The use of online learning environments is now widespread, and there is a wealth of literature providing practical advice on how to teach online, develop courses and ensure effective pedagogical practice.

What has been frequently overlooked is the insight offered by cyberspace theory, which considers broader social, cultural and theoretical contexts within which new technologies and learning models are situated.

This book provides a fresh perspective on current thinking in e-learning. It challenges orthodox assumptions about the role of technology in the teaching and...

It has long been a matter of concern to teachers in higher education why certain students 'get stuck' at particular points in the curriculum whilst others grasp concepts with comparative ease. What accounts for this variation in student performance and, more importantly, how can teachers change their teaching and courses to help students overcome such barriers?

This book examines the difficulties of student learning and offers advice on how to overcome them through course design, assessment practice and teaching methods. It also provides innovative case material from a wide range of...

Threshold Concepts within the Disciplines brings together leading writers from various disciplines and national contexts in an important and readable volume for all those concerned with teaching and learning in higher education.
The foundational principle of threshold concepts is that there are, in each discipline, conceptual gateways or portals that must be negotiated to arrive at important new understandings. In crossing the portal, transformation occurs, both in knowledge and subjectivity. Such transformation involves troublesome knowledge, a key concern for contributors to this book, who...

Over the last decade the notion of threshold concepts has proved influential around the world as a powerful means of exploring and discussing the key points of transformation that students experience in their higher education courses and the troublesome knowledge that these often present. Threshold concepts provoke in the learner a state of liminality in which transformation takes place, requiring the integration of new understanding and the letting go of previous learning stances. Insights gained by learners as they cross thresholds can be exhilarating but might also be unsettling,...

Over the last decade the notion of threshold concepts has proved influential around the world as a powerful means of exploring and discussing the key points of transformation that students experience in their higher education courses and the troublesome knowledge that these often present. Threshold concepts provoke in the learner a state of liminality in which transformation takes place, requiring the integration of new understanding and the letting go of previous learning stances. Insights gained by learners as they cross thresholds can be exhilarating but might also be unsettling,...

A sense of disquietude seems ever present when discussing new digital practices. The transformations incurred through these can be profound, troublesome in nature and far-reaching. Moral panics remain readily available. Discussing the manner in which digital culture within education might differ from its 'analogue' predecessors incurs the risk of resorting to increasingly roadworn meta-phors of new frontiers, 'cyber' domains, inter-generational conflicts and, inevitably, the futurist utopias and dystopias characterised by Western media throughout the twentieth century. These imaginings now...

A sense of disquietude seems ever present when discussing new digital practices. The transformations incurred through these can be profound, troublesome in nature and far-reaching. Moral panics remain readily available. Discussing the manner in which digital culture within education might differ from its 'analogue' predecessors incurs the risk of resorting to increasingly roadworn meta-phors of new frontiers, 'cyber' domains, inter-generational conflicts and, inevitably, the futurist utopias and dystopias characterised by Western media throughout the twentieth century. These imaginings now...

The use of online learning environments is now widespread, and there is a wealth of literature providing practical advice on how to teach online, develop courses and ensure effective pedagogical practice.

What has been frequently overlooked is the insight offered by cyberspace theory, which considers broader social, cultural and theoretical contexts within which new technologies and learning models are situated.

This book provides a fresh perspective on current thinking in e-learning. It challenges orthodox assumptions about the role of technology in the teaching and...

Threshold Concepts in Practice brings together fifty researchers from sixteen countries and a wide variety of disciplines to analyse their teaching practice, and the learning experiences of their students, through the lens of the Threshold Concepts Framework.

In any discipline, there are certain concepts - the jewels in the curriculum - whose acquisition is akin to passing through a portal. Learners enter new conceptual (and often affective) territory. Previously inaccessible ways of thinking or practising come into view, without which they cannot progress, and which offer a transformed...

Threshold Concepts in Practice brings together fifty researchers from sixteen countries and a wide variety of disciplines to analyse their teaching practice, and the learning experiences of their students, through the lens of the Threshold Concepts Framework.

In any discipline, there are certain concepts - the jewels in the curriculum - whose acquisition is akin to passing through a portal. Learners enter new conceptual (and often affective) territory. Previously inaccessible ways of thinking or practising come into view, without which they cannot progress, and which offer a transformed...