Technology-enhanced learning and teaching in higher education: what is ‘enhanced’ and how do we know? A critical literature review

Abstract

The term technology-enhanced learning (TEL) is used to describe the application of information and communication technologies to teaching and learning. Explicit statements about what the term is understood to mean are rare and it is not evident that a shared understanding has been developed in higher education of what constitutes an enhancement of the student learning experience. This article presents a critical review and assessment of how TEL is interpreted in recent literature. It examines the purpose of technology interventions, the approaches adopted to demonstrate the role of technology in enhancing the learning experience, differing ways in which enhancement is conceived and the use of various forms evidence to substantiate claims about TEL. Thematic analysis enabled categories to be developed and relationships explored between the aims of TEL interventions, the evidence presented, and the ways in which enhancement is conceived.

Keywords:

• technology-enhanced learning
• student learning
• higher education
• teaching
• evidence

Notes on contributors

Adrian Kirkwood is a Senior Lecturer at the UK Open University. He has been monitoring and evaluating developments in media-based teaching and learning for more than 25 years, both within the UK Open University and in other education and training organisations. His primary interest is in student learning with media technologies – with the emphasis on learning to a greater extent than on media technologies per se. Adrian has a long record of supporting professional development for staff at the UK Open University. Specifically, this has taken an evidence-informed approach to making the most effective use of media technologies for learning and teaching in courses developed for independent adult students.

Linda Price is a Senior Lecturer at the UK Open University. Since 1995 she has promoted pedagogically driven uses of new technology in higher education. She coordinates staff development activities across the university and has developed evidence-informed professional development programmes that promote student-centred learning for Open University faculty and external bodies, such as the UK Higher Education Academy. Her professional development activities draw upon institutional, national and international research on the student experience to promote the synergy between research and practice.

Notes

1. The journals additionally reviewed were: Active Learning in Higher Education; ALT-J (the Journal of the Association for Learning Technology); Australasian Journal of Educational Technology; British Journal of Educational Technology; Computers and Education; Higher Education; Internet and Higher Education; Journal of Computer Assisted Learning; Learning, Media and Technology; Open Learning; Studies in Higher Education; Teaching in Higher Education.