Developing the scholarship of teaching: what is the role of e-teaching and learning?

Discourse about the scholarship of teaching and learning appears to represent some views about higher education more than others. For example, disciplinary perspectives have been acknowledged, and ideas from critical theory and phenomenography have been presented, with the role of reflection receiving considerable attention. While approaches to e-teaching have been examined as examples of scholarship, there has been limited exploration of whether e-learning discourse has potential to extend the concept of scholarship. In this paper we ask: Can ideas about e-learning add to current understandings about the nature of the scholarship of teaching and learning? If so, what additional perspectives might they add? We begin by reviewing some conceptual and contextual dimensions of the scholarship of teaching and learning, before exploring the role that understandings from e-teaching and e-learning might play in developing the concept of scholarship. We use an academic professional development programme from our institution as an illustration.