Teaching and Learning at Scale: Futures

In this chapter, Ferguson considers recent work toward the vision ‘Teams can successfully teach any number of students at a distance’, showing how a substantial body of TEL research work can be built up over time, responding to changes in society. In particular, she demonstrates how continuing work towards this vision relates to the emergence of massive open online courses (MOOCs) and, more broadly, to teaching and learning at scale. She shows how the different elements of the Beyond Prototypes framework, and its emphasis on bricolage and persistent intent, can be used to support the development of a research agenda that supports practice worldwide. She also looks at current and future work in this area, identifying key areas where work is still needed – learning design, educator teams, widening access, approaches to assessment and accreditation, and new forms of pedagogy.