Professional education in the e-learning world: Scholarship, practice and digital technologies

We live in a time in which education in every form is exploring the possibilities of e-learning. In the higher education context, discussions about the nature of online technologies, and how to utilise their affordances for teaching and learning, proliferate. Such discussions are tied to the central question of ‘what is the project of a contemporary university?’ This leads to a myriad of questions such as: In an era of MOOCS, digital platforms and pre-prepared online interactions, what does the institution add that is of value? What is the currency of higher education? Is this current movement a crisis or can it be seen as a liberating force, creating spaces for innovation and creative practice in university settings? Does change allow us to let go of previous ways of thinking and address issues of new forms of local, national and global communities? Does this change allow us to blur the boundaries of disciplines and ideas and see our work through the lens of hybridisation? How do we work in a fragmented and modularised, yet also connected, world? How do we conceptualise our practice and work with students in these environments? How do students experience these environments and translate their experiences? And how do these questions and their implications alter our approaches to practice and scholarship?