Pentexonomy

Abstract

Educational online technologies (EOTs) have revolutionised the delivery of online education, making a large contribution towards the global increase in demand for higher learning. Educationalists have striven to adapt through knowledge development and application of online tools, but making educationally sound choices about technology has proved challenging, amidst the extensive and largely unclassified range of tools. The absence of a taxonomy comprehensive enough to guide EOT choice is a concern, given the current global extent of online activity. This chapter addresses this issue by proposing a new taxonomic framework of EOTs called the Pentexonomy. Developed by augmenting five existing taxonomies, all of which include current EOT insights gathered during 2014-15 interviews with blended learning experts, the Pentexonomy synergises a range of perspectives to produce a robust, contextualised, and multi-dimensional classification which facilitates effective decision-making on EOT activity.