Learning Experiences In An Online Learning Environment: A Reflection: Promoting Technology-Based Learning and Teaching in Higher Education

Rapid technological changes are occurring in higher education learning and teaching. The use of Information and Communication Technologies in the didactic process is becoming increasingly imperative. Technology and technology resources are being used in instructional practices to foster learner engagement and to cater for diverse learning styles. Learners learn to communicate in a virtual learning environment, as they negotiate meaning and construct knowledge. This present work is a compilation of weekly learning experiences which emanate from a fully online course that was taken at a Pacific Tertiary Education Provider (the University of the South Pacific, Fiji). The reflective discussions of each week are centred on specific thematic areas within the broad framework of the course “Teaching Online: Pedagogy and Practice”. This reflection seeks to highlight that online learning can trigger pedagogical innovation the objective of which is to engender significant learning experiences for learners, provide learners with a certain degree of autonomy of their own learning, enable new types of learning experiences, and foster intellectual expressiveness and creativity, among others.