This book demonstrates how blended learning improves access to and enhances the quality of higher education teaching and learning in Asian universities. It first discusses how leading universities in the region drive and support blended learning at the institutional level to enhance student learning engagement and outcomes. It then examines 10 effective implementations and lessons learned of blended learning practices across different disciplinary courses and programmes (humanities and language, science and engineering, social science and education, and others) in the region. The chapters in this book provide an overview of the opportunities and challenges of blended learning for improved access and enhanced quality of higher education, and offer insights into the promising blended learning policies and practices in Asian universities.

This book addresses issues of access that COVID-19 brought forth in higher education, with a primary focus on Asian countries. In looking to address SDG4 to promote “inclusive and equitable quality education for all”, the volume explores the challenges relating to educational exclusion by considering how specially-abled students have been impacted by the digital divide in the context of the pandemic. It puts a spotlight on the approaches, experiences, and case analyses from various geographies in the region to study transitions in inclusivity. Universities and institutes of higher education have had to reconsider their digital offerings and services all the more since the onset of the pandemic, but have, in many instances, failed to fully account for how Internet access can be limited, unavailable, or unaffordable for many students. As a result, specially-abled learners – students without sufficient technological resources, such as those living in remote areas where there are little or no Internet facilities – have been, however unintentionally, neglected. While universities implemented their own practices, processes and policies to reach, and teach, disadvantaged learners, they had to further adapt these strategies, re-aligning them to meet the unprecedented circumstances, and concomitant needs, of specially-abled learners – and there is still much more to do. This book consolidates regional perspectives on how to work towards goals of inclusivity, and bridge the digital divide, looking into, and beyond, the conditions of the pandemic. Relevant to scholars and policymakers, this book is of interest to those focused on digitisation and the transition to the ‘new normal’ in higher education.

This open access book offers pioneering insights and practical methods for promoting diversity and inclusion in higher education classrooms and curricula. It highlights the growing importance of international education programs in Asia and the value of understanding student diversity in a changing, evermore interconnected world. The book explores diversity across physical, psychological and cogitative traits, socio-economic backgrounds, value systems, traditions and emerging identities, as well as diverse expectations around teaching, grading, and assessment. Chapters detail significant trends in active learning pedagogy, writing programs, language acquisition, and implications for teaching in the liberal arts, adult learners, girls and women, and Confucian heritage communities. A quality, relevant, 21st Century education should address multifaceted and intersecting forms of diversity to equip students for deep life-long learning inside and outside the classroom. This timely volume provides a unique toolkit for educators, policy-makers, and professional development experts.

The book discusses the most essential topics in understanding the development and changes of higher educational systems in Asia after the outbreak of the pandemic, and explores the transformative, international and innovative moves from an Asian perspective. The topics covered in the book are timely in that higher education in Asia was severely limited during the tumultuous time of the pandemic, including three themes- 1. How the pandemic drives system reform and quality management; 2. How can universities maintain transnational partnerships and attract global talent; 3. How would faculty members innovate teaching pedagogy and reassess student learning experiences. This timely and well-researched book provides valuable insights into the challenges and opportunities for national, regional, and international higher education created by the recent pandemic as well as technological and geopolitical changes. The lucid analysis of key issues and trends will be useful to academics, policymakers, and researchers within Asia and beyond. Professor Jane Knight, Ontario Institute for studies in Education, University of Toronto This book sets out important thinking for the post-pandemic era in Asian higher education. Based on valuable experience across a diverse region, this book highlights the opportunity to reimagine the future trajectory for higher education. As more of the Asia-Pacific moves toward mass and even universal systems of higher education, it exerts greater influence on higher education around the world. This book offers practical analysis that is culturally grounded in the rich civilizations of Asia about ubiquitous issues in higher education, including social equity, human agency, program quality, innovative pedagogy, academic governance, private sector initiative, knowledge building, and a new form of internationalization. It offers a sensible launchpad for a policy agenda. Professor Gerard Postiglione, Emeritus Professor, The University of Hong Kong

Cases on Online and Blended Learning Technologies in Higher Education: Concepts and Practices provides real-life examples of those involved in developing and implementing the merge of traditional education curriculum and online instruction.

Blended Learning for Quality Higher Education presents a framework and self-assessment tool developed from a holistic view of building institutional capacity to drive, sustain, and scale up blended learning. It incorporates case studies from experienced HEIs in the region to demonstrate how the framework and its dimensions could be operationalised, and how the gaps identified in the self-assessment exercise could be addressed--

This book highlights the perspectives, challenges, and current practices within higher and distance education around the world.

This groundbreaking book offers a down-to-earth resource for the practical application of blended learning in higher education as well as a comprehensive examination of the topic. Well-grounded in research, Blended Learning in Higher Education clearly demonstrates how the blended learning approach embraces the traditional values of face-to-face teaching and integrates the best practices of online learning. This approach has proven to both enhance and expand the effectiveness and efficiency of teaching and learning in higher education across disciplines. In this much-needed book, authors D. Randy Garrison and Norman D. Vaughan present the foundational research, theoretical framework, scenarios, principles, and practical guidelines for the redesign and transformation of the higher education curriculum. Blended Learning in Higher Education Outlines seven blended learning redesign principles Explains the professional development issues essential to the implementation of blended learning designs Presents six illustrative scenarios of blended learning design Contains practical guidelines to blended learning redesign Describes techniques and tools for engaging students