10112009 Slide 1

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Learners experiences of e-learning
Helen Beetham, Consultant to JISC e-Learning
Programme Drawing on the work of Rhona Sharpe
and the LExeL Scoping, Synthesis and Support
project Grainne Conole and the LXP projectLinda
Creanor and the LEX project Learners
Experiences of e-Learning (phase 2) projects
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Why learners experiences of e-learning matter

• All learners are, potentially, technology-enabled
  learners
• We are not trying to describe a separate part or
  aspect of learning, we are trying to redescribe
  the whole of learning in this new paradigm
• Many are highly effective e-learners,
  e-networkers and e-communicators
• Experiences of/with technology are a significant
  aspect of learners experiences (of knowledge,
  communication, life, learning, work)
• Learners expect technology to offer them
  flexibility and choice, ubiquitous access,
  customised support, rapid feedback
• Technology in the hands of learners is more
  potent force for change than any strategy

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How are we investigating e-learners?

• Background survey of existing research (Sharpe et
  al 2006)
• Phase 1 two large studies (Creanor et al 2006,
  Conole et al 2006)
• Reviews of institutional survey data
• New surveys of learners practices in different
  educational contexts
• Interviews to record beliefs, habits and
  expectations
• Participative techniques to allow learners to
  speak in their own voices
• Using familiar technology to collect data e.g.
  audio logs
• Guided recall, with artefacts, to elicit
  e-learning strategies
• Purposive sampling of effective e-learners
• Phase 2 seven focused studies with support and
  synthesis

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Conclusions from Phase 1

• Learners have high expectations of institutional
  technologies wrt access, communication,
  consistency and functionality
• Learners expect to be able to personalise
  institutional technologies and to use personal
  technologies in the institutional environment
• The Internet is the first port of call for
  information sites such as wikipedia are
  preferred to academically approved resources
• Communication technologies most used by learners
  are also often outside institutional control
  (mobile phones, skype, chat) there is an
  underworld of social networking in support of
  learning

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Conclusions from Phase 1

• Learners display enormous differences in past
  educational experiences, expectations, needs, and
  motivations, and in use of technologies
• Issues for learners are the emotional
  significance of learning, perceived cost and
  convenience of technologies, and time management
• Learners take a holistic view of e-learning they
  see technologies as part of their learning and
  their lives

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Key findings from the JISC/MORI survey of 16-18
year olds

• These learners are digital natives
• immersed in technology at home, at school, at
  work, and in their social lives
• have an implicit understanding of technology and
  its use
• (learn new skills thru experimentation, as-needed
  look-up, and peer mentoring)
• see technology as a core part of social
  engagement
• regard continuous, ubiquitous internet access as
  the norm
• They make extensive use of social networking and
  web 2.0 services
• only 5 claim never to use social networking
  websites 65 use them regularly
• three-fifths (62) use wikis, blogs or online
  networks 44 maintain their own blog or website
  only a fifth (21) are part of an online
  community such as Second Life
• they are cautious of publishing/sharing
  coursework online or of using social networks as
  learning tools (not in my space!)
• But they have difficulty discussing their
  expectations of ICT at university
• uncertainty about university life including the
  learning and teaching they will encounter
• struggle to imagine how technology can help them
  learn in ways they have not experienced
• expect ICT to have a bigger role at university
  but are unclear as to what this will be

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The learners of the future (2010/11?) today

• Many learners already use wireless and mobile
  devices, communication technologies, social
  software and online information services to help
  fit learning into their lives
• Some learners are effectively blending formal and
  informal, online and face-to-face, collaborative
  and individual learning
• Some learners are using sophisticated strategies
  for finding, evaluating and re-using information
• Some learners are skilled in content creation and
  sharing (wikis, blogging, tagging and rating,
  podcasting, web authoring)
• We anticipate these learners will be the majority
  in future (even without our help?)

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The Learners of the Future tomorrow?

• For every focus group we ran there was a
  leader of the pack who was one step ahead of
  the other children. These individuals have strong
  digital identities and are making the shift from
  consumption to creation. A range of
  characteristics is common to this type of
  activity self-motivation, ownership, purposeful
  creativity and peer-to-peer learning.
• DEMOS (2007) TheirSpace

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The Learners of the Future tomorrow?

• Reasoning, classically, has been concerned
  primarily with deductive, abstract types of
  reasoning. But what I see happening to today's
  kids as they work in this new digital medium has
  much more to do with bricolage than abstract
  logic. Bricolage has to do with the ability to
  find something - an object, tool, piece of code,
  document - and to use it in a new way and in a
  new context
• John Seely Brown (1999), cited in FutureLab
  (2007) Report on Social Software

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The Learners of the Future tomorrow?

• Learners will be living and learning in a world
  where
• Information is ubiquitous and multi-modal
• Communication is continuous and multi-channel
• Learning and its outcomes are predominantly
  expressed as digital assets
• Work is flexible, problem-centred, and requires
  constant updating of knowledge and skills
• There is a crisis in the value of knowledge and
  institutions historically associated with it

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Developing effective e-learners
attributes
strategies
skills
access
Beetham and Sharpe future learners, future
learning
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Developing effective e-learners
Academic content E-portfolios Task and assessment
management systems Creativity tools E-research
tools Collaborative spaces Wikis, blogs, social
tagging, file sharing Available via
personally-owned and portabledevices e.g. mobile
phone, pda, mp3 player, digital camera
Learners have access to relevant tools, resources
and services. Barriers to access minimised.
Personal devices integrate with institutional
environments. Issues of cost, convenience,
reliability and technical support are addressed.
attributes
strategies
skills
access
Beetham and Sharpe future learners, future
learning
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Developing effective e-learners
e-create e-collate e-collaborate e-investigate
Learners have opportunities to develop technical
skills and to practice them in learning contexts
increasing learner confidence and control over
use of technologies for learning
attributes
strategies
skills
access
Beetham and Sharpe future learners, future
learning
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Developing effective e-learners
Systemic thinking Multiple ways of
knowing Judgment Social entrepreneurialism Managi
ng career paths Communication and collaboration
skills (Seely Brown 2005)
attributes
strategies
skills
Key dimensions of choice Where I learn Who I
learn with What technologies I learn with (LeXeL
Phase II)
access
Beetham and Sharpe future learners, future
learning
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Developing effective e-learners
Digital pioneers Creative producers Everyday
communicators Information gatherers(Green and
Hannon 2007)
attributes
strategies
ReadinessResourcefulnessResilienceRememberingR
eflecting(Higgins et al 2005)
skills
access
Attention Creativity Social participation
Developing and projecting identities (based on
Owens et al 2007)
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Developing effective e-learners key issues for
research (Phase 2)

• How can we define 'effectiveness' as a learner in
  a technology-rich environment? What are the
  relevant skills, strategies and aptitudes?
• What are the critical choices learners make about
  use of technologies for learning? What impact do
  these have on their experience?
• What are the critical moments in learners'
  changing relationships with learning, and with
  technology?
• How do learners integrate (blend) formal and
  informal learning strategies, personal, public
  and institutional technologies, online and
  offline social networks and identities, academic
  and peer-created/shared knowledge?
• How do learners experience e-learning, including
  affective qualities? What impact do institutional
  and course-level practices have?
• How is the creation and circulation of knowledge
  changing and how should HEIs respond?

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Developing effective e-learners key issues for
strategy

• How can institutions support learners to develop
  digital literacies, when staff skills may lag
  behind learners?
• How should assessment criteria and strategies
  change to recognise new digital knowledge
  practices, and/or should existing values be
  re-defined?
• How can institutions enable learners to make best
  use of personal and public technologies as well
  as those provided by the sector?
• What choices do learners really want and need in
  relation to their learning with technologies? How
  can institutions support good choices?
• What responsibility does the HE sector have to
  redress the digital divide among our learners and
  in our communities?
• What is the unique offering that formal higher
  education can make to learners in this new
  education marketplace?

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Relevant items from the HEFCW circular Enhancing
Learning and Teaching Through Technology A
strategy for Wales

• 23 We wish to support you in achieving a position
  where it is unremarkable to enhance processes
  such as student selection, enrolment and
  assessment, which are core to your business,
  through the use of technology. This is likely to
  have an impact on the form and function of
  learning spaces and will require robust
  technology and system interoperability for the
  learning platform, plus administrative and
  learning support.
• 24 We wish to support you in using technology to
  enhance the learning experience regardless of
  location of delivery, but designed with the
  delivery location in mind, including campus, home
  and the workplace. This will increase the
  flexibility and accessibility of provision.
• 28 The use of technology can increase
  accessibility and flexibility of learning and
  support resources, help to address equality and
  diversity issues, and foster lifelong learning.

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Developing effective e-learnerskey issues for
pedagogy

• Developing depth as well as breadth of attention
• Building authentic communities of inquiry
  (Garrison Anderson 2003)
• Enabling co-construction of knowledge (Collis
  2002)
• Enquiry-based learning with authentic research
  issues
• Building in reliance on learners digital
  capabilities
• Exploiting capabilities of serious gaming
  technologies and approaches (de Freitas 2006)
• Assessment for new knowledge capabilities and
  digital literacies