Being a learning technologist in a large university often means advocating for some form of ubiquitous learning, either through the use of personal devices in teaching, learning, and assessment, adopting a mobile-first approach to course design, or promoting blended and flipped learning activities. When applied thoughtfully, technology enables us to extend the spatial and temporal boundaries of the classroom in a way that gives learners more autonomy over when, where, what, what and with whom they learn. Our college uses Moodle, a virtual learning environment (VLE) otherwise known as a learning management system (LMS), to host learning materials, activities, and discussion spaces so that students can engage with each other and their course at a time, place, and pace that’s convenient for them.

As a design school, we promote a life-long learning mind-set using our e-portfolio platform where students can observe their development and promote themselves to potential employers. The e-portfolio system provides a resource which tutors can use to foster self-reflection and regulation in their students.

We also encourage tutors to adopt more digital pedagogies in their teaching using the tools and activities available within Moodle to reinforce the work students are doing in class. This includes both structured and unstructured activities like discussion boards, wikis, quizzes, bespoke SCORM packages, H5P branching scenarios, interactive videos, or course presentations, and other multimedia content. We also encourage and support tutors interested in trialling a flipped learning approach using Collaborate Ultra to record and upload lectures and course material ahead of workshops and seminars. In all cases, our focus is not on the technology but on the kinds of learning processes and outcomes we’re trying to achieve. We would like to see tutors adopt a social constructivist approach to learning where lessons are reinforced with active and collaborative digital learning activities. Promoting digital tools and the benefits of ubiquitous learning can have welcome but unintended outcomes as well. The opportunity to learn any time and at your own pace can help students become more proactive, self-aware, and self-regulating. Encouraging students to search, share, and produce their own learning content online can help them be more agile and enterprising. They can develop stronger communication and storytelling skills and most importantly, the curiosity, self-efficacy, and resilience they need to be life-long learners.

However, there are a significant number of barriers to overcome before technology can provide the benefits of ubiquitous learning. Some of these barriers are practical or technical while others are cultural or behavioural. Tutors need access to the right technology as well as the training and support to not only operate it but recognize its pedagogical value and ensure they are using it in a way that is constructively aligned with their intended learning objectives. Digital fluency is also a significant impediment for both staff and students, as well as issues with self-efficacy beliefs, trust, and resources. The most significant barriers, however, are time, motivation, leadership, and support from the university administration. These four challenges occupy the majority of my time.

I am not only interested in ubiquitous learning professionally but personally as well. My research interest is intelligent tutoring systems (ITS) or programmes that track and adapting learning to address the individuals learning needs. One element of these systems which I find fascinating and particularly relevant to ubiquitous learning are Open Learner Models (OLMs). OLMs are a software feature that allow students to openly track their progress and potentially challenge the system’s assessment of their learning. OLMs have huge potential for fostering strong-metacognitive and life-long learning skills in students which is why I consider them important to ubiquitous learning. Please click here to visit my SCHOLAR page and see my short post about OLMs.

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