Reimagining digital pedagogy in higher education business studies

: applying a 3D model to three case studies

Abstract

Written communication is no longer limited to text printed on sheets of paper. Written messages now arrive in a variety of modes on different digital devices and are read and produced multimodally. One of my key aims in this thesis was to explore the transformation of the knowledge transfer process by examining the digital pedagogies of three university educators and unpacking the extent to which multimodality and multiliteracies informed their digital pedagogies.

I used an interpretivist qualitative approach with a multi-case study design to explore how selected business teachers at the university level made their digital pedagogical decisions when working through multimodalities. A three-dimensional (3D) model provided a way to understand how the educators technically transformed traditional texts into various multimedia teaching materials, the cultural considerations involved in the pedagogical design process, and how the critical use of multimodalities addressed both institutional demands and students’ needs. This 3D model was supplemented with the two concepts of “figured worlds” and educator identity to describe the contexts of the educators’ digital pedagogical decisions.

In this thesis, I present a new perspective, based on the 3D model, to explore digital pedagogies in higher education business studies and their relationships with multimodalities and figured worlds. I show how this new visual representation of the 3D model can be used as an actualisation tool to understand multiliteracies and digital pedagogical planning and design. The results suggest that the critical dimension offered by the 3D model is most important in understanding digital pedagogy in higher education business studies. All of the focal educators in the case studies shifted from a text-dominated pedagogy to a multimodal digital pedagogy. In this way, these educators moved away from the text-dominated era into a multimodal world. However, it is vital to consider temporal and spatial factors when planning digital pedagogies.

Date of Award	9 May 2023
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	University of Bristol
Supervisor	Jennifer Rowsell (Supervisor) & Frances Giampapa (Supervisor)