Special Event: Higher Education Change in Teaching and Learning and the Role of Digital Communities of Inquiry
(Download the presentation here) (Watch the recording here)
Presenter: Dr. Martha Cleveland-Innes, Professor of Open, Digital, and Distance Education, Athabasca University
- Brief description of the topic: Computers and the digital opportunities available through them have changed, according to UNESCO, “the ways in which knowledge is created, accessed, disseminated, validated, and used. Much of this is making information more accessible and opening new and promising avenues for education.” The development of the world information society and increasing use of ICTs gave rise to digital networking competences that are reshaping the nature and substance of employment, education, training, self-development, and participation in society. Post-Covid-19, greater awareness of the opportunities and challenges of online education opened the door to digitalized, networked and knowledge-based communities as a way of getting things done. Education must support the need for these new skills and change itself to become the education system that represents and supports this new digital, networked world. The Community of Inquiry theoretical framework offers new ways to address teaching and learning and bring about solutions to the problems of access and inclusivity previously considered difficult or impossible to implement.