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Listening to Learners: the learner experience of e-learning (LEX)

Listening to Learners: the learner experience of e-learning (LEX). Linda Creanor & Kathryn Trinder Glasgow Caledonian University Doug Gowan & Carol Howells The Open Learning Partnership. Overview. Introduction to LEX Activity 1 : match the learners Report back

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Listening to Learners: the learner experience of e-learning (LEX)

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  1. Listening to Learners:the learner experience of e-learning (LEX) Linda Creanor & Kathryn Trinder Glasgow Caledonian University Doug Gowan & Carol Howells The Open Learning Partnership

  2. Overview • Introduction to LEX • Activity 1: match the learners • Report back • Activity 2: implications for practitioners • Report back • Summary

  3. Introduction “We need to listen to people’s views and ensure that technology meets their needs.” (DfES E-Strategy, 2005)

  4. Introduction to LEX • A national JISC research project on the learner experience of e-learning • Informed by a Scoping Study (Sharpe et al, 2005) that identified need for cross-sector, integrated research • Putting the learner’s voice centre stage • Complemented by the Learner XP study • Conole et al: HE focus, discipline specific

  5. Background • Many studies to date have focused on course design, tutor intervention, or technology

  6. Research approach • We started from the premise that learners are experts on their own experiences • We adapted an Interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA) approach • Interviews and focus groups were conducted

  7. 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?

  8. Implementation • How do we identify ‘effective e-learners’? • How do we reach these learners? • Data collection • Analysis

  9. Meet the Learners

  10. 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. 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. 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. 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. 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. Where are we now - emerging themes

  17. Where are we now - 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. Activity – implications for practitioners • Implications for tutors, developers support staff, managers? • Activity (10 mins) • What implications do these findings have for us as practitioners? • How best can we present findings for practitioners? • Note down 3-5 points as the basis for good advice • Report back & discussion

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

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