Abstract
The use of digital technologies and online tools to support both students and educators has become synonymous with transforming learning within Higher Education, particularly within post graduate courses. It can be argued that the recent push for transforming Higher Education aligns itself with the notion that postgraduate students need more flexible learning opportunities while still retaining access to high quality, engaging and collaborative pedagogical approaches. This paper reports on an exploratory case study that focuses on cross campus/university collaboration and flexible learning opportunities for students studying a masters level degree in the area of Music, Communication and Technology (MCT) within a Nordic context. The research question guiding the study is “What factors do educators in a hybrid cross-campus learning environment identify as essential for providing a supportive learning experience for students?” A pedagogy, space and technology (PST) framework underpins the development of this program and forms the basis for its development. The findings from our research identify three themes that need to be considered when attempting to design and implement high quality learning opportunities for students studying a largely synchronous hybrid music, communications and technology program. These themes were flexibility, trust and the human element, and ownership. The findings also highlight the need for a renewed focus on pedagogical approaches that can be adapted and continually revised to meet the changing needs of students in a synchronous hybrid learning space.
Highlights
AND BACKGROUNDThe nature of higher education is currently in a state of transition as many Higher Education Institutions (HEI’s) place an emphasis on transforming current practices (Ashford-Rowe et al, 2014; Haugsbakken et al, 2019; Nykvist et al, 2022), those associated with hybrid and online learning environments
Prior to Covid19, a large number of university programs still only offered a traditional face-to-face experience for students, though a growing number of universities are opting towards programs that offer a mix of traditional face-to-face learning opportunities, blended, online and even hybrid learning experiences, where students can access their studies from multiple locations when it best suits them (Blundell et al, 2021)
Often this involved a lot of additional “just-in-time” work to meet the needs of the students, they saw that this was an important part of empowering the students to take control of their learning (Buchem et al, 2020)
Summary
AND BACKGROUNDThe nature of higher education is currently in a state of transition as many Higher Education Institutions (HEI’s) place an emphasis on transforming current practices (Ashford-Rowe et al, 2014; Haugsbakken et al, 2019; Nykvist et al, 2022), those associated with hybrid and online learning environments. Prior to Covid, a large number of university programs still only offered a traditional face-to-face experience for students, though a growing number of universities are opting towards programs that offer a mix of traditional face-to-face learning opportunities, blended, online and even hybrid learning experiences, where students can access their studies from multiple locations when it best suits them (Blundell et al, 2021). These new program offerings can be viewed as an attempt to transform higher education teaching and learning. While there seems to be some disagreement in the literature about how hybrid learning spaces are defined, this paper acknowledges the term synchronous hybrid learning spaces where the focus is not merely on the notion of online and offline learning spaces, and acknowledges the changing roles of teachers and students in these spaces and promotes student agency (Hilli et al, 2019)
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