Supporting diverse learners on eMatrix

My post on supporting diverse learners has been posted on LondonMet's eMatrix site. eMatrix is an excellent resource for HE staff as it gathers tutorials, articles and educational advice on online teaching, learning, assessment, feedback and facilitation. Worth to have a look!

Learning Technologies Summer Forum

Last week I went to the Learning Technologies Summer Forum combined with the Learning and Skills Group conference, and here are my thoughts on the part I enjoyed the most, that is David Price's keynote speech. 

David Price describes himself as a 'learning futurist' and in his keynote he spoke about concepts he discussed in his recent book OPEN: How we'll work, live and learn in the future. In his view, the times we live in are characterised by a new set of values and modes of coexistence that, despite being relatively new, are now often taken for granted. They include sharing, transparency, informality, non-linearity and inclusivity. As a result, he observes, the gap between informal social learning and formal learning is dangerously widening and educators are now often faced with an 'epidemy of disengagement in formal learning'. 

Engagement is obviously important because of its direct link with creativity, productivity and innovation. The reasons for disengagement include loss of autonomy, loss of trust and loss of job security. 

Another characteristic feature of our times is disintermediation, the 'cutting out the middleman'. It has got its pros, like closer connections between people, but there are also obvious cons, like job losses. 

In David's view, the economic value of learning is going down, however the social value of learning is skyrocketing. This is related to the recent trend towards opening and democratisation of learning. Social learning is not so much about technology, but about connecting and about values that drive motivation. 

He lists six imperatives of social learning: 

• Autonomy, i.e. do it yourself
• Immediacy, i.e. do it now 
• Collegiality, i.e. do it with friends, e.g. through study groups etc.
• Playfulness, i.e. do it for fun
• Generosity, i.e. do unto others
• High visibility, i.e. do it for the world to see

This is the type of learning that, in David's view, is now gaining momentum. At the heart of this social learning is the open learning movement with its 'machine-shop' culture (no hierarchies, free exchange of knowledge), encouragement for unorthodoxy and diversity, learning 'by tinkering', social and horizontal learning, learning in the moment of need, freedom to roam for learners, and the freedom to fail and bring one's mistakes to the table for everyone to learn from them. 

All this may come as a little unsettling to anyone involved in formal adult education who sometimes struggles with learners' (dis)engagement. I believe the crux of the matter here is that teachers tend to be reluctant to give some control over learning over to learners. Teachers very often have (and rightly so) a very strong sense of responsibility for others' learning, which commonly manifests itself through control and exerting authority. This may be directly related to institutional pressures on teachers as students dropping out reflect badly on the teacher (or this is at least how some teachers may feel about it). Therefore, for the open education movement to find its way to formal education settings, a new institutional worldview is necessary that would create an environment which encourages innovation, unorthodoxy, freedom, diversity and autonomy. 

Online learner support: some resources

This post includes some of the useful resources I came across when researching the topic of online learner support. 

One recurrent advice for effective online learner support is the inclusion of collaboration in the learning design so that students learn to rely on one another and feel a part of a community of practice.

For example, in her article "Rethinking Learner Support: the challenge of collaborative online learning" (p. 114), Mary Thorpe emphasises the importance of group learning and collaboration as part of learner support in online environments: 

"The availability of learners to each other and to the tutor asynchronously and well as synchronously has the potential to overturn the emphasis in distance education as an individualised form of learning. The potential to create extensive dialogues and interchange electronically means that online teaching is often prioritising the learning group as a chief resource for learners and the focus for the tutor, rather than the needs of each individual learner, though these too can be accommodated in the pedagogical design supports that." 

This webpage provides a list of practical steps that teachers can take to facilitate learning in a culturally and ethnically diverse student body. A number of these steps will also apply to instructional design for online contexts.

This book by J.E. Brindley, C. Walti & O. Zawacki-Richter (eds.) includes a selection of papers on various aspects of online learner support.   

This article by Ivan L. Harrell II provides a usefully concise description of learner support in online environments with an extensive reference list.

On the importance of scaffolding in online learning design see this article by Stacey Ludwig-Hardman and Joanna C. Dunlap. 

This useful resource by Catherine McLoughlin discusses a possible model for learner support in an online environment. 

Diversity and learner support

As part of my ongoing education in instructional design and learning technologies, I have been studying learner support as informed by the social and cultural context of learners. Here are some results of my research. 

Implications of learner diversity and inclusion policies for learner support

This short video presents challenges related to cultural diversity in distance learning environment. While set in the US context, it discusses issues directly relevant to the increasingly culturally-diverse student body in the UK and elsewhere.     

Research has shown that students "value having their academic and social identities acknowledged and their particular needs addressed" and they "appreciate the teaching that does this" (see this HEA research briefing for more details).

The changing educational landscapes and the inclusion of new technologies, pedagogies and learning scenarios result in the need for incorporating learner support already at the level of instructional design. With increased flexibility of online educational delivery (where materials are often not provided to learners in a ready-made form but rather negotiated dynamically in response to student needs, aspirations and motivations), learner support can usefully be conceptualised as a "triangle" between interactively created course content, tutor and learners. 

Understood in this way, the design of learner support should include the following issues:

• emphasis on the value of cooperative, experiential and problem-based learning, encouragement of such learning;

• more explicit inclusion of learning communities in learner support processes; encouragement to utilise communities of learners more extensively as a support tool that strengthens a learner's sense of belonging, provides a social support network, facilitates acquisition of knowledge and skills through learner to learner contact and helps learners negotiate administrative systems (see this resource, pp. 13 onwards);

• facilitation of group-based work through support from tutor to tackle problems, managing group processes, asking students to work with others they never worked before, building in low-risk encounters so that students get to know each other in structured ways across any boundaries;

• emphasis on the value of diversity e.g. by designing tasks where cross-cultural engagement is necessary to complete the task successfully;

• encouraging learners to reflect on cross-cultural differences, e.g. by designing activities where they need to consider how knowledge, content or professional practices may be alternatively conceived of in different cultures;

• scaffolding built into course/module design;

• stress on implications of flexibility and importance of time management and taking responsibility for own learning- planning that is sensitive to students' other commitments.

You may find this article on facilitating online learning processes in a virtual learning environment useful to help you apply learner support processes and procedures in actual teaching practice. 

This article on getting students online and keeping them engaged using synchronous and asynchronous online learning processes and methods can help you to see whether your online teaching practices facilitate student engagement.