A Digital Learning Ecologies Conceptual Framework in the Microsystem of Online Higher Education

Abstract

The field of online and distance learning (ODL) has expanded exponentially in the networked society becoming part of mainstream higher education practices and a catalyst for both reform and educational transformation, ushering in new pedagogical models of open and distance learning through the affordances of networked information and communication technology.The guiding research problem recognizes an urgent need to think more holistically and critically about online learning across a variety of contexts, and deliberately consider the interconnections between institutionalized learning and the informal, incidental and tacit learning that happens in contexts outside of formal environments.