starting point for a pedagogical framework that can accommodate and/or exhibit the practical understanding of pedagogy for members of the department.
The glow of unwork? Issues of portrayal in networked learning research
Authors: Savin-Baden Maggi , Tombs Gemma
Published: October 2024

In this paper, we suggest that portrayal of research is often undervalued and seen as ‘unwork' (Galloway, 2012). Portrayal is often seen as an issue that is relatively straight forward by qualitative researchers, and invariably refers to putting the findings of the study together with excerpts from participants and usually, but not always, some interpretation. It tends to be seen as the means by which the researcher has chosen to position people and their perspectives, and it is imbued with a sense of not only positioning but also a contextual painting of a person in a particular way. Yet there are an array of issues and challenges about what portrayal can or might mean in digital spaces. In this paper we argue that researching education in a digital age provides greater or different opportunities to represent and portray data differently and suggest that these ways are underutilised. For example, for many researchers legitimacy comes through the use of participants' voices in the form of quotations. However, we argue that this stance towards plausibility and legitimacy is problematic and needs to be reconsidered in terms of understanding differences in types of portrayal, recognizing how researchers position themselves in relation to portrayal, and understanding decision-making in relation to portrayal. We suggest that there need to be new perspectives about portrayal and concept, and ideas are provided that offer a different view. Three key recommendations are made:1. Portrayal should be reconceptualised as four overlapping concepts: mustering, folding, cartography, and portrayal. Adopting such an approach will enable audiences, researchers and other stakeholders to critique the assumptions that researchers on tour bring to portrayal and encourage reflexivity.2. Researchers on tour should highlight the temporal, mutable and shifting nature of portrayed research findings, emphasising the need for continued and varied research to inform understanding.3. There is a significant need for greater insight into the influence of portrayal, as well as the difference between representation and portrayal. Future studies should prioritise this, and ensure that portrayal is considered and critiqued from the outset.
Cyber Enigmas? Passive detection and Pedagogical agents
Authors: Savin-Baden Maggi , Bhakta Roy , Burden David
Published: October 2024

This paper presents a study that was undertaken to examine human interaction with a pedagogical agent and the passive and active detection of such agents within a synchronous, online environment. A pedagogical agent is a software application which can provide a human like interaction using a natural language interface. These may be familiar from the smartphone interfaces such as ‘Siri' or ‘Cortana', or the virtual online assistants found on some websites, such as ‘Anna' on the Ikea website. Pedagogical agents are characters on the computer screen with embodied life-like behaviours such as speech, emotions, locomotion, gestures, and movements of the head, the eye, or other parts of the body. The passive detection test is where participants are not primed to the potential presence of a pedagogical agent within the online environment. The active detection test is where participants are primed to the potential presence of a pedagogical agent. The purpose of the study was to examine how people passively detected pedagogical agents that were presenting themselves as humans in an online environment. In order to locate the pedagogical agent in a realistic higher education online environment, problem-based learning online was used. Problem-based learning online provides a focus for discussions and participation, without creating too much artificiality. The findings indicated that the ways in which students positioned the agent tended to influence the interaction between them. One of the key findings was that since the agent was focussed mainly on the pedagogical task this may have hampered interaction with the students, however some of its non-task dialogue did improve students' perceptions of the autonomous agents' ability to interact with them. It is suggested that future studies explore the differences between the relationships and interactions of learner and pedagogical agent within authentic situations, in order to understand if students' interactions are different between real and virtual mentors in an online setting.
Networked learning: an opportunity to enhance the learning opportunities for students with high functioning autism or Asperger’s Syndrome?
Authors: Davis Jane
Published: October 2024

The purpose of this paper is to consider whether or not networked learning has the potential to enhance learning opportunities for students with high functioning autism or Asperger's Syndrome, through reflective consideration of the cognitive theories associated with a diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder and Passey's (2014) key constructs of learning. In so doing, the paper initially provides a clarification of the criteria for a diagnosis of autistic spectrum disorder, and the problematic issues associated with concepts of high functioning autism. It then presents psychological theories of the autism spectrum and discusses a range of associated characteristics that may prevail when an individual has high functioning autism or Asperger's Syndrome. The paper briefly explores the way in which educational practitioners seek to achieve inclusion for students with high functioning autism or Asperger's syndrome and the ways in which these students may, nonetheless, be implicitly excluded from the academic route that their measured intelligence quotient suggests might be possible. The paper then considers key conceptual lenses that provide insight into constructs of learning, highlighting the way in which the application of such lenses might require adaptation in the light of the cognitive theories of autism. It briefly presents some of the ways in which technology is currently and predominantly used to ameliorate some of the impairments associated with autism and then looks to consider the extent to which various forms of networked learning might extend the academic learning capability of individuals with high functioning autism. The paper also discusses the way in which co-morbidities of autistic spectrum disorder may exacerbate the learning barriers of students with high functioning autism or Asperger's Syndrome and impact upon the affordance that such environments might offer to those students. The paper concludes by proposing suggestions for further research. It also suggests potential development activity that could support a better understanding of the ways in which networked learning might be adapted to support not only students in higher education, but also for those studying at secondary level for whom mainstream or special schooling remains problematic. It further considers the ways in which education research practitioners might engage with autism charitable organisations, international practitioners and clinicians in the field of autism spectrum disorders.
Assessment in clinical simulation
Authors: West Andrew , Parchoma Gale
Published: October 2024

Clinical simulation is a well-established practice in health professional education programs employing technologies to replace or amplify real experiences with guided experiences representing certain key characteristics or behaviours of selected physical or abstract systems. Educators generally employ collaborative debriefing as an integral part of clinical simulation for reflexive and experiential learning. A movement in higher education towards using simulation for competency-based assessment for high stakes testing such as certification or licensure of health professions has been observed. In face of such a complex evolution in educational practice, social practice theory may be useful to gain an understanding of the ways in which contextual factors affect how assessment practices become embedded into higher education contexts. Therefore, in this paper we take a social practice perspective and contend that these pressures are externally derived requirements. We note that in health professional education these requirements are often observed to be mandated by professional regulatory bodies and discipline-specific accrediting agencies.Debate over the appropriateness of each of the various purposeful approaches to assessment (assessment ‘of’, ‘for’, and ‘as’ learning) are not novel. However, our examination of how a potential move from assessment ‘for’ and ‘as’ learning towards adoption assessment ‘of’ learning practices in clinical simulation brings to light concerns over this contemporary pedagogical movement. To now, the body of literature that demonstrates the pedagogic advantages of employing clinical simulation in health professional education has been informed by research into learning environments that are highly supportive of reflexive and collaborative debriefing. Through review of the literature on assessment in clinical simulation we identify several important social elements of that learning environment, including trust and ontological security. We suggest these social elements may be at risk in the face of these evolving assessment practices, and that they warrant deeper investigation in this context.Lastly, we compare themes that emerge through this review of the literature with the essential values of networked learning. With connectivity and co-production of knowledge at the fore, the parallels between these themes and values suggest the utility in adoption of networked learning theory as a pedagogical framework in clinical simulation. Networked learning theory offers the area of assessment practices in clinical simulation, an at once undertheorized yet highly technologically enhanced and connected approach to learning, with a pedagogical framework upon which to build deepened understanding of an important social learning phenomenon.
Symposium 1: Semantic Web Learning Technology Design
Authors: Carmichael Patrick
Published: October 2024

Semantic web technologies have the potential to extend and transform teaching and learning, particularly in those educational settings in which learners are encouraged to engage with ‘authentic’ data from multiple sources. In the course of the ‘Ensemble’ project, teachers and learners in different disciplinary contexts in UK Higher Education worked with educational researchers and technologists to explore the potential of such technologies through participatory design and rapid prototyping. These activities exposed some of the barriers to the development and adoption of emergent learning technologies, but also highlighted the wide range of factors, not all of them technological or pedagogical, that might contribute to enthusiasm for and adoption of such technologies. This suggests that the scope and purpose of research and design activities may need to be broadened and the paper concludes with a discussion of how the tradition of operaismo or ‘workers’ enquiry’ may help to frame such activities. This is particularly relevant in a period when the both educational institutions and the working environments for which learners are being prepared are becoming increasingly fractured, and some measure of ‘precarity’ is increasingly the norm.
Symposium 3: (Dis)connective Practice in Heterotopic Spaces for Networked and Connected Learning
Authors: Bell Frances
Published: October 2024

This paper explores the implications of learners’ and educators’ appropriation of Social Networking Sites (SNS) for informal open, networked and connected learning through the lens of learner practices within sociotechnical assemblages. Relevant themes identified from the literature are the impact of an advocacy approach in open, networked and connected learning; the mutuality of openness and closure; time-space online; connective and dis-connective practices and heterotopias.A theory of Disconnective Practice has been developed by Light in relation to SNS that helps us to understand practice through considering disconnection as well as the more usual perspective of connection. Mejias' critique of the nodocentric view presented by SNS can help by alerting us to the concept of paranodes, spaces that lie beyond the logic of the network. Providers of SNS benefit from connection, media production and sharing by members that enhance their advertising services.I explore heterotopias, unsettling fragmentary places, in open practice using two vignettes of PhD students, one in a social context and another in a research context. The first vignette explores the global nature of context and culture collapse across SNS, as a student moves to a different country and culture to undertake PhD study. This vignette highlights the impact of the combination of persistent data and (hyper)connection to extended and invisible audiences. The second vignette explores how different regimes of Open Access publishing operate within the politics of Higher Education (HE) contexts.Although heterotopias are important to open, networked and connected learning they can be difficult to achieve: disconnective practice can help. Networks crave connection and resist our scrutiny. Thus learners need to be able to practice disconnection as well as connection, and be able and prepared to challenge the logic of SNS and institutional systems.How can digital literacy practices of learners and teachers take account of learning on SNS when the focus of SNS is to benefit advertising services that are the actual customers?
ΕDECES MODEL: Learning Design For Technology Enhanced Learning
Authors: Themelis Chryssa
Published: October 2024

The workshop aims to address trends in learning, education, job market and EU priorities which could lead to different instructional perspective. The format of the learning design is based on a new model called EDECES: create more experiences (less instructions more real - life scenarios, prosopognosia, and visual representation of knowledge) and personal learning spaces (personalized curriculum, choices, mind maps), active critical dialogue and peer reviewing, explanations more about how participants have learnt rather than what, and adaptation to new digital environments (non-textual reflections and real-time reflexivity), creativity (products of rhizomatic learning), constant democratic evaluation (weekly polls) and finally sharing with the community of practice (build a networked learning organism). While connecting human to human and information, the EDECES model relies on the powers of the networks to maximize impacts and reach learning objectives. It is important to discover new paths and follow them to see where they are going like Odysseus looking for Ithaca.
Knowledgeability and modes of identification in (dis)embodied boundary practice in networked learning
Authors: Riis Marianne , Dirckinck-Holmfeld Lone
Published: October 2024

Building on a continued interest in boundaries and boundary practice in relation to ICT-based networked learning (Ryberg & Sinclair, 2016), this paper addresses the issue of knowledgeability and identification through (dis)embodiment in design for boundary practice in networked learning. According to Goodyear (2015) teaching is about designing opportunities for people to learn, and from a learning perspective, how participants respond to design through their practices and through their use of boundary objects is interesting. Inspired by Wenger-Trayner & Wenger-Trayner’s (2015) concepts of knowledgeability and modes of identification, we analyse how two different case studies conducted at the Danish online Master programme on ICT and Learning (MIL) differ with regard to potential boundary practice and use of boundary objects. 
In study I, the design for learning was based on a 2D virtual learning environment (Dirckinck-Holmfeld, 2006), whereas the design for learning in study II was based on a 3D virtual world (Riis, 2016). Carlile (2002; 2004) proposed a hierarchical typology for boundary objects aiming at transfer, translation and transformation, and in our analysis, we identify examples of such boundary objects in the two learning arenas. Our findings show that all identified categories of boundary objects can mediate knowledge according to the typology. Nonetheless, certain boundary objects in the 3D learning arena (study II), in particular the avatar, seem to promote a different kind of embodied transformation, which has implications for identity formation of the participants. Furthermore, the 3D virtual space affords a concrete materialised, albeit virtual, opportunity for reification, which is different to that of the 2D environment.
In the paper, we will elaborate on these differences, and based on the two case studies we propose that boundaries in networked learning should not only be regarded as socio-cultural differences, but as socio-material differences and dependencies as well. In particular, the materiality of a 3D virtual arena and avatars provides new relational and performative opportunities in networked learning.