E-learning for adult literacy, language and numeracy: a case study of a polytechnic

6. Case study fit with the findings of the project's literature review

We now present an overview of our case study findings, using the structure developed for the review of literature (Davis et al., 2010). The following six sets of findings not only outline the characteristics of the polytechnic programmes that were successfully using e-learning to support adults wanting to improve their LLN skills but also point to areas in need of further research. In summary, our findings encompass these matters.

• Lack of research evidence directly related to the question;
  
• Characteristics relating to learning (overarching);
  
• Characteristics relating to learning (specific);
  
• Strategies effective tutors use;
  
• Staff and e-learning resource development;
  
• Characteristics relating to educational organisation and society.

6.1. Lack of research evidence directly related to the question

Finding 1A: More research is needed

This case study, through its description of a variety of e-learning initiatives at an urban polytechnic, provides research evidence that e-learning can be used to raise adults’ literacy and numeracy skills and/or their second-language acquisition. The case study also provides evidence that adult learners generally welcome opportunity to learn, and that they and their tutors can adopt e-learning provision that successfully addresses these learners’ LLN needs. However, because the range of e-learning initiatives and opportunities relative to LLN support for adults in New  Zealand and beyond remains challenging to map, these conclusions are tentative and more research is needed to verify them.

6.2. Characteristics related to learning (overarching)

Finding 2A: E-learning is more effective if it is part of face-to-face training

Adults with LLN needs vary in their ability to use e-learning effectively. Most of the adult learners observed and interviewed during the case study investigation appeared to be best served by e-learning blended with other approaches, including face-to-face tutoring and ongoing support from staff. The few adults who had chosen to learn numeracy online autonomously, due to work or home commitments (see Section 3.1), asked for individual tuition to support their e-learning. Adults with very low levels of literacy (see Section 3.5) continued to need intensive support when using computers. This support included direct help to log in and to choose the right option to click. Adults with little exposure to computers tended to be fearful of e-learning until they had developed a certain measure of ICT skill and confidence.

Finding 2B: Appropriate recruitment, retention and completion practices include e-learning

The adults observed at the polytechnic were participating in LLN courses for a variety of reasons, although the majority of these courses have employment-related goals. The polytechnic’s recruitment, retention and completion goals have led to a range of strategies relevant to adult learners’ home and work contexts. ICT skill development is embedded, in most programmes, in activities designed to advance 21st-century study skills, and ICT is used as an enrolment incentive. The online numeracy course has improved the programme’s completion rate, and the goal of the m-learning innovation is retention (see Section 3.2).

Finding 2C: LLN activities are more effective when there is a strong employment and career focus 

The participants emphasised that activities related to employment and career-related training are more effective than generic LLN training and e-learning.

Finding 2D: Families, whānau and communities play an important role

It was apparent that families and whānau play a critical role in adult learners’ LLN development. Family and whānau not only aid learners in terms of motivation but also provide them with a context (particularly one involving children and grandchildren) within which to practise simple literacy and numeracy skills. Family members can also assist learners to use e-learning. According to the case study observations, this support was most evident for the adults attending the evening class. These adults were also the learners who had the lowest level of LLN proficiency amongst the adult learners observed (see Section 3.5).

Finding 2E: Computer games can re-engage younger adults

Computer games can provide a non-threatening, enjoyable means of re-engaging younger adults with LLN. The simulation within one polytechnic course of a building site that had a game-like interface was providing apprentices and their tutors with an informal means of assessing these apprentices’ LLN needs (see Section 3.4).

Finding 2F: Mobile learning offers new ways to blend work and learning

Care was necessary to effectively blend m-learning within the polytechnic’s e-learning provision. The apprentices and tutors we interviewed valued the mobile phone as a teaching and learning tool within workplace contexts. The texting and photography features of the phones were particularly useful in this regard, and the students appreciated the polytechnic’s decision to provide them with vouchers to subsidise the cost of using their mobile phones. Particular attention was being given to making mobile phone use an integrated part of the polytechnic’s learning management system. The apprentices using e-portfolios as a means of assessing their work against unit standards had enhanced their ICT skills and increased their autonomy as learners (see Section 3.2).

6.3. Characteristics related to learning (specific)

Finding 3A: Māori approaches to e-learning can be used to build skills and knowledge within the Māori community

The polytechnic has identified the factors that act as barriers or supports for Māori adults wanting to improve their LLN skills. A strong support factor, for example, is a nurturing learning environment. In 2008, the polytechnic was at an early stage of development in terms of addressing these barriers and supports, but it had already begun the important process of working with elders to consider these matters and to build up a bank of Māori-related learning resources (see Section 4.5).

Finding 3B: As long as adequate support is in place, e-learning provides a good source of practice and motivation for second-language learners

The polytechnic, having realised that these adults vary widely in terms of their literacy and language needs, has in place a range of activities designed to address those needs and to help the adults become autonomous language learners. All such adults observed during the case study investigation required tutor support to use e-learning. Their tutors had brought additional strengths to these adults’ learning, including activities involving ICT in collaboration with the ESOL resource centre. The polytechnic’s exemplary ESOL resource centre, with its carefully embedded digital technologies and the digital language learning lab nearby, is a particularly valuable component of provision for this group of learners (see Section 3.3).

Finding 3C: The diverse Pasifika peoples benefit from e-learning that fits their respective cultures and lives and is accompanied by induction activities

Little data on the learning of and support for Pasifika adults with LLN needs emerged from our case study investigation. However, a collaborative initiative designed to support e-learning of such adults by connecting them, through ICT, with family and friends back in their island homes was noted as having potential (see Section 4.5).

Finding 3D: Many of the e-learning strategies used for building reading and writing skills can also be successfully used for and by adults with disabilities that limit their ability to learn and/or access learning

Those adults with learning disabilities attending polytechnic courses found the polytechnic’s information technology resources highly useful, but only if they directly fitted their needs. Examples included handouts with digital images and use of a digital recorder by a student in the trades course (see Section 3.4) and software designed for dyslexics in use for the adult literacy course (see Section 3.5), where tutors noted that most students showed some form of dyslexia.

6.4. Strategies used by effective tutors

Finding 4A: Effective tutors are well able to apply what they have learned through professional development in e-learning and pedagogy

It was apparent from our case study that the tutors most effective in supporting adults to engage with ICT and e-learning opportunities were those well practised in the use of these technologies and who were thus able to provide adult learners with intensive support from the time they entered their courses. Because this approach strongly favours early success for the learners, learners quickly develop the confidence and skills required to use resources specific to their needs. Team teaching involving literacy and numeracy tutors, librarians and vocational tutors was observed as another effective means of developing e-learning measures suitable for adult learners with LLN needs. Partnerships between the polytechnic’s e-learning coordinator and tutors also aided successful blending of e-learning and LLN support (see Sections 3.4 and 4.3).

Finding 4B: Effective tutors have at hand a range of strategies

The polytechnic’s tutors and support staff understand that adults with LLN difficulties need a range of interventions. This understanding was practically demonstrated in all courses observed.

Finding 4C: Learners benefit from engaging with and debating the characteristics and usefulness of different types of literacy media

The polytechnic’s tutors and support staff encourage learners with LLN needs to discuss and debate different types of text in order to enhance their literacy skills. In addition to providing conventional texts, the polytechnic also offers a wide range of digital media, such as interactive multimedia, websites, digital video, and television (see Sections 3.3 and 3.4).

Finding 4D: Tutors can use ICT to create and modify LLN materials, resources and learning contexts

Polytechnic tutors and support staff use ICT to modify and create materials and provide relevant learning contexts. They also use ICT as tools for literacy and numeracy learning. It was evident that this approach increases the relevance and meaningfulness of learning provision for adults with LLN needs. It was furthermore apparent that this approach enhances these learners’ awareness of the need to have sound literacy and numeracy skills in order to live, work and study successfully in the 21st century (see Section 3.4).

Finding 4E: Diagnostic and formative e-assessment can be developed and used more widely

Polytechnic tutors use specialised assessment software to diagnose adult learners’ LLN needs on a limited basis only. In contrast tutors were developing formative assessment and e-portfolio processes. For example, at the time of the case study investigation, drag and drop quizzes (within the learning management system) and e-portfolios along with mobile phones were providing students and their tutors with a means of assessing student work against unit standards with the apprentices and trades course (see Sections 3.2 and 3.4). The online numeracy course included formative assessment and self-testing (see Section 3.1).

Finding 4F: Learning is enhanced when tutors and their adult students work collaboratively, thus developing learner autonomy

Adults wanting to improve their LLN skills, especially those with the highest needs, greatly valued the supportive, collaborative learning environment that tutors had provided. Within this collaborative context, another mark of an effective tutor is when he or she can use ICT and e-learning skills to good effect pedagogically, can impart ICT-related skills to learners, and can encourage learners to share their own such skills with one another. One of the courses observed involved apprentices teaching their peers how to use e-portfolios and mobile phones for assessment purposes (see Section 3.2).

Finding 4G: Effective development of numeracy skills requires a range of strategies

As was the case with developing adult learners’ language and literacy skills, tutors at the polytechnic were drawing on a range of strategies to meet the needs of each adult learner intent on enhancing his or her numeracy skills. E-learning had opened the range of strategies available to these tutors. For example, tutors were able to give their learners opportunity to repeat learning activities and to reinforce their earlier learning. These activities were particularly valued by students who were unlikely to complete their programme of study without this form of support (see Sections 3.1 and 3.4).

6.5. Staff and e-learning resource development

Finding 5A: Staff involved in e-learning need professional development in how to embed both e-learning and LLN in their teaching programmes

Tutors, support staff and their leaders were actively engaged in professional development relating to their content area, to ICT skills, and to both blending e-learning and embedding LLN in the learning process. The polytechnic’s strong programme of professional development included workshops and just-in-time support for staff requesting it, plus a reduced timetable for newly recruited tutors, and a Certificate in Adult Teaching, with at least one e-learning course (see Section 4.3). To improve use of its facilities the learning resource centre included professional development for tutors within its liaison activities.

Finding 5B: Staff professional development progresses over time in order to address the developing and changing concerns of the individuals concerned

The polytechnic has a policy of providing professional development that is informed by the individual’s concerns and which acknowledges that such concerns change over time. Professional development for staff is also directed at each staff member’s learning trajectory in relation to e-learning. A tutor who reaches the final stage of this trajectory¾known as “teacher as leader”¾is able to support colleagues to adopt the types of e-learning innovations with which he or she has been engaged. Such tutor leaders do this by example and through invitations to talk about their innovations in e-learning (see Section 4.3).

Finding 5C: “Unbundling” the roles played by e-learning tutors facilitates targeted professional development and understanding of how tutors can better serve the needs of their students

Within the polytechnic, the implementation of e-learning led to the unbundling of some tutors’ roles. This process has enabled the polytechnic to determine need for additional staff, such as teaching assistants in the ESOL resource and maths support centres and the polytechnic’s outreach centres (see Sections 3.3 and 4.2). It has also led, on occasion, to students teaching their peers (see Section 3.2).

Finding 5D: E-learning resources for adults engaged in LLN programmes are more effective when designed well

Designing e-learning for adults with LLN needs has brought particular challenges to the members of the polytechnic’s staff involved with creating, developing and maintaining the institution’s e-learning-related resources and services. However, it was obvious that these individuals had addressed, and were continuing to address, these challenges, and that they were committed to applying sound, universal design principles to e-learning systems, website construction and maintenance, and related services. The same approach was being taken to managing the various projects associated with this work across the polytechnic.   

6.6. Findings relating to organisation and society

Finding 6A: Organisations mature with respect to e-learning and embedding of LLN

The polytechnic, aware that adoption of innovations, especially e-learning, occurs in stages, was conducting its implementation and integration of e-learning and LLN support with this knowledge in mind. Leaders were managing these developments in accordance with known stages of organisation maturity and the staged implementation of innovations (see Section 4.4).

Finding 6B: Successful development of adult literacy is closely linked to ICT competence and employment-based experience

The polytechnic, having recognised that study skills include ICT and e-learning, has successfully embedded these features within its foundation courses. The polytechnic also acknowledges that successful development of adult literacy is closely linked to ICT competence and success in securing and retaining employment. These principles are evident in an innovative programme in the polytechnic which introduces students to a range of trades and which is committed to find work placements and jobs for Māori students once they successfully complete their programme (see Section 4.5).

Finding 6C: E-learning projects targeting rural and dispersed communities are at a very early stage

The urban polytechnic is unusual in New Zealand in having five programmes, one of which began in 1998, that use e-learning to support adults with LLN needs. These programmes cater mainly for city-based students. In addition, the polytechnic plans in future to implement partnerships to serve rural and dispersed communities with innovative e-learning projects designed to address adults’ LLN needs within the polytechnic’s courses (see Section 4.5).

Finding 6D: Open-access centres, including libraries, increase access to e-learning

Open-access learning provision in the polytechnic and its outreach centres has increased the ease and comfort with which adult learners can access LLN support. This support includes considerable use of e-learning in association with appropriate tutor support and partnerships with other agents and agencies engaged in facilitating adult learning. The ESOL centre within the polytechnic is exemplary in its practice in this regard (see Section 3.3).