Technology-enhanced Learning in Higher Education

Technology-Enhanced Learning in Higher Education is an anthology produced by the international association, Learning in Higher Education (LiHE). LiHE, whose scope includes the activities of colleges, universities and other institutions of higher education, has been one of the leading organisations supporting a shift in the education process from a transmission-based philosophy to a student-centred, learning-based approach. Traditionally education has been envisaged as a process in which the teacher disseminates knowledge and information to the student, and directs them to perform – instructing, cajoling, encouraging them as appropriate – despite different students’ abilities. Yet higher education is currently experiencing rapid transformation, with the introduction of a broad range of technologies which have the potential to enhance student learning. This anthology draws upon the experiences of those practitioners who have been pioneering new applications of technology in higher education, highlighting not only the technologies themselves but also the impact which they have had on student learning. The anthology illustrates how new technologies – which are increasingly well-known and accepted by today’s ‘digital natives’ undertaking higher education – can be adopted and incorporated. One key conclusion is that learning remains a social process even in technology-enhanced learning contexts. So the technology-based proxies we construct need to retain and reflect the agency of the teacher.Technology-Enhanced Learning in Higher Education showcases some of the latest pedagogical technologies and their most creative, state-of-the-art applications to learning in higher education from around the world. Each of the chapters explores technology-enhanced learning in higher education in terms of either policy or practice. They contain detailed descriptions of approaches taken in very different curriculum areas, and demonstrate clearly that technology may and can enhance learning only if it is designed with the learning process of students at its core. So the use of technology in education is more linked to pedagogy than it is to bits and bytes.

Claus Nygaard is Professor in Management Education at Copenhagen Business School, Denmark. Originally trained in business economics and administration, where he holds a PhD, he first became Associate Professor in Economic Sociology at Department of Organization at Copenhagen Business School. In 2000 he changed position to CBS Learning Lab, and began to work with Quality Enhancement of Higher Education. He was a driving force behind the formulation and implementation of the “Learning Strategy” for Copenhagen Business School in 2005. Claus is currently Professor at Department of Management, Politics and Philosophy at Copenhagen Business School focusing his educational research on the link between identity and learning. He has received distinguished research awards from Allied Academies, outstanding paper awards from Students in Free Enterprise, and he was voted “best teacher” at Copenhagen Business School in 2001. His research has resulted in several books and anthologies, and he has published in leading journals such as Higher Education, International Studies of Management & Organization,International Journal of Public Sector Management, and Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education.