Students' Experiences of e-Learning in Higher Education

Students' Experiences of e-learning in Higher Education helps higher education instructors and university managers understand how e-learning relates to, and can be integrated with, other student experiences of learning. Grounded in relevant international research, the book is distinctive in that it foregrounds students' experiences of learning, emphasizing the importance of how students interpret the challenges set before them, along with their conceptions of learning and their approaches to learning. The way students interpret task requirements greatly affects learning outcomes, and those interpretations are in turn influenced by how students read the larger environment in which they study. The authors argue that a systemic understanding is necessary for the effective design and management of modern learning environments, whether lectures, seminars, laboratories or private study. This ecological understanding must also acknowledge, though, the agency of learners as active interpreters of their environment and its culture, values and challenges. Students' Experiences of e-learning in Higher Education reports research outcomes that locate e-learning within the broader ecology of higher education and: Offers a holistic treatment of e-learning in higher education, reflecting the need for integrating e-learning and other aspects of the student learning experience Reports research on students' experiences with e-learning conducted by authors in the United States, Europe, and Australia Synthesizes key themes in recent international research and summarizes their implications for teachers and managers.

Robert Ellis is Associate Professor and Director of eLearning at the University of Sydney, Australia. Peter Goodyear is Professor of Education and co-director of the CoCo Research Centre at the University of Sydney, Australia.

List of Figures List of Tables Foreword Acknowledgements Acknowledgement of Copyright Permissions 1. Introduction 2. Thinking Ecologically About E-learning 3. New Students, New Technology 4. Student Experiences of E-learning in Higher Education: Learning through Discussion 5. Student Experiences of E-learning in Higher Education: Learning through Inquiry 6. University Teachers' Experiences of E-learning in an Ecology 7. An Ecology of Learning: Practical Theory for Leadership, Management and Educational Design 8. Teaching-as-Design and the Ecology of University Learning 9. Leadership for Learning: Perspectives on Learning Spaces 10. Relating the Idea of an Ecology of Learning to Campus Planning 11. Concluding Comments: The Ecological Perspective, Balance and Change Notes References Index