Darcy, D; (2016) Learning Design in Hybrid Spaces: Challenges for Teachers and Learners. Doctoral thesis , UCL (University College London).

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Abstract

The issue of how to design and implement novel learning spaces that work across physical and virtual domains simultaneously is the concern of this thesis. It investigates the conceptualisation of hybrid learning spaces; the iterative development of a learning design process for teachers; and the nature of learner and teacher practice, including their roles and activities in implementing this new form of learning space. The thesis explores the challenges that teachers face in embedding novel learning designs and interventions in their practice, and the related challenges that learners face in engaging in the new forms of learning interactions that result from these novel interventions. The thesis emphasises the evolving roles and activities of the learners, how these roles and activities inform each other, and how they relate to the learning design. The changing nature of teacher design and implementation practice, including their use of the learning design framework is assessed. The thesis is comprised of two separate empirical studies, each with a distinct design and implementation aspect, and with two different populations. In the first study, the learning design process is developed by the researcher and then implemented with a group of young learners in a hybrid learning space. In the second study, a learning design process is iteratively developed by a group of teachers, and is then implemented in the hybrid space with a group of PGCE students. The thesis contributes to the literature on learning spaces, by establishing both a conceptualisation of a hybrid learning space, and a learning design process to support teachers. It contributes to the CSCL literature by examining how learners and teachers develop highly specific roles and activities to support collaboration, whilst exploring how these inform novel learning practices in the hybrid space. The thesis challenges the dominant position of scripts in the CSCL literature by arguing that support for particular interactions, closely aligned with the affordances of the hybrid space, is more effective at supporting collaboration than the outside imposition of specific roles. The thesis is grounded in a socio-constructivist epistemology, a theoretical perspective on mixed physical-digital spaces, and a methodology derived from Interaction Analysis.

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