Abstract
Holistic evaluation of educational quality necessitates considering novel and theorized measures of quality as well as more instrumental metrics. Online learning is increasingly valued by working professionals as a means of gaining a postgraduate qualification while employed, but this area of education is undertheorized and investigated. Online learning is often discussed in instrumental terms, as if abstracted from the social and material settings in which learning and work take place, but my own conversations with student and graduates about the impact of their studies contrast strongly with such views and motivated this work. Adopting a postdigital perspective, I present an activity theory analysis of interviews with students and staff about the value and perceived impact of online postgraduate programmes in healthcare professions. Four themes are identified that describe how students learning moves horizontally within and across academic and clinical settings: crossing boundaries, ripple effect, eroding structures and hierarchies and expansion. Teaching is delivered online, but learning occurs as the students move through the various contexts they inhabit. The pedagogical approaches required to realize the potential value of these programmes should not be based on the online delivery or the technologies used, but the particular needs of the student group.
Highlights
Conversations with students, both during and after their studies, offer a rich source of data that can provide helpful insights into the impact of studies beyond the academicPostdigital Science and Education (2021) 3:181–197 institution
Such data are important in online postgraduate taught degree (PGT) evaluation as instrumental views of online learning put online postgraduate degrees at risk of being regarded solely for their income generating potential by academic institutions, rather than valuing the potential educational benefits
Online delivery allows individuals to access education from anywhere in the world while continuing in gainful employment, but the part-time delivery and professional nature of the student group are as important as the mode of delivery to the learning environment
Summary
Conversations with students, both during and after their studies, offer a rich source of data that can provide helpful insights into the impact of studies beyond the academicPostdigital Science and Education (2021) 3:181–197 institution. Theorized considerations of quality can support data and analysis needed in holistic evaluation Such data are important in online postgraduate taught degree (PGT) evaluation as instrumental views of online learning put online postgraduate degrees at risk of being regarded solely for their income generating potential by academic institutions, rather than valuing the potential educational benefits. Online delivery allows individuals to access education from anywhere in the world while continuing in gainful employment, but the part-time delivery and professional nature of the student group are as important as the mode of delivery to the learning environment. Such degrees can be considered to operate at the boundaries of academic and professional settings (Aitken and O’Carroll forthcoming 2020)
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