Flexibility and Pedagogy in Higher Education: Delivering Flexibility in Learning Through Online Learning Communities

Flexibility has long been a feature of the delivery of learning in higher education, particularly with the rise in importance of technology in giving learners greater choice over when, where and how they engage in learning. Recent analysis has sought to look beyond its significance in learning delivery to its value as a personal attribute of both learners and educators. Flexibility is now a key feature of debates addressing the role of universities in producing graduates with the capability to become change agents in increasingly dynamic workplaces and the wider world.

Flexibility and Pedagogy in Higher Education explores flexibility in learning in the context of online learning communities, in relation to the delivery of learning and as a means of promoting the development of flexibility as a personal attribute. Essays draw on examples involving students from foundation up to postgraduate level in curricular and co-curricular settings.

The essays collected in this volume examine the practical application of flexibility in learning through the use of online learning communities. It provides best practice examples for educators looking to use innovative pedagogies to develop flexible learning experiences, thereby building on recent studies on the place of flexibility in the future development of higher education.

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Chris Dennis, Ph.D. (2012), Cardiff University, is an Academic Skills Specialist at Cardiff Metropolitan University. Recent publications include, ’Academic integration’, with Stuart Abbott and Jake Bailey, in Matheson, Tangney and Sutcliffe (Eds.), Transitions in, through and out of Higher Education (Routledge, 2018).

Stuart Abbott is PgCLTHE Course Leader at the University of South Wales. His recent publications include ’Academic integration’, with Chris Dennis and Jake Bailey, in Matheson, Tangney and Sutcliffe (Eds.), Transitions in, through and out of Higher Education (Routledge, 2018).

Ruth Matheson, NTF (2012), is Head of Learning, Teaching and Student Experience (FLSE) at University of South Wales. Her recent publications include In Pursuit of Teaching Excellence (THE, 2019) and, with Sutcliffe, Belonging and Transition (IETI, 2018).

Sue Tangney, Ed.D. (2012) Open University, is a Principal Lecturer at Cardiff Metropolitan University. Her recent publications include, with Flay-Petty, Developing Mid-Career Academic Staff in a Changing University Environment (AISHE, 2019), and with Leslie and Newman-Ford, How Internationalised is Your Curriculum? (IHE, 2019).