Heutagogy and m-learning: Conceptualising the learner journey through the Orientation, Exploration, Pathfinding and Arrival (OEPA) model

Abstract

The use of mobile devices by learners in Higher Education (HE) invites a re-conceptualisation of what we have come to understand as learning in contemporary settings. In adopting mobile devices as learning tools, learners develop a range of technical, cognitive and social skills. As such, mobile devices can be viewed as enabling the development of wider lifelong learning and employability attributes that may be of benefit in a variety of contexts. The literature on learner-centred education continues to develop with a variety of theoretical approaches ranging from andragogy, self-regulated learning and more recently heutagogy. As a form of self-determined learning, heutagogy challenges much in traditional pedagogic practice and opens up new avenues for innovation. Heutagogy continues to evolve as a theory of self-determined learning. In this sense, the development of heutagogy coincides with technological advances, and as such provides us with an opportunity to contemplate new ways of learning, as well as new relationships and identities within learning. This conceptual paper aims to address a research problem: How can we develop m-learning to accommodate heutagogy? In doing so, this paper combines version B heutagogy with the Orientation, Exploration, Pathfinding and Arrival (OEPA) model to re-conceptualise heutagogic m-learning.