Large Online First Year Learning and Teaching: the Lived Experience of Developing a Student-Centred Continual Learning Practice

Abstract

A large online first year management course has the potential to present the perfect learning and teaching ‘storm’. This journey, uses continual (action) learning as an action research methodology to develop and improve student-centred approaches (Biggs and Tang 2011; Prosser and Trigwell High Educ 67(6):783–795, 2014). Qualitative student feedback and aggregated data are presented through the theoretical positions, of student-centred pedagogy and organization development theories to build social construction. Technology, the ‘shiny toy’ of online education is often emphasised in place of a balance between pedagogy, technology and content knowledge (Mishra and Koehler Learning and Leading with Technology 36(7):14–18, 2009). This research demonstrates the regaining of balance across these dimensions through the application of action learning sets. The outcome of this research reveals the practical benefits of a student-centred focus that is underpinned by the student’s sense of belonging and overall satisfaction. These benefits improve students’ learning experience and theoretically advance the importance of continual learning and teaching in higher education.