Digital Learning, Ethics and Pedagogies

A special issue of Societies (ISSN 2075-4698).

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 1 December 2025 | Viewed by 927

Special Issue Editors


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Guest Editor
Institute for the Study of Societal Issues, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA
Interests: digital inequality; sociological theory; research methods; work; elites

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Guest Editor
School of Engineering, Santa Clara University, Santa Clara, CA 95053, USA
Interests: social ethics; ethics in technology; sociology and religion

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Guest Editor
Department of Sociology, College of Arts and Sciences, Santa Clara University, Santa Clara, CA 95053, USA
Interests: digital sociology; global media; research methods

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

As the digital revolution accelerates, people are teaching and learning in radically different ways. From the rise in audio culture with podcasts to the rapid scaling of AI, educators must now more than ever grapple with emergent ethical issues related to teaching and learning in the digital age. This Special Issue invites contributions from scholars of all fields, policy makers, educators, and practitioners to discuss these dynamic shifts in both formal and informal learning. This volume calls for contributors to probe increasingly important issues including but not limited to innovative pedagogies, interdisciplinary approaches to learning, emergent research methods, theoretical frameworks, and/or conceptual advances. Given the dynamic pace of change, the parameters for contributors are set as broadly as possible, including emergent phenomena, historical work, international, comparative, and/or global angle of vision. Article submissions may be empirical, theoretical, or methodological—using any method or approach to formal or informal learning from the social sciences, humanities, professional schools, and beyond.

Dr. Jeremy Schulz
Dr. Katia Moles
Prof. Dr. Laura Robinson
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

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Keywords

  • learning
  • pedagogy
  • digital
  • online
  • education
  • ethics
  • AI
  • user-generated content

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Published Papers (1 paper)

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19 pages, 784 KiB  
Article
Generative AI as a Teaching Tool for Social Research Methodology: Addressing Challenges in Higher Education
by Laura Arosio
Societies 2025, 15(6), 157; https://doi.org/10.3390/soc15060157 - 5 Jun 2025
Viewed by 687
Abstract
Teaching social research methodology in university courses, whether qualitative or quantitative, presents significant challenges for both instructors and students. These challenges include the availability of empirical datasets, the illustration of data analysis techniques, the simulation of research report writing, and the facilitation of [...] Read more.
Teaching social research methodology in university courses, whether qualitative or quantitative, presents significant challenges for both instructors and students. These challenges include the availability of empirical datasets, the illustration of data analysis techniques, the simulation of research report writing, and the facilitation of scenario-based learning. Emerging AI tools, such as ChatGPT-4, offer potential support in higher education, though their effectiveness depends on the context and their integration with traditional didactic methods. This article explores the potential of AI in teaching social research methodology, with a focus on its benefits, limits and ethical considerations. Furthermore, the paper presents a case study of AI application in teaching qualitative research techniques, specifically in the analysis of solicited documents. Generative AI shows the potential to improve the teaching of social research methodology by providing students with opportunities to engage in hands-on learning, interact with realistic datasets and refine their analytical and communication skills. The integration of AI in education should, however, be approached with a critical mindset, ensuring that AI tools serve as a means to sharpen (not replace) traditional methods of learning. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Digital Learning, Ethics and Pedagogies)
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