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Universities across the globe have had to rethink how the significant resources devoted to learning, teaching, and assessment might be reconfigured to better support student learning across different modes of delivery. A focus on ‘flexibility’ in assessment arrangements supports the need to be responsive to the requirements of a changing and increasingly uncertain higher education landscape across Africa and elsewhere in the world. This chapter explores how professors and lecturers in higher education can deliver effective assessment processes that meet the demands of online and blended learning environments. Flexibility in assessment is about responding to students’ individual learning needs as well as the needs of the curriculum. The key is making assessment relevant to the students. The proliferation of learning technologies and tools, coupled with the increasing diversification of student profiles and pathways through programmes, provides the context for developing flexible assessment. Here technology is a key enabler for personalised and active blended learning experiences. This chapter considers practical ideas and strategies for inclusive, authentic, and flexible assessment task design, delivering effective feedback, and ensuring quality and consistency within assessment processes – all of which are relevant in an era of COVID-19 pandemic disruptions in higher education.

Impactful pedagogies in Higher Education are required to meet the challenges of the twenty-first century. This chapter outlines an inclusive, flexible, and work-based learning curriculum design framework to respond to these needs. Two cases from Glasgow Caledonian University (GCU) are used to illustrate this framework in a transnational educational context in Sub-Saharan Africa. Case one explores the impact of a Railway Operations Management program in South Africa, where the views of two cohorts of 137 recent graduates were gathered through an online questionnaire. Case two examines the views of Optometry/Orthoptics students who undertook an intensive two-week clinical work experience on the train-based clinic (Phelophepa train) in South Africa; data was gathered through an online questionnaire from 58 participating students since 2014. Both examples highlight transformative personal experiences and impacts of their education beyond just their studies – to a clearer sense of personal and professional pride, to becoming role models for their families and to developing meta-cognitive skills to support lifelong learning. In the Railway Operations Management example, additional benefits were seen to their organization – through improved interpersonal skills, decision-making, and problem-solving and creating knowledge-sharing – whereas in the Optometry/Orthoptics case life-changing impacts to patients were delivered through this work experience.

HyFlex course design is an effective instructional course design that combines active and transformative learning techniques. HyFlex course design encourages active learning by focusing on interactive activities, discussions, and collaboration. It also allows learners to collaborate effectively and flexibly as a community, providing peer support and opportunities for authentic dialogue and learning experiences. HyFlex course design provides the opportunity for transformative learning through its ability to offer personalized educational experiences to individuals. It facilitates greater customization of the learning experience, allowing individual learners to access tailored educational modules, offer personalized educational experiences to individuals, and effectively develop and build independent and critical thinking skills. This conceptual review, supported by implications from HyFlex literature and triangulated with experts' views undertaking a Delphi study, facilitates understanding the current state of research in HyFlex course design and future application strategies. Existing research has identified HyFlex courses as a promising means of engaging students in active learning. Allowing students to learn through flexibly predesigned mixed online and in-person experiences enables higher levels of student autonomy and supports students in taking more ownership of their learning. This approach can facilitate an understanding of how HyFlex courses can improve active learning practices in higher education. The review study findings identify the reported alignment issues and challenges, suggest four strategies and actions for policymakers and stakeholders, and provide a suggested research agenda for bridging identified research gaps.

Future research can provide evidence of the benefits of HyFlex course design and how flexible course design can address the challenges of traditional face-to-face courses, such as reduced student engagement, lack of student-centered approaches, and limited support for different learning styles. Further research can focus on strategies that can be used to promote active learning in HyFlex courses. Moreover, research can investigate how this kind of course design can equip educators with the skills and knowledge needed to design and implement effective and meaningful active learning experiences. Finally, research can assess the potential impact of HyFlex course design on student outcomes, including performance, satisfaction, and engagement.

This chapter discusses the Learning Theater, a flexible library space that permits substantial patron involvement in designing dynamic environments to meet diverse learning goals.

We use a case study method to describe and discuss the Learning Theater.

We found that many challenges associated with designing and building a radically different library space to support patron learning goals can be resolved by eliciting patron input in all phases of the process.

We offer three lessons for other libraries intent on developing dramatically new kinds of library spaces: engage the community of users early and throughout, new spaces require robust communications to convey the possible set of uses to the community, and a flexible infrastructure and a responsive staff are key to meeting demands for unanticipated uses.

Our experience in developing the Learning Theater as part of the library education program suggests that libraries can share greater control of new flexible facilities and partner in the creation of intellectual properties to make best use of those facilities in more powerful ways than has typically been done in the past.

This chapter provides a qualitative discussion on the role of social justice mechanisms as a response to alleviate stressors within neoliberal frameworks. Lifelong learning (LLL) has various models and goals, inclusive of social justice. It establishes flexible learning modes and environments to expand educational opportunities to include disadvantaged or marginalised individuals (Armstrong, 2014; Yang, Schneller, & Roche, 2015). Further, LLL has the capability to assess new events and use methods to effectively implement strategies that manage negative educational and economic impacts (Sharma, 2004). Within the Bologna Process (BP), LLL continues to be evaluated, and interestingly, LLL operates within this system that aims to create universalised and standardised practices across participating countries. As a result, there is a dynamic relationship of flexible learning within a structured framework.

This chapter addresses the issue of whether and how LLL has been responsive to major social and economic crises that have impacted the BP and inevitably learning processes. To determine LLL responses and possible contributions, a case study examination of policy and implementation in Scotland is presented through the lens of two major global crises. The two crises are the 2008–2009 Global Recession and the 2019–present day COVID-19 pandemic, which have impacted the planning and provision of education across the European Higher Education Area (EHEA). Analysis is drawn from national government documents, academic and international organisation research papers, an interview and articles from relevant years. Challenges in LLL provision are also presented in the analysis. And although we cannot forecast with certainty the next global crisis to impact our educational system, this chapter concludes with points on how future impacts may be mitigated through LLL.

This chapter focuses on the challenges and the possibilities that exist for College and University leadership, academic planners, instructional technologists, campus planners, architects, and others involved in building the transformative student experience that has been the underpinning of education since the Raphael’s School of Athens. Students need to engaged in the learning and have meaningful interactions with the faculty and classmates.

Economic and societal influences during the first decade of the 21st century have illuminated the demand for access to education through emerging technologies in both physical and virtual spaces. These new opportunities have not developed without painstaking disruptions to conventional models for academic and campus planning. The disruptions have led to opportunities to pilot new modalities for curriculum development that blend both online and on ground learning. Parallel opportunities exist for piloting learning spaces that support blended learning.

Academics and campus planners alike have realized that there is no one-size-fits-all solution to planning effective formal and informal learning spaces. What is clear is moving the student experience from one that is transactional to transformational requires adhering to grounded best practices in teaching, learning, and campus planning, establishing a team of informed and engaged stakeholders, and developing empathy and authenticity in the planning process for both the spaces and the pedagogies.

The chapters in this book focus on using an array of different Web 2.0 technologies and web-enabled learning platforms to create technology-rich learning environments. These types of social learning technologies can be used to build flexible and agile learning environments and foster collaborative learning activities for students. Whereas Web 1.0 is considered a content-centric paradigm, Web 2.0 is considered a social-centric paradigm. In other words, at the heart of Web 2.0 is social networking, social media, and a vast array of participatory applications and tools. This book examines the possibilities of Web 2.0 technologies in general and social technologies in particular, including blended (hybrid) learning technologies and applications. At least four factors have driven the rapid changes we have experienced in the way we teach and learn with these technologies: (1) these technologies are digital, making them highly versatile and integrative, (2) these technologies are globally ubiquitous, making them accessible to anyone and anywhere there is an Internet connection, (3) these technologies are generally low cost or free, making them accessible to anyone with a computer or mobile device, and (4) the development of more sophisticated learning theories, greatly increasing our understanding of how to best apply these technologies in an academic setting.

The chapters in this book focus on three key areas of innovation in teaching and learning in higher education today: smartphone devices, texting applications, and multipurpose, multimedia mobile communicative applications such as Skype. Today's educators have at their disposal a wide array of digital technologies that enable them to enhance the teaching and learning process. These technologies, coupled with more valid and reliable learning theories, are revolutionizing the way we teach and are altering our notions of what it means to learn and live in a post-industrial, globalized world. Both individually and socially, these new mobile technologies are becoming increasingly popular and useful as educational tools across a wide range of disciplines as a means to engage and retain students. If used appropriately and purposefully, these mobile technologies are well suited for the increasingly interconnected and interdependent world we live in and they provide educators with another set of tools by which to enrich the teaching and learning process and educational outcomes (Kukulska-Hulme, 2012).