E-learning for adult literacy, language and numeracy: a review of the literature

1. Introduction

1.1 Research rationale and purpose

The 2006 Adult Literacy and Life Skills (ALL) survey showed that over a million adult New Zealanders are missing some of the skills they need to successfully accomplish the literacy and numeracy tasks common in today’s society and economy. Many of these adults are people who speak English as a second language (Satherley, Lawes and Sok, 2008). Lack of literacy and numeracy skills can adversely affect adults’ chances of being employed, earning a good income and helping their children succeed in education (Earle, 2009). Similar reports have been published elsewhere, including Canada (Statistics Canada, 2008).

The government has created a national infrastructure for adult literacy, language and numeracy (LLN). Its aim in doing this is to bring together the diverse parts of the adult learning sector by way of a common language for identifying, teaching and assessing LLN skills. The work involved in developing and maintaining the infrastructure includes the creation of shared resources, such as an online assessment tool and adult literacy and numeracy programmes.

The research set out in this and accompanying documents was conducted by members of the University of Canterbury E-Learning Lab. The research brief required the researchers to investigate how e-learning fits into learning programmes and courses directed toward adults wanting to improve their LLN skills, and to consider how such provision can be used to reach greater numbers of such learners and better meet their respective needs. In short, the research explores the role that e-learning does and can play in improving the LLN skills of adults.

The primary question guiding both this literature review and our full research project was this:

What characteristics of programmes, such as e-learning, mixed mode, and distance learning, have been successful in raising the literacy, numeracy and language skills (LLN) of adult learners and could be used to supplement workplace training?

We decided to draw together two bodies of literature and to analyse them to draw out the key success characteristics. The two bodies of literature were:

• Literature on adult literacy and numeracy;
• Literature on e-learning, including blended learning, across all phases of education and training, including distance, with a particular focus on those situations in which information and communication technologies (ICT) are used to enhance classroom-based practice.

The project report and our case study of a polytechnic are available at http://www.educationcounts.govt.nz/publications/tertiary_education/.

1.2 Terminology and underlying concepts

In this report, we use the Adult Literacy and Life Skills (ALL) survey levels of literacy, particularly Level 2 of the ALL. Throughout the review, we refer to this level as an intermediate level of literacy¾a level that often appears to be the threshold at which learners become less dependent on a tutor. Earle (2009) provides more information on the ALL survey and the New Zealand data.

In this report, “e-learning” refers to the use of digital technologies to support learning and teaching. E-learning is an ever-evolving process because it emerges from the possibilities afforded by continually developing digital technologies. These technologies can be in the hands of tutors, learners and those who support them. These individuals create and recreate e-learning applications and resources through evolving behaviour as individuals and across groups and society.

Tertiary programmes often harmoniously blend digital technologies into activities designed to enhance learning. Sometimes the blending involves the presence of a tutor (as with the use of a digital tool in a classroom setting) and sometimes not (as in distance learning via a computer). Blended application of digital technologies can also be designed to fit with activities in the workplace and at home. For example, distance learning in New Zealand workplaces commonly includes workbooks, with periodic visits by assessors. This mode of workplace learning may be extended with e-learning in a number of ways, including directed use of web-based resources at home with support of whānau (immediate and extended family members).

Our approach to literacy is based on current theories of (and is supported by research on) literacy development. Because literacy develops from within a social context, it is viewed as a socio-cultural phenomenon. We align with Vygotsky’s (1978) perspective on literacy learning. This perspective focuses on what is termed “the zone of proximal development”, wherein explicit teaching and collaboration with and by peers and tutors are an essential means of developing new understandings among learners. Cullen (2002) extended this notion of collective learning by exploring, within what she defines as the post-Vygotskian era, the values and expectations of the broader community. Her definitions of thinking and learning as social constructions permit a favouring of socio-cultural and critical approaches to literacy acquisition. These constructions also have relevance for numeracy development.

1.3 Reservations

Our intention when conducting the literature review was that it would be up to date as of April 2009 and include an examination of recent approaches to LLN in New Zealand and internationally, including Australia, Canada, Ireland, the United Kingdom and the United States. We also sought to include some later findings published by the Ministry of Education from research conducted as part of parallel projects. However, as we got underway with our search, we developed important reservations regarding the quality of literature available to review. We could find no studies that directly researched the question central to our investigation (see above). The paucity of research on LLN (numeracy in particular) in adult education means that the findings of research conducted in the school sector continue to be applied to adults (see, for example, the review titled Lighting the Way, Ministry of Education, 2005), and this was the approach we had to adopt in this review when considering e-learning relative to adults’ LLN learning.

We also bring to readers’ attention the notion that the e-learning and ICT literature has not been conducted from a neutral perspective but mainly according to a capitalistic and often industrial or technocentric viewpoint (Ministry of Education, 2008a; Selwyn, 2004). Both Dutton (2004) and Rogers (2003) warn of the capitalist tendency to view technological innovations as beneficial rather than to carefully weigh both the positive and the negative effects that the implementation or addition of information and communication technologies (ICT, also known as IT) might have on educational practice. Critics of ICT in education (eg Cuban, 2001; Oppenheimer, 2003) cite evidence in support of their claim that ICT is “oversold and underused”. They ask if ICT is as cost-effective as other interventions, such as smaller class size, and they note the obsolescence of computers and the ongoing costs of upgrading both hardware and software.

We furthermore draw attention to the recent recognition that ICT and education co-evolve (see, for example, Andrews and Haythornthwaite, 2007; Davis, 2010). Another recent development is use of an ecological metaphor to improve understanding of the complexity of educational policy (Weaver-Hightower, 2008). In our study, co-evolution relates to the embedding of e-learning and LLN in learning programmes and courses. Researchers who fail to recognise this co-evolution and complexity are those likely to present oversimplified findings and to draw erroneous conclusions.

1.4 Structure of this review and key findings

In this literature review, we outline the nature of the extant literature pertinent to our research question. We also describe and discuss the key success characteristics that emerged from our review in relation to engaging adults in e-learning designed to develop their literacy, language and numeracy (LLN) skills. We set this material out in six sets of research-based findings (1-6).

1. Lack of research evidence directly related to the question.
2. Characteristics relating to learning (overarching).
3. Characteristics relating to learning (specific).
4. Strategies effective tutors use.
5. Staff and e-learning resource development.
6. Characteristics relating to educational organisation and society.

In the summary section of this report, we simply list each finding and its implications for policy and practice. Here, we repeat each of the findings and its implications. We also analyse, and include brief reference citations for, the literature reviewed. We provide full bibliographic citations in the reference section and describe in Appendix 1 the method that we used to conduct the literature review.

The overarching message to emerge from our research is that e-learning is relevant to and useful for most adults with literacy, language and/or numeracy needs. However, these benefits rely on a learning programme that is carefully designed to fit with each person’s needs and lifestyle, his or her proficiency with digital technologies, and his or her level of reading literacy.

Another important message is that realising the potential of e-learning depends on ongoing professional development for tutors and others who support learners, and may require changes to programmes and resources within faculties of the relevant organisations, such as colleges and private training providers. For adult learners, ease of access to training in the workplace and at home requires development of infrastructure and support from employers and whānau.

Two further important messages to emerge from our review relate to cost and time. First, distance e-learning can provide a cost-effective way of extending the development of LLN skills of learners currently at Level 2 of the ALL survey. As noted earlier, we refer, in this report, to this level as an intermediate level of literacy.

Second, ensuring that adult learning programmes offer learners sufficient time for their study is important because some research indicates that these learners typically need a minimum of 100 hours of study to increase their LLN skills by one level (Litster, 2007, p. 15). These longer-term learning pathways often include e-learning ((National Center for the Study of Adult Learning and Literacy in the USA (NCSALL), cited in Litster, 2007, p. 17).