Learning in Higher Education: Contemporary Standpoints

Students today are in many ways different from students in the past, though people disagree on how. Some say they have a shorter attention span while others say they are more focused; some argue that they waste their time on the internet during lectures while others argue that, as digital natives, they are using the technology in ways we have not experienced before. Such arguments continue to thrive in the university sector as it tries to develop and reinvent itself to cope with the change from the industrial era to the digital era. For the editors of this book, they find this development of the university sector to be a fascinating challenge. They purport that this process will succeed only if student learning is seen as the nexus of both curriculum design and teaching practices, and they hope that cases on collaboration, design, identity, and transformation serve as inspiration for individual teachers, as well as faculty groups, striving to take their own university teaching to the next level. The book starts with reviews of theoretical aspects and follows with successful practical applications and case studies in a range of contexts. Each chapter is free-standing but also follows a logical sequence and has been double-blind refereed and subjected to peer review. Useful cross-links are offered to other chapters in which key points are expanded. This anthology is ideal for courses such as the Postgraduate Certificate in University Learning and Teaching (PG Cert ULT) and for any teachers wishing to innovate their practices in order to improve student learning outcomes.