Strategies for digital inclusion: towards a pedagogy for embracing and sustaining student diversity and engagement with online learning

This research will investigate the characteristics, needs, expectations and engagement of diverse students studying on blended or full online studies in the UK HE. It will build on successes of existing pedagogies to enhance engagement in active, creative and collaborative learning opportunities and will inform of the impacts of Technology Enhanced Learning (TEL) on learners by distinguishing factors for digital inclusion and exclusion. This will be achieved through multi-method research including narrative analysis of ethnographic interviews with students from a variety of backgrounds, and at different levels of study and modes of online engagement. The outcome will be the development of a framework of pedagogies for supporting individual cognitive development through TEL that will be instrumental in designing strategies for flexible and accelerated learning and identifying catalysts for digital inclusion.