[Editorial] Capacity building for digital education

Whitelock, Denise; Goshtasbpour, Fereshte; Pitt, Rebecca; Ferguson, Rebecca and Cross, Simon (2024). [Editorial] Capacity building for digital education. Open Learning: The Journal of Open, Distance and e-learning, 39(2) pp. 105–111.

URL: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/02680...

Abstract

Special section editorial.
Building capacity for digital education can be a daunting prospect because digital education – also known as technology-enhanced learning or TEL – is a complex system. Such systems are difficult to model because of the ways in which their different elements – including people, technologies, and resources – relate to each other and depend upon each other. In the context of Higher Education, this complex includes interconnected information technology resources that can function as a unit, digital content, various forms of student feedback, not forgetting the various technologies and human actors involved. In this special collection, we argue that managing the growth of this complex system with all its interdependencies is crucial to its success. Through mapping these interdependencies, essential processes become clearer. These, in turn, illustrate how information/data is transferred between different parts of the ecosystem. This mapping should also reveal which parts of the system are not connected and therefore unable to exchange knowledge/data. One of the salient findings from work on ‘Covid challenges and opportunities driving the research agenda’ was the need for specialised introductions to new devices and pedagogies, resulting in capacity building initiatives leading to managed growth.

Plain Language Summary

Introduction to a collection of papers about ways in which institutions and governments can prepare for the introduction of forms of teaching that are enhanced by the use of technology.

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