Higher Education in the Cloud

Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) construct norms around the ‘core student’, the young, and fulltime undergraduates, who are immersed in campus life. In contrast, online teaching and learning takes place remotely, in the cloud. Using the new ‘PROPHET Framework’ (Pedagogic Realignment with Organisational Priorities and Horizon Emergent Technologies). Paula and her colleagues facilitated discourse amongst educational planners and practitioners. These focus groups uncovered a hidden online curriculum that exposed policy, operational and pedagogic issues, as well as evidence of good practice. In this session, Paula will share these strategic and practitioner insights of the online university experience. Lessons learnt from applying the PROPHET Framework will be of particular interest to HEIs planning to expand their online offer. Furthermore, in these challenging times, HEIs are preparing to minimise physical attendance, and make extensive use of the digital infrastructure, for traditional students. How do they ensure that traditional university students continue to receive an excellent experience? What challenges might they face, supporting student welfare at a distance? Paula believes that applying a ‘digital student first’ approach to educational planning, and pedagogic practice, will have far reaching benefits for all students, and not just for the short term.