Geographies of collaboration in hybrid learning spaces in the postdigital era: towards sustainable futures for higher education learning

This conceptual paper discusses hybrid, collaborative learning spaces in the postdigital era, in which digital technologies are seen as interwoven into the full complexity of higher education (HE) spaces and practices. While the COVID-19 pandemic heightened the significance of digital technology in HE, it also exposed the fragility of the social interactions inherent in students’ learning. This situation might have stemmed from a narrow thinking of the ‘digital’ and the challenges of enabling equitable, convivial learning spaces to evolve in this context. As universities increasingly move towards hybridity in their educational offerings, particularly within the sustainable university mission, there is a need to critically examine and balance these spaces with a deeper understanding of the ‘social’. Through the theoretical framing of the ‘geographies of collaboration’, this paper offers a definition of ‘hybrid’ that extends beyond purely technical or pedagogical arrangements, as a fluid experience of space, where the boundaries between the online and the physical are blurred, aligning with a broader interest in rethinking space in new and mobile ways. Given the prominence of hybridity, it becomes critical to better understand how to work towards high-quality hybrid, collaborative HE spaces, aiming for more equal practices and sustainable futures for HE.