Learning is becoming more self-directed and informal with the support of emerging technologies. A variety of online resources have promoted informal learning by allowing people to learn on demand and just when needed. It is significant to understand self-directed informal learners' motivational aspects, their learning goals, obstacles, and…

This article explores contemporary potentials for Illich's 1971 proposal to replace institutional schooling with non-institutional large-scale educational infrastructure, and shows that his visions of deschooling through technology could be embodied on the internet in the form of deschooling virtuality. This conclusion is methodologically…

This chapter describes a collection of selected papers from the 2017 Innovative Language Teaching and Learning at University conference (InnoConf), which took place in June 2017 at The Open University in Milton Keynes, UK. The theme of the conference was "Integrating Informal Learning into Formal Language Education." The aim of the…

Mobile learning, if considered in its most enthusiastic versions, promises to transform the world of learning. It seems that mobile devices will lead to overcome the narrow limits of the classroom to achieve ubiquitous learning. But if we analyze critically the promise of the everywhere, anytime, suspending judgment on its feasibility, interesting…

Online learning is now achieving recognition as offering a way for learning to scale. However we need to learn from the experiences in distance learning institutions. The Open University was established over 40 years ago and offers a unique experience in building a distance learning organisation on innovative use of media, originally through…

Massive open online courses (MOOCs) are a new form of educational provision occupying a space between formal online courses and informal learning. Adopting measures used with formal online courses to assess the outcomes of MOOCs is often not informative because the context is very different. The particular affordances of MOOCs shaping learning…

In this paper a brief review of the framework that addressed mobile learning implementation challenges (pedagogical, technological, policy and research) that was developed by Khaddage et al. (2015) is briefly discussed, followed by possible solutions that could be deployed to tackle those challenges. A unique approach is then applied to bridge the…

Personality integration and self-realisation in the global economy and coevolution with multilingual cultural environment of sustainable learning society by means of technologies actualise the paradigm shift in science, and create the necessity for transdisciplinary research to resolve the problem of transformation of the system of values in the…

This paper presents the prototype of a Mobile Language Learning Environment (MLLE) allowing learners of German at a Japanese university to map classroom learning content onto the pathways of their everyday lives, turning places they come by into mnemonic "loci", and thus changing their daily commute into a learning trail. Even though the…

This study explored how the GRE Analytical Writing Section Discussion Forum, an informal online language learning community in China, functioned to support its members to improve their English writing proficiency. The Community of Inquiry (CoI) model was used as the theoretical framework to explore the existence of teaching presence, cognitive…

This article considers formal and informal learning activities in massive open online courses (MOOCs). MOOCs are often broadly positioned as either cMOOCs (based on connectivistic pedagogies) or xMOOCs (based on cognitivistic/behavioristic pedagogies). In a recent "International Review of Research in Open and Distance" article, Anders…

Digital technologies offer immense potential for transforming teacher learning and the delivery of professional development activities throughout teachers' careers. As the COVID-19 pandemic has made face-to­-face professional learning challenging or impossible for teachers to attend in many contexts, online professional learning options for…

The purpose of this collective case study was to explore digital badging in educational institutions as support for K-12 practitioners struggling to integrate technology into pedagogical practices. The researcher conducted a mixed-method study that captured perceptions about digital badges and follow-up interviews with selected badge users to…

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the current video collection of an open-access video website (TED-Ed). The research questions focus on its content as evidence of development, its viewership as evidence of use, and flipping as evidence of interaction in informal learning. In late September 2013, 686 video lessons were posted on the…

This paper responds to the Alpine Rendez-Vous "crisis" in technology-enhanced learning. It takes a contested area of policy as well as a rapid change in the National Health Service, and documents the responses to "information overload" by a group of general practitioners practices in the North of England. Located between the…