September 2022
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Understanding the curriculum implications of unbundled online learning requires engagement with the wider context in which unbundled initiatives are emerging. This chapter discusses the changing context of university teaching from the perspective of institutional and academic work. It considers the shifting governance of teaching, the rise of unbundled online learning in the university sector, and the dominant frames in which learning and teaching are being positioned and understood in higher education today. The chapter shows that unbundled online learning is emerging in a context in which academic autonomy over teaching is diminishing and digital technologies are principally used to serve managerial purposes rather than transformative agendas, raising particular issues for what unbundled online initiatives might offer. It also demonstrates that discussions of university teaching have been dominated by arguments for constructivist and active learning pedagogies on the one hand, and outcomes-based approaches to curriculum development on the other. It suggests that these perspectives raise some particular issues about how curriculum is framed and understood in higher education.