Online Learning: From the Curriculum for All to the Curriculum for Each Individual

• Published in: Journal of new approaches in educational research Vol. 10; no. 1; pp. 122 - 136
• Main Authors: Viana, Joana, Peralta, Helena
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Cham Springer International Publishing 2021; Universidad de Alicante; NAER - Journal of New Approaches in Education Research; University of Alicante; Springer
• Subjects: 20th century; 21st century; Adult Students; Adults; Curricula; Curriculum Evaluation; Curriculum Research; digital technologies; Distance learning; Education; Educational Experience; Educational theory; Electronic Learning; Individualized Instruction; Internet access; Learning Processes; Online instruction; online learning; Original; personal learning curriculum; Questionnaires; Society; Student Attitudes; Teaching; Teaching Methods; Technology Uses in Education; the concept of curriculum; Portugal; The Concept of Curriculum; Digital Technologies; Online Learning; Personal Learning Curriculum
• ISSN: 2254-7339; 2254-7339
• DOI: 10.7821/naer.2021.1.579

This paper seeks to study curriculum as a form of organization of the learning process from the perspective of the learner, in online learning contexts. Departing from a theoretical and conceptual analysis of curriculum, understood as the conception, organization and structuring of the learning process, we analyzed different adults’ representations of online learning and their general conceptions of curriculum. The empirical data came from the application of a questionnaire, distributed online (study I, 833 participants), and semi-structured interviews (study II, seven participants). The results contribute to the reflection on curriculum in a digital context, and to describing the curriculum organization of the learning process adopted by each individual. We found that space and time, in addition to strategies and actors are the most dynamic curriculum components in these circumstances. The formal contexts in which institutionalised learning and the curricula in force therein, occur are central to the development of the personal learning curriculum. This leads us to question the possibilities and ways of reconfiguring curriculum, of conceiving it differently, in digital learning contexts.