Online Learning and Its Users: Lessons for Higher Education focuses on a rethinking of the approach we are currently taking to introducing new e-learning initiatives and the way we currently support staff and students with their use of technology.
Using an evidence-based case study, the book argues that we need to shift the focus of the discourse of e-learning research and development, with the aim of moving away from asking for additional use of technology.
Instead, our discourse needs to address the activities undertaken in teaching and learning in higher education. From these, we can identify the goals of the people undertaking a range of actions and the best ways technology can mediate these practices.
- Presents the case for starting at the other end of the e-learning issue - with the users.
- Includes a case study of the adoption of an e-learning technology on an institution-wide basis, and what really happens in this process
- Offers perspectives from Ireland and the UK, presenting information in a way that is relevant to people working in higher education in both countries (and beyond)
- Communicates accessibly and without jargon the key issues in e-learning which have relevance to all stakeholders in higher education
Dr Claire McAvinia is a Learning Development Officer at the Learning, Teaching and Technology Centre (LTTC) at Dublin Institute of Technology (DIT) in Ireland. Claire is Coordinator of the Postgraduate Diploma in Third Level Learning and Teaching, and contributes to the MSc Applied eLearning and MA in Higher Education as well as workshops and other programmes offered by the LTTC. She was previously Learning Technologist at Maynooth University, mainstreaming the adoption of a virtual learning environment/learning management system (Moodle) across the university, and also managing a wide range of projects in teaching development and e-learning. Before joining Maynooth in 2004, Claire worked in the UK at the University of Surrey and University College London, gaining extensive experience in the use of e-learning integrated with learning and teaching development. She holds a BA and PhD from Trinity College Dublin, an MA from the University of Kent, and postgraduate certificates in learning and teaching from University College London and the Open University. Her current research interests are in educational technology generally, Activity Theory, and the development of digital literacies amongst staff and students at third level.
