Flexible learning is about empowering students by offering them choices in how, what, when and where they learn: the pace, place and mode of delivery. Flexible learning requires a balance of power between institutions and students, and seeks to find ways in which choice can be provided that is economically viable and appropriately manageable for institutions and students alike.
This new podcast series is part of a range of activity linked to the forthcoming Advance HE literature review on flexible learning, authored by Professor Mark Loon of Northumbria University.
The flexible learning literature review project looked in-depth into 105 research articles published between 2016 and 2021, including Advance HE’s Essential Frameworks for Enhancing Student Success: Flexible Learning. The papers reviewed detailed research undertaken across the world, using quantitative, qualitative and mixed methods, including a few conceptual articles.
Initial findings reveal that Covid-19 was a key driver for the increased adoption of flexible learning by higher education institutions (HEIs). Nonetheless, flexible learning was also a deliberate strategy in some HEIs.
The studies showed that technology or technology-dependent initiatives (eg artificial intelligence and learning analytics) remain one of the most prominent enablers of flexible learning. In addition, research shows that educators are actively experimenting with different combinations of pedagogies within their flexible learning curricula. Several studies highlight that flexible learning is as impactful as traditional face-to-face in-person learning in terms of student learning and achievement. The articles reviewed show the interconnection between some of Advance HE’s framework components.
This podcast series complements the review, looking at different, yet equally important aspects of flexible learning. In the first episode, Dave Thomas, Senior Advisor at Advance HE and I discuss the opportunity to infuse diversity within higher education to ensure practices and processes are flexible to promote student success for increasingly diverse cohorts.
Stuart is a Senior Adviser in Learning and Teaching for Advance HE and is leading the review and update of the Student Success Framework series. Stuart has worked in Academia since 2003 and joined Advance HE in 2016. Stuart has supported a range of institutions, discipline communities and individual academic and professional services staff through a variety of direct events and consultancy interventions. Stuart’s role is diverse and transitions across the core thematic areas of student success, where he takes a keen role in supporting sector-wide learning and teaching policy. Follow him on Twitter: @S_J_Norton
Dave Thomas is a Senior Adviser at Advance HE focusing on EDI and leadership. Dave is an Occupational Scientist and Public Health Specialist, with a remit in social justice. His doctoral research focuses on investigating the impact of Westernised ontologies, epistemologies, and pedagogy on racially minoritised students' interaction with teaching staff and interest, and their effect in shaping the educational trajectories and experiences of racially minoritised students in postsecondary education.
As part of our Connect Benefit Series for 2021-22, our Student Success longitudinal project focuses on embedding employability in higher education as well as access, retention, attainment and progression and flexible learning. Find out more about Student Success
This podcast precedes the publication of our 'Flexible learning literature review: 2016-2021'. Additional podcasts, webinars and summits also accompany the literature review. Find out more