The concept of lifelong learning is becoming increasingly important in contemporary educational research and development. Although the relationship between experience (practice) and knowledge (theory) is becoming an important aspect of the formal learning process, current instructional design models do not point to educational strategies that…

Studies reporting flexible assessment strategies and their impact across different modes of study remain limited with little emphasis placed on the role these arrangements play in devising authentic assessment processes. This paper synthesises recent research work depicting flexible design principles and practice strategies for how educators might…

In honours programmes, teachers face the task of designing courses in which students feel challenged and learn from accomplishing demanding assignments. The aim of this study was to investigate students' and teachers' perceptions of challenge and learning in an honours programme. From 2016 to 2019, students and teachers rated the learning…

This multicase study aimed to describe the use of diversified teaching strategies in university courses and examine the contribution of these strategies and their context of use on student learning motivation. For this purpose, classroom observations and interviews were conducted with four teachers using diversified strategies, and 40 targeted…

In the wake of a growing emphasis on students taking a more central role in shaping their own learning, it has become increasingly important that course designs cater for productive feedback. This study explores how feedback opportunities were incorporated into two course designs that in different ways aimed at engaging students actively in…

The paper puts forward the case for vulnerability as an important element within higher education pedagogy. In a context of rapid change and competing demands in the global higher education sector, the zeitgeist is that of teaching excellence, usually measured by a market-driven metrics approach. Teachers might, therefore, feel pressured not to…

When lecturers integrate feature films and TV series (FF/TV) into their teaching, they are not always fully aware of how these media achieve their effects on students. Regardless of discipline, lecturers need a working knowledge of film literacy to effectively enable student learning through FF/TV representations. This study surveyed and…

Academic Literacies elucidates how undergraduate students with diverse skillsets can effectively engage with socially constructed and discipline-specific knowledge(s) "through" writing. Over the last two decades, language specialists and education researchers have developed a robust, student-focused epistemology. However, it remains…

Writing as both instructors and students who worked together in the undergraduate course "Water Justice," we reflect on the limits and possibilities of engaging in anticolonial teaching-learning practices within the ongoing contexts of settler colonialism and racial violence that shapes universities. We describe how we designed…

In order to co-create teaching and learning for enhanced student engagement, faculty-student partnership in higher education is emerging as a distinguished practice in the West especially for undergraduates. However, little is known about the impact of such practices in the East. This article reports the benefits of a term long collaboration…

This study addresses the challenges concerning the internationalisation of higher education, with a particular focus on designing new international programmes. It presents a case study of a novel international study programme: the MA in Media Education at the Faculty of Education at the University of Lapland, Finland. The study looks into its…

Despite the widespread interest in using and researching simulation in higher education, little discussion has yet to address a key pedagogical concern: difficulty. A "sociomaterial" view of learning, explained in this paper, goes beyond cognitive considerations to highlight dimensions of material, situational, representational and…

University teachers are faced with a problem of "knowing" their learners when teaching on a Massive Open Online Course (MOOC). This paper explores and analyses what the University of Edinburgh has come to know about its recent MOOC participants, highlighting one particular course. We draw attention to barriers and enablers from…

This paper describes the design of teaching and learning activities (TLAs) in an entrepreneurship subject offered to Information Technology (IT) students. We describe the challenges that we have encountered. Within one teaching semester, the students are expected to achieve a high level of applied knowledge in an area where they have little…

Using the mountaineering metaphor of "natural lines" this article describes the co-navigation of an honours course by students and teachers. It suggests the benefits and possibilities of going beyond the confines of conventional teaching and learning wisdom (as canonised in the notion of constructive alignment) and offering just and…