LAUSR

Formal education has a critical role to play in the development of skills and capabilities for individuals to be productive and engaged citizens in society. Yet mainstream formal education practices alone are no longer sufficient to cater to complex societal demands as individuals frequently alter career directions, seek alternative education access and attempt to balance competing life, work and education requirements. Formal and informal learning opportunities through open, flexible and distance learning (OFDL) models are necessary elements within the broader education system. As such, contemporary educators are increasingly experimenting with open and flexible learning and teaching models and technologies that can create socially engaged and active learning contexts. Further, the integration of diverse educational scenarios can help to inform new learning models and teaching strategies. Educators are acutely aware of the need to re-adjust learning and teaching practices to foster 21st-century capabilities. This process is closely associated with an open, flexible and sustainable space that is no longer simply a physical construct but also includes an online environment that is not only supportive of this new type of learning but also acts as a catalyst for learning. The online learning environment is an important, integrated part of our educational system that enables learners to explore connections between what they have learned and other sources of knowledge and experience. In recent years, broad learning initiatives (e.g., open educational resources, Khan Academy, massive open online courses, as well as micro-credentialling) have offered openness, transparency and flexibility in accessing learning and demonstrating outcomes. These initiatives have vastly extended the opportunities for students to access alternate modes of learning while interacting with peers on a global scale. However, to date much of the research investigating the role, impact and influence of these learning opportunities has focused more on the practical outcomes (e.g., student grades), in lieu of more theoretical or policy-driven perspectives (e.g., Houlden & Veletsianos, 2019; Selwyn, 2011). The theoretical perspectives bring critical insights and debate regarding the ways online, open, and flexible learning environments operate to balance an increasingly technology-dominated education context. There is a need to create new conceptual and theoretical frameworks to guide our understanding of the future potential of online and flexible learning contexts to educate young people. We still have much to understand about how student learning processes develop and adapt to changing contexts. Similarly, there is much work to undertake in identifying effective, scalable and sustainable approaches to designing and implementing more personalised and contextualised learning support, as well as providing our teachers with relevant and timely data to empower actionable intelligence. DISTANCE EDUCATION 2019, VOL. 40, NO. 3, 303–308 https://doi.org/10.1080/01587919.2019.1656151