Educational changes: The impact of networked learning on non face-to-face pedagogy and virtual students' interactions

Digital communication networks have affected various pedagogical developments in higher education. The objective of this paper examines pedagogical changes in a non face-to-face networked learning environment. It is argued that new teaching and learning modes such as non face-to-face, synchronous learning is inevitable. Pedagogic and communication changes were identified in a comparative study of simultaneous non face-to-face/face-to-face teaching. The changes grounded in an engineering drawing module in a manufacturing department of a university. A teacher simultaneously taught two groups of students who were in different sites. The classroom observations were simultaneously conducted at the sites respectively and students' feedbacks from the two groups were collected after the sessions. The outcomes indicate the pedagogies are intensified in the non face-to-face networked learning. More importantly, this paper implies virtual peers supports provided in networked learning flexibly adjust learning contents, in contrast with the more inflexible ones in classroom teaching. Copyright © 2007 The Association for Advancement of Computing in Education.