Is it really flexible? Examining definitions of flexibility against contemporary practice in online education

ABSTRACT

COVID-19 has recently driven a shift in formal education environments through the transition from on-campus to online learning. The urgency of this transition has challenged the traditional perception of what a higher education experience should look like for educators and higher education institutions. However, flexibility in the delivery of formal education environments is not new. This paper explores the development of flexibility as a concept within higher education against an established flexibility framework. This paper adapts the ‘Roberts Model’ to reflect contemporary definitions of flexibility and uses this adapted framework to evaluate 12 online courses to validate/moderate. It then considers the implications for institutions who are increasingly exploring online delivery models appropriate for the contemporary student.

KEYWORDS:

• Flexible learning
• flexibility framework
• temporal flexibility
• online delivery

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Colin Beer

Colin Beer is an educational technology researcher, currently completing his PhD on the application of complexity theory to learning analytics implementations. Colin has a Masters in Learning Management, Graduate Certificate in Flexible Learning, Cert IV TAE and is a confirmed PhD candidate. He has many refereed publications and presentations and his research interest is in the application of technology into complex socio-technical learning and teaching environments. Colin has a H-Index of 12.

Sherre Roy

Sherre Roy PhD, M. Learn Innovation, B. Bus (Honours) is the Academic Scholarship and Development Coordinator with the Learning Design and Innovation Directorate at CQUniversity whose role is focused on academic scholarship and development. In her current role she supports the professional development of the University’s academic staff; working collaboratively across schools, programmes, campuses and divisions; to assist with the designing, developing and reviewing of all aspects of learning and teaching activities; involvement in learning and teaching projects and initiatives; and staff professional development. Sherre has been a research assistant on an ACR Linkage Grant (LP0775283) ‘Reclamation of Victorian Indigenous languages: Using ICT to enable effective exchange between academics, educators and the Indigenous community’ and also a research project which conducted research into the possible impact of learning clinical nursing skills using video filmed from a first person point of view. She has been an investigator on several CQU SoLT Grants and is currently chief investigator on a grant project to improve online study for electrical apprentices.

Kate Ames

Kate Ames is a Professor in Communication and Education with qualifications in education and training as well as a PhD and Masters of Letters in Cultural Studies. She has more than 20 years’ experience in communication and education, including continuous service as a part-time Army soldier/officer since 1997. As a cultural sociologist, she is an experienced qualitative researcher in a wide range of methods, including focus groups, surveys, forms of discourse analysis, and also including linguistic analysis supporting ethnomethodological approaches. She will support facilitation of focus groups, facilitate online focus groups, and contribute to research design evaluation, survey distribution, data analysis and report-writing.