Achieving a holistic digital paradigm shift: five elements to achieving digital learning success in higher education
Steven Burton, Antony Mullen, David HopkinsPurpose
It is clear that good-quality, well-considered digital learning has an established place in higher education (HE), the importance of which has been exacerbated by the global pandemic. It is argued here that in considering the development of digital learning, the spotlight should be firmly fixed on the rationale, efficacy and pedagogy of the decisions made in relation to implementation. Following the global COVID-19 pandemic, a cross-university team undertook internationally focused qualitative research to determine the key factors that led to successful digital learning in the HE sector.
Design/methodology/approach
The research team undertook individual semi-structured interviews following the development of a purposive sampling frame. Only participants who had an established track record working digitally within HE prior to the global pandemic were considered. Twenty-one individuals were identified globally: participants were based in the USA, Australia, New Zealand, Finland, Norway and the UK. These participants all held responsibility for digital learning in some respect, and included lecturers, staff development leaders, senior university managers and digital technologists.
Findings
This paper presents the key findings of the study and applies a paradigmatic shift model to identify the five key elements to successful digital learning within universities globally that emerged from the study. These are: communitarianism; the pre-eminence of subject and pedagogy; flexibility of access; immersion within a learning experience; and authentic digital activity.
Originality/value
The participants in this study all argued that digital pedagogy has the agency to transform learning in the university sector for the better. Professional educators, they maintained, need to be mindful that although digital learning may not be the best fit for all students, all situations and all subjects, it is the most appropriate, engaging and effective approach for most students. For this reason alone, HE educators are duty-bound to include a strong working knowledge of digital learning in their academic toolkits. The purpose of this paper is to enhance that knowledge.