The pandemic created new opportunities and challenges for educational research. As online learning became increasingly prevalent, so did new questions. What does it take to advance an interdisciplinary agenda for online learning research at the intersection of educational technology, educational psychology, and the learning sciences?
This and other questions were analyzed at the recent Online Learning Consortium’s 28th Annual Conference which was held in a hybrid format, providing educators and researchers alike an opportunity to share experiences and brainstorm how to go forward planning and designing online learning classroom environments and programs.
The panel discussion session, 2022 Year in Review: Highlighting Key Research and Trends from the Online Learning Journal (OLJ) was presented by Peter Shea, Professor of Educational Theory and Practice & Informatics at School, SUNY University at Albany and was part of the Track Research, Evaluation, and Learning Analytics. The discussion focused on relevant trends in papers from the OLJ.
Andrew Swindell, Educational Researcher and Publishing Coordinator at Online Learning Consortium Inc. and Kristen Gay, Director of Research at Online Learning Consortium Inc. presented the panelists, authors of papers in the special issue of the journal Educational Psychologist, which is dedicated to advancing an interdisciplinary agenda for online learning research at the intersection of educational technology, educational psychology, and the learning sciences, are editors of the Online Learning Journal and/or the special issue of Educational Psychologist.
The distinguished panelists addressed a longstanding gap in online learning research, urging the need to build bridges between researchers working in various traditions to provide a more comprehensive account of the broad array of factors that shape teaching, learning, and assessment in online environments.
Christine Greenhow, Professor of Educational Psychology and Educational Technology at Michigan State University, began by sharing how the pandemic catalyzed the interest among educational psychologists and editors in online learning and the complexities of the issues that were coming to the foreground. “So, as we talked we agreed that online learning was increasingly prevalent. It was absolutely complex; and in post-pandemic [ … ] learning continues to evolve.”
Greenhow noted how some of the issues that the pandemic was bringing to the foreground were highlighting the great diversity in designing online learning experiences, the incredible importance of online communities and the lack of it. “You know, when it wasn’t present, or the importance of online learner engagement,” she said. “And of course, all the difficulties that teachers were experiencing trying to engage people, the constellation of equity issues [ … ] and having to design these online learning experiences and study what was working or not all at the same time. These issues are creating new opportunities for interdisciplinary research.”
“I think one thing that the pandemic did was it made us all realize that moving into the future online learning and all of its derivatives: blended, hybrid it is with us to stay and is going to be kind of the new normal, some mix of online learning is going to be normal,” Charles Graham, Professor at Brigham Young University and one of the co-editors on the special issue of Educational Psychologist, added.
Graham said that for the special issue, the editors picked the following five lenses through which people often times look at online learning and which are critical:
- Community
- Learner engagement
- Pedagogy
- Equity
- Design
The editors believe that it was time to bring together their scholarly communities of education technology, educational psychology, and learning sciences to consider what an interdisciplinary research agenda might look like.
Florence Martin, Associate Professor, Instructional Systems Technology at North Carolina State University at Raleigh talked about engagement and the notion of social inclusion and creating an inclusive online classroom. “There’s been a lot of theorists on inclusion in the Educational Psychology literature but almost none of it looks at inclusion in an online context which may mean that we need to rethink theories of inclusion when we put students in social media spaces, in online learning environments, or self-directed learning.”
To have perspective, we also need to ponder what we are not hearing about, or what remains to be discussed. Building a community in online learning environments is one thing where there is room for improvement. And this is often missing in the literature. “How do people function effectively in communities in which face-to-face interaction is not a component of the environment.”
Leadership development program
The session closed with an announcement for a call to submit proposals and the open registration for The Institute for Emerging Leadership and Online Learning (IEOL), a four-part blended-learning leadership development program which was set to explore and define a personal understanding of leadership in online learning. It was designed for those in leadership roles such as managers, associate directors, assistant directors, and vice provost with responsibilities related to online learning initiatives.
For other articles from the conference see: