e-learning from the learners’ perspective

1. e-learning from the learners’ perspective Greg BenfieldOxford Brookes University JISC Learner Experience Scoping Study With special thanks to the LEX team for slides, resources and learner voices

2. Overview • Introduction to JISC ‘Understanding my learning’ projects • The learner experience scoping study • The LEX study • Activity: match the learners • Report back • Discussion/Summary

3. JISC e-Learning and Pedagogy • Overall aim: ensure that e-learning in UK post-16 sector is • ‘pedagogically sound, learner-focused and accessible’. • First theme: design for learning • Practitioner planning perspective • Second theme: understanding my learning (learners’ experience of learning) • Learner participating perspective

4. Learner experience projects • Scoping, Support & Synthesis • Learner Experience of e-Learning (LEX) • Experiences of e-Learning: Exploring subject differences (Learner XP) [Also, funded by Higher Education Academy, • Review of the undergraduate experience of blended e-learning]

5. Scoping study Team: Rhona Sharpe (Oxford Brookes University) Greg Benfield (Oxford Brookes University) Eta DeCicco (NIACE) Ellen Lessner(Abingdon and Witney College) • the learner perspective on e-learning largely overlooked • much of the existing literature is teacher focused and focused on evaluations of specific courses and/or technologies • made recommendations for the research questions and methodology to be undertaken by subsequent projects. www.jisc.ac.uk/index.cfm?name=elp_outcomes

6. Scoping study • Learners take a holistic view of their learning • Learners respond differently in the same situation Generalisations: learning experience is dominated by issues of emotionality, time and (e-)learning skills Differentiations: learning experience is dominated by issues of difference e.g. prior experience, culture, disability

7. the learner experience of e-learning (LEX) Linda Creanor & Kathryn Trinder (Glasgow Caledonian University) Doug Gowan & Carol Howells (The Open Learning Partnership) Interviews and focus groups with learners across the post-16 educational sectors in order to capture the role and impact of technology on their learning. www.jisc.ac.uk/elp_lex.html

8. LEX research approach • Started from the premise that learners are experts on their own experiences • Adapted an Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) approach • Interviews and focus groups were conducted • Use of ‘Interview plus’ method recommended by scoping study

9. LEX research questions 3 key areas highlighted: • What might characterise effective learners in an e-learning context? • What beliefs and intentions do effective learners display? • What strategies do effective learners display?

10. LEX: Meet the Learners Community-based learners in local ICT centre Work-based learners in employer’s premises Basic skills learners in a Learndirect centre Learner Profiles UGs & PGs engaged in a range of e-learning activities Adults learning online at home and at work

11. LEX: Meet the Learners “Yeah well basically when I first went on and started to look at it I thought ‘Oh my God! I don’t know whether this is for me?’ but then I thought calm down a bit and sit down and go through it step by step.” (inexperienced e-learner)

12. LEX: Meet the Learners “I think it’s really good because as you’re learning, I’m doing literacy and numeracy but as I’m learning about literacy and numeracy I’m picking things up that I maybe didn’t know before on the computer.” (level 2 literacy learner)

13. LEX: Meet the Learners “Nobody online had to know that I had a disability, whereas in a classroom environment it stands out like a sore thumb.” (adult e-learner)

14. LEX: Meet the Learners “I do think it is a good way to learn and I do think that I learn a lot easier than what I did in college, pick it up a lot quicker and working at my own pace again.” (19 year old ex-FE learner)

15. Activity – match the learners • What are our pre-conceived views of learners and their use of technology? • Activity –Match the Learners (10 mins) • Group activity using the sheets provided • Report back & discussion

16. LEX - emerging themes

17. LEX - emerging themes Fitting learning around life Control & choices Expectations of technology Strategies/ways of coping Personalisation of environment Influence of/on family Motivation to use technology Course design issues Time management

18. The internet as first choice for finding information “I wanted to find a phone number recently ... and I was asking my parents ... what the name of the company was so I could go online and find the number and they reminded me that we have a phone book and it just hadn’t even occurred to me because ... I go online for everything.”

19. An ‘underworld’ of texting and messaging “So my [group] we always text each other and say ‘oh are you coming in at this time or we’ll meet at this time’ and so it looks on the face of it from the university website that we haven’t been communicating all year but we have, it’s just outside of that [discussion] board.”

20. ... and finally! “I think it’s really good. I mean so it should be! It costs enough money to be here.”

21. Discussion points • How do these reports from learners accord with your experiences of learner reactions to technology? • What implications might these initial findings have for us as practitioners? • What particular aspects of the learner experience of e-learning require more in-depth study?