CODE | ACA5045 | |||||||||
TITLE | Open and Networked Higher Education | |||||||||
UM LEVEL | 05 - Postgraduate Modular Diploma or Degree Course | |||||||||
MQF LEVEL | 7 | |||||||||
ECTS CREDITS | 5 | |||||||||
DEPARTMENT | Arts, Open Communities and Adult Education | |||||||||
DESCRIPTION | Participants will critically reflect on the hybridity of contemporary teaching and learning, question beliefs, assumptions and presumptions of higher education teaching and learning and think over their understanding of higher education teaching and learning practices. The study-unit adopts a networked learning approach incorporating collaborative, cooperative and collective inquiry effort to unpack the concepts of open education and networked higher education practices as important and significant aspects of contemporary higher education teaching and learning. Facilitated by a selection of learning materials and resources, participants will engage with peers and other human and non-human learning resources to share insights, discuss and debate issues and perspectives. Participants will have the opportunity to deconstruct contemporary higher education teaching and learning by a provocation to consider alternative discerning interpretations. The concepts of networked learning and the connected notion of open education will be considered in sufficient detail for participants to dare problematise determinate situationality of learning and teaching, stationary roles, openness and trustlessness in the dynamic ecology of higher education teaching and learning. Considered as part of the encompassing study-programme on open and networked higher education, this study-unit serves as one of the first explorative steps delving into the theory, practice and research of open and networked higher education. Study-Unit Aims: By way of content and experience, this study-unit aims to provide alternative opportunities for participants to critically engage with alternative conceptualisations, interpretations, and practices of networked learning and connected open education perspectives in higher education teaching, learning and development. The study-unit seeks to provide a space for participants to reflect on the taken-for-granted system of higher education teaching and learning and in the light of emergent theory rethink it as extraordinary. As part of the encompassing study-programme on open and networked higher education, this study-unit serves as a foundational, explorative step delving into the theory, practice and research of open and networked higher education area. For the alternative case of the study-unit taken up as a stand-alone course, the study-unit aims at a comprehensive exploration individually and collectively of the compelling contemporary open and networked learning and in higher education. Learning Outcomes: 1. Knowledge & Understanding: By the end of the study-unit the student will be able to: - Recognise higher education teaching and learning as spanning across places, spaces, time and realities; - Recognise opportunities and challenges set forth by digital technologies mediating higher education teaching and learning; - Appreciate different long-standing and emergent learning theories for making sense of higher education teaching and learning; - Discuss and debate the social perspective of learning mediated by digital technologies; - Discuss open educational perspectives as differentiated from the administratively and fiscally open; - Synthesise different interpretations of technology mediated higher education teaching acknowledging them as temporal and situational; and configured by underpinnings related to perceived affordances, pedagogical discernment, and positionality in participation; - Critically discuss and reflect on the use of digital technologies mediating higher education teaching and learning in connectedness with others; - Critically discuss and reflect on open practices in higher education teaching and learning. 2. Skills: By the end of the study-unit the student will be able to: - Develop competence using contemporary digital technologies to actively engage in technology mediated discussion and other interhuman interactions; - Communicate and collaborate with others for knowledge building and value creation; - Critically review sources of information and knowledge; - Discerningly take on alternative roles in learning (and teaching) in partnership with others; - Direct and regulate personal and collective learning and development; - Develop and curate personal digital identity. Main Text/s and any supplementary readings: Main Texts: - Bayne, S., Evans, P., Ewins, R., Knox, J., & Lamb, J. (2020). The Manifesto for Teaching Online: MIT Press. (various chapters) - Cronin, C. (2019). Open Education: design and policy considerations. In H. Beetham & R. Sharpe (Eds.), Rethinking Pedagogy for a Digital Age: Principles and Practices of Design (3rd ed., pp. 104). New York, US: Routledge. (Chapter 9). - Cutajar, M. (2019). Teaching Using Digital Technologies: Transmission or Participation? Education Science, 9(3). doi:https://doi.org/10.3390/educsci9030226. - Cutajar, M. (2018). Higher Education Teachers' Experiences of Networked Technologies for Teaching. Msida, Malta: Malta University Publishing. - Harasim, L. (2017). Learning Theory and Online Technologies (2nd ed.). New York: USA: Routledge. - Networked Learning Editorial, C. (2020). Networked Learning: Inviting Redefinition. Postdigital Science and Education. doi:10.1007/s42438-020-00167-8 Supplementary Readings: - Bayne, S. (2016). Posthumanisnm and Research in Digital Education. In C. Haythornthwaite, R. Andrews, J. Fransman, & E. M. Meyers (Eds.), The SAGE Handbook of E-learning Research. London: UK: SAGE Publications. (Chapter 5). - Cutajar, M. (2018). Teachers' experiences using networked technologies for teaching. Paper presented at the Eleventh International Conference on Networked Learning, Zagreb, Croatia. - Jones, C., & de Laat, M. (2016). Networked Learning. In C. Haythorntwaite, R. Andrews, J. Fransman, & E. M. Meyers (Eds.), The SAGE Handbook of E-learning Research. London: UK: SAGE Publications. (Chapter 3). |
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ADDITIONAL NOTES | Pre-requisite Qualifications: First Degree (MQF 6) at Second Upper Level or better (as per requirements of the postgraduate study programmes it relates to). | |||||||||
STUDY-UNIT TYPE | Independent Study and Online Learning | |||||||||
METHOD OF ASSESSMENT |
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LECTURER/S | Maria Cutajar |
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The University makes every effort to ensure that the published Courses Plans, Programmes of Study and Study-Unit information are complete and up-to-date at the time of publication. The University reserves the right to make changes in case errors are detected after publication.
The availability of optional units may be subject to timetabling constraints. Units not attracting a sufficient number of registrations may be withdrawn without notice. It should be noted that all the information in the description above applies to study-units available during the academic year 2025/6. It may be subject to change in subsequent years. |