Technology Enhanced Learning (by distance learning) MA - 2019 Entry

Course Overview

If you are an education professional who wants to take the next step in your career, then this course will provide the opportunity to enhance your CV by deepening your knowledge of contemporary developments in technology enhanced learning and gaining a Masters qualification from a prestigious UK university. 

The programme is delivered by influential, research-active tutors from our well-respected Educational Research Department, which specialises in the delivery of online postgraduate programmes. You will benefit from their range and depth of knowledge and their recent research in areas such as the learning sciences, ubiquitous technologies, digital inclusion, digital literacies, digital semiotics, authentic accessibility, digital games, and critical pedagogy. You will be encouraged to draw from your own personal and professional experience and to work closely with peers in a vibrant and supportive online environment.

You will have the space to develop your own understanding, clarify misconceptions, raise questions, and expand your knowledge on a range of matters related to the educational uses of technology. While the course is delivered online, there will be opportunities if you wish to visit the department and participate in research activities. Some students opt to visit their tutor in person, however ample provision is made for virtual interactions. Participants undertake four modules (30 credits each) plus a dissertation (60 credits).

A dedicated module will introduce you to a variety of research methods and approaches, and will help you to apply these new skills to your own practice via a small, tutor-supported research project. This individual study module is carefully designed to prepare you for your research dissertation.

The Masters in Technology Enhanced Learning is suitable for teachers, educators, consultants, policy makers, and experienced professionals in all areas of education either in public or private organisations, as well as those who wish to develop their understanding of the theory, practice, and research of technology enhanced learning. The programme provides a potential route to our PhD in E-Research and Technology Enhanced Learning, as well as leading to career change or progression for professional practitioners.

Course Structure

You will study a range of modules as part of your course, some examples of which are listed below.

Core

• Education, Evaluation and Research

  The module will introduce students to a range of processes used for investigating, and producing new knowledge about, ‘education’. The module focusses on developing an understanding of the deeply contextualised ways in which educational investigation is carried out and the contingency of the knowledge claims produced; locating educational investigation within the development of the research field and contemporary literature; formulating research questions that can illuminate research agendas; selecting and justifying appropriate methodological approaches; and designing particular projects based on the selected methodology that can satisfactorily address the research questions. The module will explore those issues with reference to a range of examples taken from published literature.

  The module will provide students with the grounding needed to become autonomous researchers: enabling them to take advantage of their existing expertise as practitioners to provide a starting point for thinking about educational ‘problems’ that merit further investigation; enabling them to read existing research materials critically; and enabling them to formulate projects to develop their own knowledge and communicate that knowledge to others.

• Tutor-supported Independent Study

  The module will enable students to develop a critical understanding of research as a form of academic practice, working together with a supervisor to conduct an exploratory project and write a research report focused on a topic of personal and/or professional relevance to the student. One key aim of this module is that the experience helps prepare the student for undertaking their later Research Dissertation. Formulating the small-scale research project will therefore involve the student in discussions with their allocated supervisor about their research interests and ongoing trajectory and how undertaking this project can support the student's development within the programme.Examples of suitable independent study projects might involve small-scale data gathering, including the designing or testing of research instruments; or conducting a literature review for the purposes of identifying potential points of contribution that the student might make with regard to a chosen topic of their interest. Crucially, students agree a study plan early in the module period with their assigned supervisor, and then work with their supervisor to refine the scope of the study, formulate appropriate research questions, design and implement a methodological approach, and formulate the research report. Students will be encouraged to revisit the materials from the ED.S831 module and reflect on those throughout this process.Students will develop knowledge of how to understand the different roles, types and purposes of educational research; how to define the scope of a research project and find existing literature based on that scope; how to evaluate and synthesise research evidence; and how to write a research report report that takes into account particular audiences (such as researchers working within a specialist field, research generalists, or practitioners).The module will comprise a short initial orientation period and an online discussion space. However, most of the period of the module will involve students working on their projects under bilateral supervision.

  The module will provide students with the knowledge and skills to gather, synthesise and report upon a range of evidence to further their own understanding of topics of relevance to them and their professional practices, and communicate that understanding to others.

Optional

• Policies, Ideologies and Interventions in Education

  The module will take a unique and novel approach to exploring education that can be brought into relationship with both social justice and technology. It will consider ‘policy’ issues and theories typically investigated in educational research (for example graduate employability and internationalization in HE, digital learning and public communication in general) and theories concerning ideology (e.g. any critical theory of student choice, e.g. postcolonial or feminist theories), to explore them via semiotic, multimodal critical discourse analysis lenses.

  Doing so will involve particular focus on policies that impact on education (from global levels to institutional and local levels; how policies are mediated and re-shaped at those different levels; how people contest policy but also comply with incentive structures and thereby reproduce particular aspects of educational systems) in relation to multimodal communication; alternatives suggested in the literature for how policy development might occur in more democratic ways; and how to obtain public and policy makers’ feedback by applying creative visual strategies.

• Challenging Educational Inequalities

  This module will consider a range of social justice issues within education relating to (but not limited to) gender, class, 'race’ and ethnicity, age, sexuality, disability, language, geography, religion, and their intersections. This will involve developing an understanding of how advantage and disadvantage are structured through policy, practice and experiences; how students from different groups experience inclusion and exclusion; how educational institutions may generate, reinforce or reproduce social inequalities; and how educational inequalities may be challenged. Education will be considered as both an issue of social justice and as a practice for social justice.

  This module will provide students with the opportunity to interrogate social justice issues within society and how these play out through the education system, developing and enhancing their knowledge and understanding of inequalities. It will engage students in analysis of complex processes of inclusion and exclusion and equip them with the tools to critically evaluate educational structures, policy and practices to both examine and challenge inequalities.

Core

• Research Dissertation

  The aims of the module are to provide students with an opportunity to undertake an extended piece of self-directed research in a field of their choice, related to their particular scheme of study. To provides experience in conducting research (a skill of relevance to further postgraduate activity as well as in varied professional settings); to provide experience of the management of project design, methodology, development and implementation; and to further develop students’ ability to communicate complex ideas and concepts.

Information contained on the website with respect to modules is correct at the time of publication, but changes may be necessary, for example as a result of student feedback, Professional Statutory and Regulatory Bodies' (PSRB) requirements, staff changes, and new research.

Key Information

Entry Requirements: An upper-second class honours degree, or equivalent

IELTS: Overall 6.5 with at least 6.0 for reading and writing

Personal statement: Please include a clear, detailed personal statement about why you wish to join the programme, why you are suitable for it, your research interests and what you hope to achieve from it. Please outline whether you have experience of online programmes, and why you think you are well suited to studying online.

You should think very carefully about this statement and treat it as an opportunity to show what your interests are and how you will be able to benefit from postgraduate study in our department

Assessment: Formative and summative assessment including mini-research proposals, a small-scale research project, critical analysis and reviews of policy documents, a dissertation

Fees

Fees

The University will not increase the Tuition Fee you are charged during the course of an academic year.

If you are studying on a programme of more than one year's duration, the tuition fees for subsequent years of your programme are likely to increase each year. The way in which continuing students' fee rates are determined varies according to an individual's 'fee status' as set out on our fees webpages.

What are tuition fees for?

Studying at a UK University means that you need to pay an annual fee for your tuition, which covers the costs associated with teaching, examinations, assessment and graduation.

The fee that you will be charged depends on whether you are considered to be a UK, EU or overseas student. Visiting students will be charged a pro-rata fee for periods of study less than a year.

Our annual tuition fee is set for a 12 month session, which usually runs from October to September the following year.

How does Lancaster set overseas tuition fees?

Overseas fees, alongside all other sources of income, allow the University to maintain its abilities across the range of activities and services. Each year the University's Finance Committee consider recommendations for increases to fees proposed for all categories of student and this takes into account a range of factors including projected cost inflation for the University, comparisons against other high-quality institutions and external financial factors such as projected exchange rate movements.

What support is available towards tuition fees?

Lancaster University's priority is to support every student in making the most of their education. Many of our students each year will be entitled to bursaries or scholarships to help with the cost of fees and/or living expenses. You can find out more about financial support, studentships, and awards for postgraduate study on our website.

Related Courses

Related Courses

• Education and Social Justice (by Distance Learning) : MA
• Education and Social Justice (thesis and coursework) : PhD
• Educational Research - Higher or Teacher Education (thesis and coursework) : MPhil/PhD
• Educational Research (Independent Study) : MPhil/PhD
• E-Research and Technology Enhanced Learning (by course work and thesis) : PhD
• Higher Education: Research, Evaluation and Enhancement : PhD