Ray Land – författare

The use of online learning environments is now widespread, and there is a wealth of literature providing practical advice on how to teach online, develop courses and ensure effective pedagogical practice. What has been frequently overlooked is the insight offered by cyberspace theory, which considers broader social, cultural and theoretical contexts within which new technologies and learning models are situated.This book provides a fresh perspective on current thinking in e-learning. It challenges orthodox assumptions about the role of technology in the teaching and learning of the future, and explores more varied and wider-reaching conceptual frameworks for learning in cyberspace.Featuring the contributions of respected and experienced experts with a wide range of perspectives, Education in Cyberspace will be valued by anyone closely involved in the theory of e-learning and education.

It has long been a matter of concern to teachers in higher education why certain students ‘get stuck’ at particular points in the curriculum whilst others grasp concepts with comparative ease. What accounts for this variation in student performance and, more importantly, how can teachers change their teaching and courses to help students overcome such barriers?This book examines the difficulties of student learning and offers advice on how to overcome them through course design, assessment practice and teaching methods. It also provides innovative case material from a wide range of institutions and disciplines, including the social sciences, the humanities, the sciences and economics.

It has long been a matter of concern to teachers in higher education why certain students ‘get stuck’ at particular points in the curriculum whilst others grasp concepts with comparative ease. What accounts for this variation in student performance and, more importantly, how can teachers change their teaching and courses to help students overcome such barriers?This book examines the difficulties of student learning and offers advice on how to overcome them through course design, assessment practice and teaching methods. It also provides innovative case material from a wide range of institutions and disciplines, including the social sciences, the humanities, the sciences and economics.

The use of online learning environments is now widespread, and there is a wealth of literature providing practical advice on how to teach online, develop courses and ensure effective pedagogical practice. What has been frequently overlooked is the insight offered by cyberspace theory, which considers broader social, cultural and theoretical contexts within which new technologies and learning models are situated.This book provides a fresh perspective on current thinking in e-learning. It challenges orthodox assumptions about the role of technology in the teaching and learning of the future, and explores more varied and wider-reaching conceptual frameworks for learning in cyberspace.Featuring the contributions of respected and experienced experts with a wide range of perspectives, Education in Cyberspace will be valued by anyone closely involved in the theory of e-learning and education.

Interest in the quality of higher education provision has been steadily increasing over the last twenty years. This has been driven largely by the international creation of explicit policies and reporting requirements to review, audit and evaluate provision. The interest is associated in many countries with the granting by governments of greater autonomy to higher education institutions. This, crucially, comes bound with increased requirements for accountability in the exercise of such power. Enhancing provision, promoting innovation, cultivating exploration and adopting information-led approaches to practice are at the very heart of higher education. As such quality enhancement comes in many guises and is under constant scrutiny.Enhancing Quality in Higher Education looks critically at recent developments in higher education, taking snapshots of changing practices around the world and analysing the varied theoretical perspectives of quality enhancement that are emerging. The opening section draws upon this theoretical base, whilst the second section contextualises it through the analysis of a diverse range of international case studies. The concluding section considers future prospects for the enhancement agenda in the light of the international pressures facing all systems of higher education in the future. Policy will inevitably be shaped by the historical contexts within which national systems are located. The book draws on a wide range of international case studies, examined by a host of contributing experts. The movement towards quality enhancement can be seen as stimulating action at the grassroots of the academy to self-generate improvement. It is a counter to the prevalent view that change in higher education is essentially about the institutional response to increasing societal pressure and state control and, as such, is a welcome contribution to the literature. This comprehensive volume is essential reading for anyone involved in higher education and educational policy.

This book focuses on recent developments in higher education, provides snapshots of changing practices around the world and analyses the varied theoretical perspectives of quality enhancement. It draws on a wide range of international case studies, examined by a host of contributing experts.

Since the first literature about the Threshold Concepts Framework was published in 2003, a considerable body of educational research into this topic has grown internationally across a wide range of disciplines and professional fields. Successful negotiation of a threshold concept can be seen as crossing boundaries into new conceptual space, or as a portal opening up new and previously inaccessible ways of thinking about something. In this unfamiliar conceptual terrain, fresh insights and perceptions come into view, and access is gained to new discourses. This frequently entails encounters with ‘troublesome knowledge’, knowledge which provokes a liminal phase of transition in which new understandings must be integrated and, importantly, prior conceptions relinquished. There is often double trouble, in that letting go of a prevailing familiar view frequently involves a discomfiting change in the subjectivity of the learner. We become what we know. It is a space in which the learner might become ‘stuck’.Threshold Concepts on the Edge, the fifth volume in a series on this subject, discusses the new directions of this research. Its six sections address issues that arise in relation to theoretical development, liminal space, ontological transformations, curriculum, interdisciplinarity and aspects of writing across learning thresholds.