ERIC Number: EJ1373432
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2022
Pages: 26
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0362-6784
EISSN: EISSN-1467-873X
Available Date: N/A
Curriculum Meets Platform: A Reconceptualisation of Flexible Pathways in Open and Higher Education
Curriculum Inquiry, v52 n4 p443-468 2022
In open and higher education, digital technologies are increasingly used to enable flexible learning pathways and unbundle programs into separate courses. Whereas technologies have been praised for enhancing the flexibility of curricula, the implications of going digital have yet to be fully explored in curriculum studies. This article aims to critically investigate how an open education platform, OpenLearn, describes, prescribes, and enacts a particular form of curriculum. Rather than understanding platforms as passive tools for facilitating education, the article draws on theoretical and methodological ideas from science and technology studies (STS) to approach "curriculum" as a collection of socio-technical practices in which platforms play an active role. The findings of our analysis detail how networks of human and other-than-human actors are situated in a wider ecology and enact five curricular practices: prescribing, mobilising, enrolling, evaluating, and rebundling. We propose "platform curriculum" as a sensitising concept to investigate how technologies enable and constrain these practices instead of simply flexibilising them. With this article, we argue for the further adoption of STS in curriculum studies to disentangle the specific ways in which technologies, too, shape education.
Descriptors: Open Education, Higher Education, Flexible Scheduling, Learning Management Systems, Curriculum Development, Distance Education, Educational Technology, Guidelines, Rating Scales, Language Proficiency, Second Language Learning, Second Language Instruction, Open Educational Resources, Algorithms, Language Tests, Network Analysis, Profiles, MOOCs, Foreign Countries
Routledge. Available from: Taylor & Francis, Ltd. 530 Walnut Street Suite 850, Philadelphia, PA 19106. Tel: 800-354-1420; Tel: 215-625-8900; Fax: 215-207-0050; Web site: http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Research
Education Level: Higher Education; Postsecondary Education
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Identifiers - Location: Europe
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A
Author Affiliations: N/A