A New Pedagogy is Emerging....And Online Learning is a Key Contributing Factor

The benefits and challenges of online learning are at the fore front for 21st century educators.

Perhaps the most important issues concerning education is how technology is changing the way we teach, and more importantly, the way students learn.

 

Three Emerging Pedagogical Trends

Underlying these developments are some common factors or trends: 

• A move to opening up learning, making it more accessible and flexible. The classroom is no longer the unique centre of learning, based on information delivery through a lecture.

• An increased sharing of power between the professor and the learner. This is manifest as a changing professorial role, towards more support and negotiation over content and methods, and a focus on developing and supporting learner autonomy. On the student side, this can mean an emphasis on learners supporting each other through new social media, peer assessment, discussion groups, even online study groups but with guidance, support and feedback from content experts.

• An increased use of technology not only to deliver teaching, but also to support and assist students and to provide new forms of student assessment.