In a world driven by constant change and innovation, Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) are undergoing a rapid transformation, often driven by external factors such as emerging technologies. One of the key drivers affecting the design and development of educational delivery mechanisms in HEIs is the fast pace of educational technology development which not only impacts an institution’s technical capacity to infuse hardware and software solutions into existing learning infrastructure but also has implications for pedagogical practice, stakeholder acceptance of new technology, and HEI administrative structures. However, little is known about the implementation of contemporary educational technology in HEI environments, particularly as they relate to competing stakeholder perceptions of technology effectiveness in course delivery and knowledge acquisition. This review fills that gap by exploring the evidence and analyses of 46 empirical research studies focussing on technology implementation issues in a diverse range of institutional contexts, subject areas, technologies, and stakeholder profiles. This study found that the dynamic interplay of educational technology characteristics, stakeholder perceptions on the effectiveness of technology integration decisions, theoretical frameworks and models relevant to technology integration in pedagogical practices, and metrics to gauge post-implementation success are critical dimensions to creating viable pathways to effective educational technology implementation. To that end, this study proposes a framework to guide the development of sound implementation strategies that incorporates five dimensions: technology, stakeholder perceptions, academic discipline, success metrics, and theoretical frameworks. This study will benefit HEI decision-makers responsible for re-engineering complex course delivery systems to accommodate the infusion of new technologies and pedagogies in ways that will maximise their utility to students and faculty.

This review focuses on the development of writing research informed by a Vygotskian perspective. A methodological environment to aid the instruction of writing is presented. The review reveals the need to conduct research in developing students' inner voice, to lower the cognitive drain created during writing, and to understand how helpful the understanding of cognitive deficiencies is for teachers.

Within Australia, Vocational Education and Training (VET) is promoted as a pathway for low socioeconomic status (LSES) students to enter Higher Education (HE). However, greater equity will only occur if these students achieve successful university outcomes. But how should such success be defined? This paper examined two data sources (i.e., nine years of archival achievement data from one multi-campus Australian university, 18 qualitative interviews with LSES VET students who had transitioned to HE) to consider varying measures of this group’s success. Quantitative achievement measures indicated that although VET-entry students performed as well as or better than those entering based on secondary school results, LSES students had systematically lower academic achievement across both groups, suggesting equity goals are yet to be realised. While interviewed students frequently mentioned grades, they also described seeing improvement, making connections, experiencing satisfaction and growing confidence as markers of success. Data highlighted the negative consequences some LSES VET students experienced when grades were viewed as the sole metric of success. Findings suggest it is important for universities to continue to promote VET pathways and normalise diverse conceptions of success to encourage persistence when academic achievement goals are not immediately reached.