2020 Top Ten Books on Online Learning

December 17, 2020

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2020 was, we can all agree, an unusual year with many new experiences for teachers, learners, policy-makers, instructional designers and administrators. It was also a strong year for books, both open source and commercial.

Contact North | Contact Nord is offering a list of the top ten books on online learning for 2020 in three categories:

Books About the Future;
Books About the Technologies of Learning;
Books About Teaching, Learning and Learning Design; and

There are many more books to explore at Must-Read Books on Online Learning.

Books About the Future
	*Alexander, B. (2020). Academia Next: The Futures of Higher Education. Baltimore: John Hopkins University Press.* Futurists are in high demand. They have a set of skills and a basis for exploring patterns, trends and signals, which suggest scenarios for emerging futures. Bryan Alexander is a respected futurist and skilled practitioner. This book, published in January 2020 and written before the pandemic, is timely in that it explores some of the precarity about higher education already clear and now exacerbated by the pandemic. He explores these scenarios – peak education, health care nation, open education triumph, augmented (AR/VR) campus, retro campus and “Siri, tutor me” as all having elements of credibility and all raising significant issues. Well written, focused and insightful, the book deservedly won the 2020 Most Significant Futures Work award from the Association of Professional Futurists. Policy-makers, administrators and concerned colleagues will all find value in the insights, which fill each chapter.
	*Dede, C.J. and Richards, J. (Eds.) (2020). The 60-Year Curriculum – New Models for Lifelong Learning in the Digital Economy. London: Routledge.* We need to start thinking strategically about lifelong learning as a response to rapid change in the global economy and emerging demographic shifts. These changes are happening right in front of us, and our colleges and universities need to think about whether their current programs and modes of operation need to be re-imagined and redesigned. This book will help. With some case examples and insightful commentary, the collection of readings will inspire and encourage a healthy conversation about “what’s next?”. The title is important: will the learning students undertake at your institution prepare them for the turbulence they will experience in the next sixty years of their life? It is a good question.
	*Nichols, M. (2020). Transforming Universities with Digital Distance Education: The Future of Formal Learning. London: Routledge.* Mark Nichols of the Open Polytechnic in New Zealand (formerly of the Open University, UK) has been engaged in transformation projects for a large part of his professional career. This thoughtful, engaging, and well-informed book captures the key components of the system and organizational level changes needed to effectively implement online learning as a strategy. Beyond incrementalism, the book challenges all engaged in thinking about the future to understand the current dysfunction of universities (and colleges) and to get to the systemic features that need to change. An excellent book that will challenge administrators, policy-makers, and instructors to ask some basic questions about mission, purpose, and action.

Books About the Technologies of Learning
	*Jiao, H. and Lissitz, R. (Eds.) (2020). Application of Artificial Intelligence to Assessment. Charlotte NC: Information Age Publishing.* As faculty members struggled with the lack of access to proctored exams and started to think about assessment differently, questions were asked about “what’s next for assessment”, especially about competency-based assessment, lab work, fieldwork and practicums. One thing that is next is a shift in how we think about the purpose of assessment. But the other is how we design, develop, deploy and make use of assessment instruments. This collection of papers, will help designers think about how they can start to use the AI tools (including open source tools) to improve and expand assessment beyond current practice.
	Glăveanu, V.P., Ness, I.J., & de Saint Laurent, C. (Eds.) (2020). Creative Learning in Digital and Virtual Environments: Opportunities and Challenges of Technology-Enabled Learning and Creativity. London: Routledge. Written during the pandemic, the book is focused on possibilities, opportunities and challenges associated with online learning. While some of the language is a little opaque, the content is focused on unleashing creativity and passion. Subjects include mathematics, creative collaboration, leveraging social media for social action. With a strong European focus (two of the editors are based in Bergen and the third in Bologna) but globally relevant, the book is full of creative ideas and rich examples of practice.
	*Kergel, D (2020). Digital Learning in Motion – From Book Culture to the Digital Age. London: Routledge.* Available now, this book seeks to interpret our understanding of “learning” as a construct mediated by the ways in which knowledge is presented (the medium is the message). The book explores the relationship between learning and motion. The “big idea” is to consider how learning is based on motion, generated by new experiences and changes with the environment and through access to media, information, community and sharing. The book presents a normative model that outlines how learning can be structured on the basis of society’s values and self-understanding discourse in the digital age. It also explores how fluid access to content changes “learning” and the relationship between learners, teachers and knowledge.

Books About Teaching, Learning & Learning Design
	*Spence, J. (2020). Empowered at a Distance – How to Build Self-Direction into Remote and Hybrid Learning. Philadelphia: IM Press LP.* How do we move students from passive recipients of content and a Zoom lecture to self-directed, empowered and engaged learners? How do we rethink the roles of teachers and technology in enabling learners to become self-managing, persistent and effective online learners? These challenges are addressed here in direct and clear ways. The book focuses on the idea of the student “owning” their learning and driving their learning agenda. The book is not naïve about the challenges associated with this work and examines the journey that instructors and students need to take together to enable this shift. Practical, clear and focused, the book is well worth reading.
	*Daniela, L. (Ed.) (2020). Pedagogies of Digital Learning in Higher Education. London: Routledge.* This new book is an edited collection of quality materials, which explores what a variety of faculty have done across a number of disciplines; music, literature, biosciences, engineering, and social work, to engage their students in creative and imaginative ways. While the focus is on online learning, there are also relevant materials related to blended learning here. A truly global collection, it is full of surprises and insights.
	*Lowenthal, P. R., & Dennen, V. P. (Eds.) (2020). Social Presence and Identity in Online Learning. New York: Routledge.* Originally published as a collection of papers in the journal Distance Education, this is another set of materials which will help you think about how we move past a “banking” notion of online learning where students receive “chunks” of information, are tested on it, and put the test in the bank. The book pushes us to consider the idea of a community of inquiry and constructivists understanding of learning processes and the need for instructors and students to engage and experience a real sense of presence. Gert Biesta, the educational philosopher, reminds us that teaching and learning are intensely personal experiences and require presence. Some theory, a lot of practical examples and some great ideas. (This book is included here since it appeared in Canada in 2020).
	*Hai-Jew, S. (2020). Visual Approaches to Instructional Design, Development, and Deployment. Hershey PA: Information Science Reference.* Storyboarding, both for design and development, has been a common practice for all of us who design courses and teach online. Indeed, many are now asking their students to adopt visual design as part of their skills repertoire for planning and completing assignments. This book captures best practices in visual thinking and design and explores how they can be used effectively in course creation, development and delivery. It is the latest in a series of books from this publisher about innovative approaches to online learning.

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