Ellen Rusman
Introduction
In this study we are looking at the current situation and potential of adoption and implementation of the ‘seamless learning’ design paradigm in Higher (distance) education (HE) in the Netherlands, in terms of existing studies, policies, technology access and good practices. Higher education in the Netherland comprises both (distance) universities (research universities) as well as higher vocational education institutes (universities of applied science) (Nuffic, 2019). In the Netherlands there are 14 governmentally funded research universities (including the Open University, the Dutch distance education university) and 36 universities of applied sciences.
To sketch the background and status of seamless learning in the Netherlands, both a desktop as well as a snow-ball domain literature search (pursuing references of references) was performed (Greenhalgh & Peacock, 2005). In the desktop search several relevant keywords were used to find relevant information (seamless learning; contextualized learning; good practice SL + higher education + Netherlands/Dutch) in both EBSCO and Google Scholar. For the snowball search domain search relevant advisory and governmental institutes organizations associated with higher education specifically and/or ICT use/Technology-enhanced learning in education at various school levels (from primary to higher (vocational) education) were identified and (adhering) relevant policy documents retrieved. Based on the retrieved material an analysis was made on the occurrence of (aspects of) the seamless Learning design paradigm, looking at the following five design elements (DEs), derived from the main definition of seamless learning.
Table 3.1: Design Elements (DEs) of the SL paradigm
| 1. Connect/binding (learning) experiences and activities of learners participating in various contexts (cross-boundary learning) |
2. Enhance learning and support processes through (real-world/authentic) contextualization | 3. Support learning continuity and self-directedness of learning processes across environments and settings at different times/places | 4. Optimally benefiting from personal experience in and across (specific) contexts and (professional) practices (in-situ, experiential learning) | 5. Technology -supported personal learning scenarios (mobile, ubiquitous, handheld devices) |
Furthermore, this chapter describes a qualitative study which aimed to detect and analyze underlying reasons for the faltering adoption and implementation of the seamless learning paradigm within higher education in the Netherlands, through participation of academic teachers in a workshop addressing this issue.
Literature Review
Background and status of seamless learning in HE in the Netherlands
Research and best practices
Search in EBSCO with ‘seamless learning’ AND ‘Netherlands’ yielded 7 results of which 1 was not relevant (news item instead of academic article/paper), 2 were related to international Massive Open Online cours