Setting the scene

Setting the scene Rhona SharpeLearner Experience Support Project

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

Aims learner experience strand • Review and investigate how learners experience and participate in e-learning • Help practitioners support learners with different needs, experiences and preferences • Help developers to design systems that: • support a wide range of learning tasks/interactions • meet different learner needs (access, competence) • and enable positive learning experiences • Helping other researchers and e-learning experts gather information about learners’ experiences of e-learning • Helping learners improve their personal practice and effectiveness in e-learning contexts

Key research questions • How do learners experience [a particular approach or activity] in e-learning? What do they actually do when required to learn in this way? • What makes for an effective e-learner/ effective e-learning in this kind of situation? • What aspects of the learner merit closer scrutiny, beyond their observable behaviours? • What aspects of the learner experience /approach seem particularly effective and can possibly be built upon further?

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

Scoping, support & synthesis The scoping study literature review confirmed that the learner perspective on e-learning has been largely overlooked in research and development projects. It was found that much of the existing literature is teacher focused and focused on evaluations of specific courses and/or technologies. This study made recommendations for the research questions and methodology to be undertaken by subsequent projects. www.jisc.ac.uk/index.cfm?name=elp_outcomes

Scoping, support & synthesis • 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

Key questions • How do learners engage with and experience e-learning? • What strategies do e-learners use? • What might characterise effective learners in an e-learning context? • What are appropriate methodologies for capturing the e-learners experience?

Learner Experience of e-learning (LEX) This project is conducting interviews and focus groups with learners across the post-16 educational sectors in order to capture the role and impact of technology to their learning. The project views e-learners as experts on their own experience, and is using interpretative phenomenological analysis to elicit the nature of that experience. www.jisc.ac.uk/elp_lex.html

holistic views of e-learning “To me its just learning, the fact that its online as opposed to in a classroom is irrelevant. It’s just another way of accessing it. It’s all just learning. .. I think it depends on where you’re coming from what it means to you, but for me I just think of it as learning and I don’t use the term [e-learning].” (Experienced e-learner in LEX study, Creanor et al, 2006)

Learner experiences of e-learning: exploring subject differences (LearnerXP) This project will explore how learners' experiences with e-learning differ in different learning and teaching contexts. The project is working in collaboration with a number of HEA subject centres to develop in-depth learner studies. Learners' experiences and beliefs will be captured using audio-logs, observations, and structured interviews based around artefacts produced by learners themselves, as well as focus groups. www.jisc.ac.uk/index.cfm?name=elp_learnerxp

HEA review of undergraduate experiences of blended e-learning • How is the term ‘blended learning’ being used in higher education? • What are the underlying rationales being used for promoting blended learning? • What monitoring and evaluation strategies are being adopted for ensuring and enhancing the quality of blended learning? • What impact is blended learning having on the student experience? • What are the success factors for blended learning? www.heacademy.ac.uk/4156.htm

learner experience studies These projects are intended to complement the practitioner planning/designing perspective (intentional, curriculum-based, modular) with learner participating perspective, which is: • holistic • longitudinal • developmental • affective • differentiated

Recommendations • for practitioners support learners with different needs, experiences and preferences • for developers to design systems • for other researchers and e-learning experts gather information about learners’ experiences of e-learning • for learners improve their personal practice and effectiveness in e-learning contexts

Methodological issues Aiming for a methodology other projects can use. • How do we elicit learners’ experiences of e-learning, without using this term or asking directly? (elicitation techniques, interviewing tips and tricks) • How should data gathered from learners be analysed to ensure we do justice to the learner’s own perspective and voice, while addressing our key research questions (methodological tension)?

Consultation questions • Do the accounts of learners’ experience of e-learning fit with your expectations and experience? What new light does it shed? What are the really significant findings? • How effective is the developing methodology and the techniques for data collection? How could they be improved? • How should we interpret these findings in relation to (a) learner-centred practice (b) learner-centred policies and organisational strategies? • What gaps are there? Which questions/ techniques/learners need further study? • What forms should final outcomes and recommendations take?

Setting the scene