Designing Effective and Practical Learning Activities in Higher Education Digital Pedagogy: A Systematic Review of Theories and Practices
Abstract
Designing online learning activities that are both accessible to diverse learners and effective in fostering cognitive and social engagement poses significant challenges for educators in higher education. This paper addresses those challenges through a digital pedagogy lens by examining pedagogical theories and empirical studies on the design of learning activities. A systematic literature review was conducted using the Reporting Standards for Systematic Evidence Syntheses (ROSES), and data were analysed using thematic analysis. The findings indicate that theories such as andragogy, heutagogy, cybergogy, socio-constructivism, and the Interactive, Constructive, Active, Passive (ICAP) framework can inform the design of online learning activities. The synthesis of the empirical literature on passive, active, constructive, and interactive learning activities reveals that they impact students’ cognitive and social engagement in various ways, highlighting the importance of using different kinds of learning activities to ensure online learning is effective. Furthermore, the implication is that the most effective and practical design of online learning activities is one that involves learners, considers their internet and technological access, and reduces the responsibility of the teacher for designing those activities. The role of educators in online classes should be thus targeted at directing and guiding learners’ cognitive, social and meaningful learning.
https://doi.org/10.26803/ijlter.24.2.13
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