The cover for my new book has arrived from Springer:
„Open Learning Cultures. A Guide to Quality, Evaluation and Assessment for Future Learning“
Had to check the cover text which goes like this:
Today we are seeing a new form of blended learning: not only is technology enhancing the learning environment but formal and informal learning are combining and there is self- and peer-assessment of results. Open learning cultures are challenging the old and long-practiced methods used by educators and transforming learning into a more student-driven and independent activity , which uses online tools such as blogs, wikis or podcasts to connect resources, students and teachers in a novel way.
While in higher education institutions most assessments are still tied to formal learning
scenarios, teachers are more and more bound to recognize their students’ informal
learning processes and networks. This book will help teachers, lecturers and students
to better understand how open learning landscapes work, how to define quality and
create assessments in such environments, and how to apply these new measures.
To this end, Ehlers first elaborates the technological background for more collaborative,
distributed, informal, and self-guided learning. He covers the rise of social media for
learning and shows how an architecture of participation can change learning activities.
These new paradigms are then applied to learning and education to outline what open
learning landscapes look like. Here he highlights the shift from knowledge transfer
to competence development, the increase in lifelong learning, and the importance
of informal learning, user generated content, and open educational resources. He
then shows how to manage quality by presenting a step by step guide to developing
customized quality concepts for open learning landscapes. Finally, several methods
dealing with assessment in these new environments are presented, including guidelines,
templates and use cases to exemplify the approaches.
Overall, Ehlers argues for assessment as an integral part of learning processes, with
quality assurance as a method of stimulating a quality culture and continuous quality
development rather than as a simple controlling exercise.