Emergent Technologies to Support Active Learning in Higher Education

Dear Colleagues,

Active learning corresponds to any pedagogical method that places the students at the center of the learning process and is concerned with how they learn, including the recognition and promotion of their personal experiences in social contexts as part of that learning process. Active learning methods develop learners’ skills and competencies beyond the immediate memorization process, allowing them to reach higher cognitive levels. The identified benefits for students are considerable improvements in critical, lateral and creative thinking, analytical skills, problem-solving strategies, intrinsic motivation, group collaboration, communication skills, entrepreneurship and integration with the society, increased retention and transfer of new information and improved interpersonal skills. Active learning also develops students’ autonomy and their ability to learn, therefore helping them become “lifelong learners” as they master a higher control over their learning. Project- and problem-based learning, experiential learning, action learning, agile learning, design thinking and inquiry-based learning are examples of active and learner-centered methodologies that can be used to scaffold active learning. These methodologies are normally applied by instructing students to work together in groups, but they can also be used to foster individual reflection.

Supporting active learning through emergent digital learning tools and technologies (virtual reality, augmented reality, artificial intelligence, robotics, personalized learning platforms, serious games, simulations, etc.) creates learning environments where the “digital native” student feels comfortable and is motivated to learn. These tools, advanced Open Educational Resources (OERs), which are highly interactive and immersive, can be used to effectively scaffold learning for higher education students as they develop the required set of competencies. Students can reflect the dynamic nature of the world and the quick evolution of systems that prompt changes in the necessary professional skills with more ease.

In this Special Issue, we give an overview of how active learning can be scaffolded in different ways, and we present cases and examples of how emergent learning technologies can foster the uptake and efficiency of such methods. A large quantity of research studies have shown how these environments can be used in distinct domains such as computer science, economics, politics, health, environment, globalization and tourism just to mention a few. This Special Issue focuses on higher education in the sense that higher education programs must be designed to use this new generation of learning tools that promote the learner’s autonomy, collaboration, creativity and critical analysis ability. Learning with these tools should emphasize visualizing, hearing, feeling, experimenting and interpreting so that there is an active construction of knowledge.

In this Special Issue, original research articles and reviews are welcome. Research areas may include (but are not limited to) the following:

• Supporting project/problem-based learning with emergent learning technologies;
• Supporting inquiry-based learning with emergent learning technologies;
• Supporting challenge-based learning with emergent learning technologies;
• Supporting design-based thinking with emergent learning technologies;
• The design and implementation of new active pedagogical methods supported by emergent learning technologies in higher education;
• Challenges/strategies for introducing technology-supported active learning in higher education;
• Leveraging emergent learning technologies in higher education;
• XR-supported pedagogical approaches in higher education;
• AI- or robotics-supported pedagogical approaches in higher education;
• Serious games or simulations in active learning in higher education.

We look forward to receiving your contributions.

Prof. Dr. Carlos Vaz de Carvalho
Prof. Dr. Merja Bauters
Guest Editors

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• active learning
• technology enhanced learning
• problem/project based learning
• inquiry-based learning
• agile learning
• design thinking
• challenge-based learning