E-learning for adult literacy, language and numeracy: summary of findings

2. Findings

The 10 major findings that we set out on the following pages emerged from our extensive review of international literature and the four other components of our research.

2.1. LLN skills in the 21st century include proficiency with digital technologies and practices, including e-learning

Proficiency with relevant digital technologies is a central feature of 21st-century literacy and numeracy skills. This proficiency includes the ability to selectively access and make use of resources on the web (Mellar, Kambouri, Logan, Betts, Nance and Moriarty, 2007). Given the prominent place that information and communication technologies (ICT) now have in most businesses, there is an increasing need for employees to have broad-based problem-solving skills, including those associated with digital technologies. Consider, for example, employees who are required to use digital tools that require understanding of weights and measures. If their numeracy skills are poor in this regard, they are highly likely to use the tools inaccurately, leading to errors and inefficient business practice (Coben, Crowther, Kambouri, Mellar, Mogey, Morrison and Stevenson, 2007; Noss, Bakker, Hoyles and Kent, 2007; Thomas and Ward, 2009).

Another rapidly developing expectation for learners and workers in the 21st century is the ability to access training via e-learning. Because e-learning programmes can transcend the barriers of geographic location and time, they can be customised to meet work and community-based learning needs in students unable to readily access traditional face-to-face learning provision (UNESCO, 2006). It is not surprising, then, that employers increasingly are using e-learning to update the skills of their workforce, and that most tertiary providers now enhance their programmes with e-learning. These developments underscore the need for adults to have digital technology skills as part of their 21st-century LLN repertoire.

In addition, digital technologies provide a relevant learning context for adults wanting to improve their LLN skills and help alleviate some of their anxiety about LLN learning. Adults who lack LLN skills are often embarrassed by these needs, and take care to conceal them with excuses such as not having their reading glasses at hand. Tertiary-level students report that their fear of attending and completing a literacy course would lessen if they knew the course offered a positive and non-threatening learning environment (Fletcher and Williams, 2008; Nash and Kallenbach, 2009). If these adults can also tell others they are studying a computer course, rather than an LLN course, their embarrassment is alleviated. Simmons (2002), for example, found that LLN programmes which included development of computer skills had higher enrolments.

According to the workplace stakeholders we interviewed, adults with LLN needs are attracted to learning activities that involve digital technologies because these tend to have immediate relevance to their lives at work and beyond. For example, a workplace tutor we spoke to supported three adults to improve their literacy by engaging them in a project on wastage in their department. The word-processed report that the three employees submitted to their manager included relevant photos. They had used their tutor’s digital camera to photograph areas and techniques in their respective workplaces that contributed to waste. The opportunity to take photos not only helped the employees produce a useful report but also supported the development of their literacy skills and their ability to use digital technologies.

Many adults do not have access to computers at work, and some have had little exposure to computers in general. This situation is especially true for older adults and adults who have been out of the workforce for some time. Tutors we interviewed told us that such adults sometimes fear they will damage the computer or make it crash. But although fearful, these adults generally appreciate the need to develop digital skills. These tutors are consequently providing these adults with intensive support directed at familiarising them with computers before they undertake LLN learning via e-learning.

The literature also warns of the adverse effects of poor access to computers and related technologies for adults who are already disadvantaged by their LLN needs. Their lack of access to digital technologies undermines their ability to secure employment, which contributes to less access to digital technologies, and so on (see, for example, Osborne, Gallacher and Crossan, 2004). Australian research on the digital divide—the name given to the gap between those who have ready access to digital technologies and those who do not—also highlights the increased literacy-based employment challenges for women, indigenous people, disabled adults and adults with combinations of these challenges (see, for example, Crump, Twyford and Littler, 2008). Induction programmes that include a focus on using digital technologies are particularly relevant for preparing such adults for tertiary education.

The relevance of numeracy to everyday life is commonly underestimated. As Alton-Lee (2003) points out, successful mathematics educators engage learners by using their everyday experiences and individual interests as occasions for learning. Such an approach can readily accommodate some form of e-learning, as we found when observing a polytechnic programme for the building trades. One of the tutors in this programme regularly illustrates concepts with digital photographs of building sites. He provides students with literacy and numeracy needs with presentations that include these images and accompanying notes. He told us that this practice makes his learners think mathematically because they have to consider the proportions and scale of objects within a photograph. The tutor further enhances his students’ numeracy skills by working alongside a specialist numeracy tutor, who reinforces the students’ underlying basic mathematical skills.

2.2. E-learning for LLN is largely a recent development in New Zealand: very few well-established programmes exist

Our efforts to locate international (let alone New Zealand-generated) sustained and robust research studies on LLN learning for adult students at foundation levels, where elements of e-learning are being used to enhance learning outcomes, proved challenging. Except for our single case study site in an urban polytechnic, we could only find one other well-established programme in New Zealand. Our stakeholder interviews clearly indicated that almost all existing e-learning at foundation level began only within the last year or so.

Although e-learning is widespread at higher levels in commercial workplaces, the level of e-learning provision for LLN at the foundation level is low in the UK (British Educational Communications and Technology Agency BECTA, 2008). Just under 40 percent of employers involved in a work-based e-learning initiative in Australia reported that, before enrolment, their staff needed basic literacy skills support. Others said their employees needed advanced literacy and/or e-learning skills so they could operate more successfully in the workplace (Smith, 2009). The employers we interviewed during our stakeholder interviews in New Zealand had identified similar needs amongst their employees. They were developing a wide range of e-learning initiatives designed to enhance their staffs’ LLN.

This apparent willingness of New Zealand employers to facilitate employee skills gains support 3from a recent New Zealand-based study of e-learning in industry conducted by Clayton and Elliott (2008). They identified a growing incidence of e-learning initiatives in the workplace, and concluded that three levels of characteristics appear to be critical to the success of e-learning: those associated with the organisation, those associated with the training activities, and those associated with the learning itself. The two authors also observed that e-learning in large organisations tends to be more mature and better integrated than e-learning in smaller organisations, where there is less potential for in-house development. They furthermore noted that e-learning tends to be impeded by challenges such as connectivity, ready access to computer technology, lack of dedicated e-learning time, and insufficient personnel to support e-learning across all levels, including the management sector of the organisation. The Australian Institute for Social Research (2006) also lists as impediments a lack of industry-specific content and poorly conceived LLN learning activities.

E-learning can be successful when it fits well with work practices (Australian Institute for Social Research, 2006). However, our stakeholders noted that many adults with LLN needs do not work in places that provide access to computers and the web. These adults often have restricted access at home too. In contrast, many large tertiary institutions, such as our case study polytechnic and some training organisations in New Zealand, are relatively mature in their e-learning infrastructure and learning support services (Mitchell, Clayton, Gower, Barr and Bright, 2005).

Some educational organisations, such as open universities and virtual schools overseas, have reconfigured their educational processes to take full advantage of e-learning for distance education. These organisations typically work in partnership with other organisations and unbundle the teaching role into several complementary roles (Davis, 2009). A recent set of guidelines for industry integration of e-learning in Australia and e-learning guidelines in New Zealand provide examples of these developments (Massey  University, 2008).

Educational organisations highly dependent on digital technologies continually evolve their practice to make best use of digital technologies, which also constantly change, as evidenced by the community-based Alpha Plus centres in Canada (Eady, 2006; Porter and Sturm, 2006). These organisations bring in staff with needed expertise to accommodate new needs. They also provide professional development in aspects such as e-learning in general and e-learning design in particular.

2.3. E-learning is more effective if it is part of face-to-face training

Most adults with LLN needs are most comfortable with e-learning when it is blended with other learning approaches, including face-to-face tutoring. A recent meta-analysis of international empirical research in higher education and secondary schools, conducted by Means, Toyama, Murphy, Bakia and Jones (2009), provides rigorous evidence that online learning can be more successful than face-to-face learning. The authors also showed that learning which blends face-to-face with online distance learning has the potential for the greatest success, not only because of the increased time available for individualised learning, but also because of the resources that the learners and those teaching them can deploy.

The few adult learners endeavouring to develop their LLN skills and who learn online without tutor support tend to be well organised and to have good access to the needed technology. They also tend to need relatively limited assistance when developing their literacy or numeracy skills, because these skills are typically ones they have lost through lack of use rather than ones they have never developed. Some adult learners who learn online have access to informal tutors, including whānau and workplace colleagues. Additional face-to-face provision can include needs assessment, review and accreditation (Thomas and Ward, 2009).

Those learners with beginning literacy levels need intensive face-to-face support (Davis, Fletcher, and Absalom, 2010; Litster, 2007). For these learners in particular, a learning approach that fits their respective lifestyles can enhance motivation to persist (Litster, 2007). E-learning is particularly accommodating of learners who cannot easily access face-to-face tuition, such as those in rural communities (Nash and Kallenbach, 2009; UNESCO, 2006).

An evaluation of e-learning initiatives undertaken by Careerforce, an ITO that leads training for New Zealand health and disability professionals, found that e-learning must be flexible enough to fit each adult’s needs. This flexibility requires careful identification of which LLN skills the person needs to develop, an appreciation of that person’s lifestyle, and assessment of his or her e-learning proficiency (Derham-Cole, 2008). In 2004, Careerforce drew on its initial experiences of e-learning to develop a comprehensive programme that included the following characteristics and resources: on-the-job embedded learning and assessment; face-to-face sessions in the workplace; webcasts and podcasts; performance support; collaboration and community involvement; multimedia archives with CD-Rom; and web-based learning.

Family and whānau can offer the adult learner important motivational support that might include informal tutoring. There is potential to increase the quality of such support, as illustrated in a recent case study of numeracy learners in the concrete industry (Thomas and Ward, 2009). Activities related to everyday life challenges and family can also support e-learning because they provide strong motivational contexts. An example is grandparents now able to read to their grandchildren and to offer these youngsters support as they develop their LLN skills. Mellar et al. (2007) allude to this type of motivation in their description of a promising e-learning course in the UK that focuses, as a means of developing adults’ LLN skills, on assisting these adults to support their children’s learning.

Learning with support of the church is common in the Pasifika community. One of our stakeholders described a project in which members of a Samoan community had access to computers in a church hall so they could build their LLN skills. A number of studies show that open-access centres are effective in increasing access to education and training, particularly for adults who have been traditionally underserved. Appleby and Bathmaker (2006) and Pannucci and Walmsley (2007) note these benefits, and point out that they often extend beyond the individual. In New Zealand, Benseman and Sutton (2007) found that family literacy partnerships bring clear benefits not only for the adult learners but also for the children in their families.

In Canada, the Alpha Plus organisation provides a valuable set of case studies of outreach centres embedded within their communities, and of the students who are successful there (Porter and Sturm, 2006). Success factors for the learners include the provision of significant mentoring, which includes an in-depth orientation to organise their learning, the development of ICT skills, and career planning that focuses on means of sustaining ongoing (distance) education and e-learning. The global perspective promoted by UNESCO provides many more illustrations of community and outreach centres and initiatives (UNESCO, 2006; Wagner and Kozma, 2005).

Community centres and some homes in New Zealand donate recycled computers to organisations and individuals in order to increase people’s access to e-learning. A stakeholder in a literacy centre explained how the centre used recycled computer equipment. Once adults in the centre had gained confidence with reading, they could access a suite of computers, but still relied on mentoring support. When replacing older computers with more recent second-hand equipment, the centre decided to give the surplus older computers to students, because most of them did not have one at home. However, this plan lapsed because the students were unable to access or afford the extensive technical support that is often required for out-of-date computers.

2.4. Māori approaches to e-learning can be used to build skills and knowledge within the Māori community

Successful programmes for adults with LLN needs address their lifestyle and fit with their aspirations. For Māori these premises are underpinned by kanohi ki te kanohi (face-to-face) interaction and the building of whakawhanaungatanga, which is often described as the centralising influence of whānau on its members (May, 2009, p. 8). For these reasons, Māori prefer courses that are either fully or partly face to face rather than fully online (May, 2009).

This understanding receives support from a study of three successful e-learning programmes for Māori, although these were not designed for adults with LLN needs (New Zealand Council for Educational Research, 2004). Zepke and Leach (2006) found that successful outcomes for distance learning of tutors with a high proportion of Māori and Pasifika students included some use of video or videoconferencing.

Wagner and Kozma (2005, p. 90) describe an initiative that used e-learning to help members of indigenous communities, including native Americans and Bangladeshi, develop the skills and knowledge they needed to make their cultures more visible in the 21st century. These people learned, for example, how to use the web to enlist global resources for local ends.  Mellar and colleagues (2007) found that a particularly successful teaching strategy relative to e-learning is engaging learners in projects that encourage them, through role-plays, to practise their language and ICT skills. (According to the authors, directly instructing learners on how to use ICT is the least successful option.) One of these projects saw students producing a small video documentary that was useful to their community. Each student involved in this project had to assume one of the roles needed to accomplish the task, such as that of producer.

The deeply embedded approach to e-learning taken by Te Wānanga o Raukawa (New Zealand’s first Māori tertiary institution) is a strong example of pedagogical practice that aligns with the lifestyles and aspirations of Māori learners. The main intent of the wānanga, which was set up in 1981 by a confederation of three main iwi groups (Te Ati Awa, Ngāti Raukawa and Ngāti Toa Rangatira), is to build capacity (the skills and knowledge that help Māori advance their communities) among the people the wānanga serves and those connected to them (Greenwood, Te Aika and Davis, in press). Proficiency with digital technologies and e-learning is at the heart of every programme in the wānanga because the founder, Whatarangi Winiata, wanted to find a way for Māori to be part of the current information and knowledge revolution.

In line with Māori philosophy, the wānanga strives to empower students and then, through the students, their entire whānau and iwi, which include many adults with literacy and numeracy needs. Distance learning on over 20 marae (Māori traditional centres) located throughout New Zealand’s two main islands is blended with residential face-to-face courses on the wānanga campus. Kawa (the protocol of teaching, learning and research) is based on Māori cultural tenets that cross physical and spiritual realms to uphold the Māori worldview. As a component of its strategy of making e-learning part of Māori kaupapa (lore), the wānanga introduced computer skills into its core courses and is incrementally introducing Māori terminology into its computer courses and resources.

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

Second-language learners frequently make good use of e-learning contexts, including the wide range of resources on the web. As Chapelle (2001) reminds us, language tutors have a longer history of e-learning than have tutors in other areas of adult education. Second-language students and their tutors often bring particular strengths to e-learning, such as strong literacy skills in their own languages and well-trained practitioners. Some of them are able to mediate between the immigrant’s native culture and language and the indigenous and mainstream cultures and languages of New Zealand. Second-language tutors work more effectively with the support of a resource centre and its staff, as described in our case study (Davis, Fletcher and Absalom, 2010).

Mishan’s (2005) textbook for language tutors promotes authenticity in language-learning contexts, and it was one of the most germane we found when considering the relevance of e-learning to second-language learning. The chapter on e-learning stresses the need to fit e-learning and LLN into adult learners’ lifestyles. The three main e-learning applications that Mishan describes are the web, email and online discussion forums; corpora (collections of writings of a specific kind or on a specific subject); and concordance (an alphabetical index of all the words in a corpus of texts).

Mishan (2005) positions the web as a valuable learning resource and medium. The tutor’s role relative to the resource component, says Mishan, is to steer learners “through the barrage of text from within the web that can be quite daunting at first, especially to lower level learners”        (p. 243). The tutor thus acts as a guide and facilitator until such time as the learner can use the web independently. The tutor’s main tasks in this respect are coaching learners toward improving their web-access skills and helping them evaluate the information they find through web searching. As a medium, the web provides thousands of websites written specifically for language learning. Most of these provide practice via interactive exercises. However, Mishan cautions, many of these websites are of poor quality and replicate paper-based exercises. She recommends meta-websites because they provide an extensive yet safe location in which to place learners. One such site is Activities for ESL Students, a project of The Internet Teaching English as A Second Language (TESL) Journal (http://iteslj.org), which has thousands of contributions from teachers.

Email and related communication modes offer fast and authentic means of communication and can reduce learners’ reticence to speak. According to Mishan (2005), email, chat, and online discussions provide a number of learning possibilities. Examples include tandem learning, where learners teach and learn a language with a partner, discussion lists, and informal web-based community sites. However, Mishan recommends that these opportunities best suit learners with intermediate and higher levels of English proficiency.

Because emails and other digital forms of written communication provide a record of learners’ utterances, second-language learners are able to notice idiomatic and colloquial expressions, which they tend to find difficult to pick up in oral communication. The record also facilitates a meta-linguistic discussion on the features of language, a discussion that is centred on the learners’ own written communications. Email also encourages the oral skill of turn-taking as well as the opportunity to correct errors without disturbing the flow of conversation. Tutors and learners need, however, to be mindful of the abbreviated forms of English language that people increasingly are using when writing emails, engaging in chat forums, and sending text messages. These forms bend and break linguistic rules. Tutors therefore need to consider carefully which digital mediums to use when assisting learners to develop English-language proficiency.

Today, second-language learners of English also have available to them an increasing number of online distance learning courses, and tools that they can use as self-help resources, although these are more likely to promote successful learning outcomes when blended with tutor support. “U.S.A. Learns” is an example of this type of provision. Our preliminary evaluation of this web resource indicates that it would serve the language-acquisition needs of some second-language learners with an intermediate level of English proficiency where the online activities were blended with tutor support, but it is likely to be problematic for learners with lower levels of English proficiency.

The Australian second-language learning programme “It’s Over to You” recently launched an online version of its DVD-enhanced workbooks. These workbooks, which have been offered to immigrant learners for some time, focus on developing migrants’ literacy and numeracy skills across increasing levels of difficulty. Harris’s (1995, cited in White, 2003) evaluation of the mode of study formerly offered to migrants identified inhibiting factors for language learners that are likely to persist with the web-based version. These included academic difficulties relating to the learning materials and resources on offer and to limited face-to-face assistance from a tutor. The learners with low literacy levels, who are of most interest in this present study, were the learners in Harris’s study most likely to identify and comment on these restraints. However, a large proportion of the immigrants who offered comments said they found web-based study without tutor support unsatisfactory, and were generally negative about its relevance and usefulness as a mode of language learning. Practical difficulties included integrating studies into a busy life (many of the commentators were working long hours or were isolated at home with children).

White (2003) provides a comprehensive overview of language learning in distance education, including learning online, although she does not clarify the challenges often experienced by learners with low literacy skills. (As we noted earlier, most of the research in this area is based on students with higher than average literacy skills.) According to White, adult learners are more likely to engage in and benefit from distance learning programmes that offer accessible, high-quality support services and feedback early in the programme and that fit well with each learner’s attributes and social/work/family environment and values. Such learners are more likely to see a course through to its end.

White (2003) also describes the stages that learners experience when entering an online learning environment. She explains that learners require a particular type of support, such as counselling, before the course begins. At course entry, the type of support typically needed is that which allows students to interact with one another and to share their experiences (eg through an online chat-room-type forum). Throughout the course, they need tutor-based support in the form of monitoring and personalised feedback.

In regard to the application of corpora and concordance, Mishan (2005) observes that language learners who have good inductive and deductive reasoning skills, and can thus work with and understand complex language, and who also have good software skills, are well equipped to use the storage facilities of computers to build up a collection of relevant texts (a corpus). They can then use associated concordance software to sort and explore the language features of this material. For example, trainee nurses could use concordance to analyse a corpus of conversations between experienced nurses and their patients. Their aim here would be to identify the terms and phrases (including new ones) typically used in nursing practice contexts and to determine the contexts in which these expressions are appropriately used.

According to Mishan (2005), tutors supporting such learners report that this data-driven language teaching and learning emancipates learners, because they not only develop their language learning through discovery learning but also learn to challenge textbook knowledge. Tutors of learners who do not have the required degree of proficiency to learn in this way can use corpora and concordance to generate highly relevant texts for language exercises.

Although the second-language learning literature contains useful points in relation to the development of specific language-related skills, it also offers ideas for e-based learning activities appropriate for learners with varying degrees of language proficiency (see bulleted list below). A key point made within this particular collection of literature, and a point that we have already alluded to in relation to other literature that we examined for this study, is the need to develop activities and learning contexts based on the learners’ current life experiences, vocations and workplaces. The need to develop and share resources was also emphasised by workplace tutors that we spoke to. In addition, Mueller, Wood, Hunt and Laurier’s (2009) detailed description of a project that used computers to develop adults’ writing illustrates the lengthy individualised support that is usually necessary for any language-learning initiative involving adults with a low level of literacy.

A brief synthesis of research according to the four main aspects of language teaching follows:

• Writing: The obvious tool here is the word-processing facility of computers. This facility includes useful language tools such as dictionaries, thesauruses, and spelling and grammar checkers. Having learners incorporate photographs in their texts also supports literacy development, particularly if text and illustrations are drawn from the learner’s own life experiences. Using drag and drop to answer online test questions and then receiving immediate feedback increases learners’ engagement with the activity and allows them to assess their own progress and needs. Grammar software is best suited to more advanced second-language students. Drill and practice software and computer games can be successful, but only when carefully targeted to address individual needs;
  
• Reading: A variety of glossing formats can be used to improve a learner’s understanding of the meaning of words and phrases. A gloss can take the form of a pop-up box containing a text and/or relevant pictures and/or audio. Vocabulary learning can be enhanced by analysing multimedia and specific resources on the web. Embedded audio files are valuable not only for aiding reading skills but also for opening up computer access to learners who are still developing their keyboard skills, or who have not yet developed sufficient English-writing skills. Numeracy activities can also be aided via audio provision;
  
• Speaking: E-learning tools can help learners develop oral presentation skills. For example, learners wanting to improve their pronunciation can use audio analysis software to compare themselves with native speakers. Voice recognition software may be used to turn speech into text, providing the words are clearly articulated. However, in our experience, voice-recognition systems generally recognise less than a quarter of English spoken by non-native speakers of the language. It therefore remains important to test this tool before using it in learning activities. Carefully structured use of online chat and discussions through email and online discussion forums, as described earlier, is also relevant here;
  
• Listening: Digital voice recordings are widely used by language tutors. The web contains many relevant resources, including radio and television broadcasts with commentaries (see information regarding the web as a medium above). Some computer games, such as Word Shark, include an option that allows the user to replay the audio component.

2.6. The diverse Pasifika peoples benefit from e-learning that fits their respective cultures and lives and is accompanied by induction activities

The number of second-language learners among Pasifika in New Zealand is high (Ministry of Education, 2007). Surveys of Pasifika adults suggest that they have higher LLN needs than any other ethnic group (see, for example, Ministry of Education, 2007). Higher needs in computer and internet literacy are also evident. At times, these students experience racial stereotyping and comments that adversely affect their learning (Fa’afoi and Fletcher, 2002; Fletcher, Parkhill, Taleni, Fa’afoi and O’Regan, 2009).

Best practice when supporting Pasifika adults to engage in e-learning is that which nurtures Pasifika ways of life. This approach increases learner confidence and willingness to learn (Clayton, Rata-Skudder and Baral, 2004). Characteristics of successful programmes provided by private training establishments for Pasifika adults include flexible course structures and tutors who have knowledge of the diverse Pasifika cultures (New Zealand Qualifications Authority, 2008). Blended e-learning can increase learning options. These then provide the flexibility needed to accommodate learners’ individual needs in different environments, including academic, personal, social, whānau and church (Clayton et al., 2004)

Providing Pasifika adult learners with an induction programme is strongly recommended. This should ascertain learning needs and ease the learners into their programme of study and/or skills development. Cultural events that acknowledge students’ respective cultures and the provision of ongoing regular academic and e-learning support by approachable staff are important (Clayton et al., 2004; Fa’afoi and Fletcher, 2002; Fletcher et al., 2009). So, too, are affordable course fees, given that many Pasifika people tend to be over-represented in the lower socioeconomic brackets and to have financial obligations for family in their home islands (Clayton et al., 2004; Fa’afoi and Fletcher, 2002; Ministry of Education, 2007).  

Samoans make up the largest proportion of the Pasifika population in New Zealand (Statistics New Zealand, 2007). A workplace tutor told us of his success in using email to motivate and support the literacy proficiency of male Samoan employees who are permanent residents of New Zealand. These men had never touched a computer, despite each having one at home that was used by other people. Their motivation to develop their literacy skills increased dramatically when they had opportunities to engage in e-based activities, such as sending an email to their extended families back home. (Digital infrastructure is improving in a number of Pacific islands.) Their tutor reported, “Their faces just lit up. They can now use a computer, they can type into it, they can send emails. They are getting emails back. They’ve made Christmas cards for their kids. It’s incredible.”

2.7. 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

Adults with disabilities that adversely affect their ability to learn and/or to access learning find digital technologies and e-learning that fit their needs highly useful. Adults with LLN needs are more likely to have such disabilities than the rest of the population. Many disabilities are hidden and may not be obvious to the adult, and there has been increasing recognition of the accumulation of deficits from common traumas such as sports injuries and car accidents (Gillon, Davis, Everatt, McNeill and Moran, 2009).

Today, digital technologies offer various types of assistance to adults with disabilities that impede learning. For example, organisers in mobile phones can be used to overcome short-term memory and ordering challenges (Gillon et al., 2009). However, a lack of compatibility between hardware and software and across different types of software (eg the screen reader fails to work after updating of web browser software) can limit or even prevent some of these adults from using digital technologies (Abbott, 2007; Seale, 2006a). Also, guidance on how best to use certain technologies to good effect in e-learning (and other) contexts is often limited, which makes it difficult for both tutor and learner to benefit from them. For example, books that guide tutors working with dyslexics are widely available but provide little information on using digital technologies in e-learning contexts (see, for example, Townend and Turner, 2000; Yeo, 2003). Both Abbott (2007) and Seale (2006b) strongly recommend e-learning support for adults and their tutors from Learning Support Centres and Computer Centres, plus close liaison between these centres. 

Digital technologies specifically designed to ameliorate the learning difficulties experienced by people with various disabilities offer an important means of providing equitable access to learning (Abbott, 2007; Litster, 2007). Voice-controlled software, for example, is becoming increasingly common, and speech input and output can be used to increase the speed and accuracy of reading and writing. These benefits contribute to gains in literacy skills because they tend to favour time on task and exposure to a wider range of vocabulary. Speech input and output also provides a key facility for adults with vision impairment. A stakeholder we interviewed in a literacy centre described how the centre uses computers to enhance learning by members of the deaf community. When teaching, tutors use a large computer screen, set up in front of the class, to display content, and use sign-language specialists to interpret their commentary on what is being displayed. This content typically includes internet sites and particular texts. The centre is also using the online New Zealand deaf sign language dictionary in its programme.

2.8. Using mobile digital technologies in e-learning contexts increases the flexibility of LLN provision

Mobile learning refers to learning activities made possible through the use of lightweight hand-held devices, including mobile phones and portable audio and video players and recorders. Mobile learning is a relatively new form of educational provision. It has the potential to extend learning into homes and workplaces, but it can be challenging because the learning takes place outside locations traditionally used for study. Successful mobile learning accordingly involves careful negotiation among designers, instructors, adult learners and collaborating employers. This collaboration can ensure that expectations relating to LLN development remain realistic and ensures good fit with workplace routines and safety.

Manufacturers increasingly are using mobile devices on the factory floor to guide and monitor processes. Sticht (2001) provides an example in his account of a Canadian car factory, where workers used these tools to help them select and fit components. Pictures, audio, and/or text instructions can be used for tasks in the workplace or at home, thus providing adult learners with opportunity to develop skills through practice. Adults with disabilities that limit their ability to learn can use mobile devices to increase their feelings of control and independence (Smith, 2009).

Clayton and Elliott (2008) describe the increasing use of hand-held devices for e-learning in New Zealand industry, a practice that offers opportunities for just-in-time and just-enough approaches to e-learning. The authors note that graphics, audio and simulations are particularly effective in reducing demand on literacy and numeracy skills. We recommend that employers provide their employees with those applications best able to help develop the LLN skills required in their respective workplaces. The point is perhaps obvious, but employees who receive skills development that closely aligns with the skills needed to do their work are more efficient employees (Noss et al., 2007).

As is evident from innovative developments in the United States Army (Kazmer, 2007), adults who are already proficient in using digital technologies can design their own forms of mobile learning so that these align with the multiple aspects of their life at home and work. Our polytechnic case study of a programme for modern apprentices describes young apprentices, internet savvy and proficient with their mobile phones, successfully gathering evidence in the workplace in order to fulfil the assessment component of their vocational programme (Davis et al., 2010). The use of the mobile phone camera reduced demands on their writing skills. In addition, the tutor texted multiple-choice questions relating to course content to the apprentices’ mobile phones, which prompted greater engagement with the theory aspects of their programme. This innovative practice illustrates how digital technology can be used as part of formative assessment in workplaces.

2.9. Tutors and support staff require specific professional development in e-learning, and organisations need to develop so that they can successfully accommodate this type of learning

The rapid and often innovative development of e-learning and related changes in pedagogy and useful e-based resources illustrated in this report emphasise the need for adult educators to receive ongoing professional development (Davis, 2009; Mitchell et al., 2005; Wagner and Kozma, 2005). Tutors, leaders and support staff involved in e-learning need targeted professional development to help them through the thinking described in this report, and to implement and integrate the changes that it recommends. Because innovation with e-learning is an evolving process, it takes time to bed in. The stages of adoption and/or rejection that each individual and his or her organisation work through in this respect are related to their particular circumstances (Davis, 2009).

Professional development is also necessary to develop ICT skills and understanding of how both e-learning and LLN can be embedded in the learning process (UNESCO, 2006). The same applies to company training, which needs to include everyone involved in facilitating LLN skills (Smith, 2009). In addition, when leaders in the educational sector participate in professional development alongside their staff, students’ achievement tends to improve (Mitchell et al., 2005; Yee, 2001).

The working conditions of tutors in adult foundation education influence the amount and type of change they bring to their practice. In their examination of the factors that encourage teachers to use ICT in their practice or that prevent them from doing so, Drent and Meelissen (2008) note that the number of contacts that the educators maintained to assist their own professional understanding of e-learning had a direct influence on their e-learning attitudes and competence. This outcome, in turn, affected their propensity to innovate with e-learning. In their consideration of adult education in general, Smith, Hofer, Gillespie, Solomon and Roe (2003) identified key factors influencing successful teaching practice. These were sufficient preparation time, access to benefits, including vacations, and having a voice in changes to programmes. The researchers found that individual factors, such as teaching beliefs and attitudes toward innovation, also influenced educators’ adoption of e-learning.

Many initiatives around the world, including the New Zealand Ministry of Education’s “Laptops for Teachers” project (Cowie, Jones, Harlow, Forret, McGee and Miller, 2008), show that provision of laptop computers and other equipment, such as a digital camera and mobile phones, aids e-learning innovation because they increase educators’ ability to access ongoing and relevant professional development. Not surprisingly, given these findings, Hamilton and Hiller (2006), in their critical overview of adult literacy teaching and learning in the UK, identified the constraints on e-learning as follows: insufficient numbers of computers, many of which were old; a lack of suitable teaching areas, often with limited security; and dispersed premises, which meant that tutors had to transport their resources with them. Smith et al. (2003, p. 24) reported similar constraints, as did the tutors we interviewed.

A comprehensive survey of e-learning in New Zealand polytechnics conducted by Mitchell et al. (2005) identified the many challenges that this form of learning poses for tutors’ pedagogical practices. In their report, the authors emphasised the need to raise awareness among tutors of the benefits of e-learning and to encourage and support them to explore its potential. The authors found that tutors in larger institutions were more likely to adopt e-learning than were tutors in smaller institutions, partly because the former were more likely to be supported in their endeavours. The authors also found that polytechnic staff encompass the whole spectrum of ICT competence. However, the authors’ identification of the varying extent to which these educators had adopted e-learning was somewhat similar to Rogers’ (2003) categories: embracers, modifiers, examiners, doubters, and refusers. Mitchell and colleagues furthermore found that neither age nor gender related to the level of adoption. Instead, the level of adoption related to the need for e-learning. Staff teaching off-campus courses and those teaching in programmes with ICT-related industry needs were the staff most likely to have adopted e-learning.

E-learning research in New Zealand tertiary education identifies the need to tightly connect institutional policy, infrastructure and people. As Shephard (2009) points out, leaders can promote development by “providing direction (leading the way), by persuasion (by providing incentives, reward and recognition) or by coercion (with obligations and penalties)” (p. 3). Although most of the staff that Shephard surveyed considered e-learning important, only one-third had engaged in formal or informal professional development for e-learning. The staff surveyed were involved in many different facets of e-learning and included those working with adults with LLN needs.

According to Shephard (2009), this broad range illustrates just how eclectic the types of professional development on offer need to be to build effective e-learning capacity. However, Shephard did find a number of professional development strategies that were common to all educators. The five top-rated ones were informal: “… sharing knowledge with colleagues; spontaneous learning arising from work or personal activities; learning through informal discussions in the workplace; regular reading of journals and books relevant to a profession; and acquiring knowledge through browsing websites or ‘surfing the net’” (p. 3). Our polytechnic case study also illustrated the parts that accredited courses and “champions”—people enthusiastic about and conversant with e-learning pedagogy—play in introducing new approaches to teaching and learning to their colleagues (Davis et al., 2010).

In summary, the perceptions and beliefs of tutors and those who support them influence their uptake of e-learning and the effectiveness of the teaching practices they adopt in that regard. At the present time, adoption trajectories are highly variable; it seems that only a few tutors are at a stage where they can act as influential champions of development in e-learning.

2.10. Communities of practice can provide a means of professional development for tutors engaged in e-learning and can lead to the development of relevant resource banks

Communities of practice made up of vocational staff, including workplace assessors, LLN specialists and others who support adults with LLN needs, can be an important supplementary aspect of professional development of e-learning tutors (Davis, 2009; Davis et al., 2010; Mitchell et al., 2005). Used well, online learning enhances this type of professional development. It also provides educators with opportunities to create and access useful resources, such as those developed by Workbaseand by the recently established national hub for adult literacy and numeracy at the University  of Waikato.

The Teachers for Teachers for Tertiary (T4T4T) action research programme evaluated by CORE Education (Ministry of Education, n. d.) demonstrates just how successfully community-based approaches to e-learning can be integrated into professional development programmes accommodating diverse learners. The programme involved tertiary staff working within four Canterbury tertiary institutions. Trained mentors supported and guided small groups as they developed an action-based and reflective approach to accredited professional development online. The tutors and support staff advanced their use of e-learning with the support of the online community and occasional face-to-face meetings. Mentoring both online and in the face-to-face meetings was an important success factor.

Mackey’s (2009) extensive research into similar programmes for tutors in all sectors of education in New Zealand indicates that complementary e-learning communities of practice can develop online and in the workplace during formal professional development. Moreover, as Davis, Preston and Sahin (2009) found, national professional development initiatives that fit with tutors’ lifestyles not only facilitate the tutors’ professional learning but also encourage development and sharing of relevant e-learning resources across organisations and geographic boundaries. Online mentoring and accreditation of professional development are likely to be essential to the formation of a strong community of practice (Selwyn, 2000).

Drawing on their research into e-learning initiatives focused on developing numeracy skills in the workplace, Thomas and Ward (2009) recommend the establishment of a bank of appropriate activities that a large number of tutors and learners can then use. They note that quality online learning activities cover the required content, use cognitively demanding tasks, provide immediate feedback and guidance and are accessible to adults. They also state that each resource included in the bank should be accompanied by specification of the required skills and the potential learning outcomes.

Having considered research on large-scale e-learning professional development for tutors in England, Davis and colleagues (2009) concluded that synergistic links with ongoing professional development has the potential to increase and refine banks of resources to fit many more adults’ needs. The researchers also noted that online communities of tutors supported by champions, mentors and leaders tend to lead to an increase in the number and range of resources and their uptake. Block courses were blended with professional practice supported by colleagues and online tutors. The online tutors continued to develop banks of resources that teachers could draw upon and adapt for their learners.

Coben et al. (2007) recommend that commercial developers of educational resources produce and trial materials for use with adults wanting to improve their numeracy skills. The researchers also urge tutors to create and adapt their own resources and versions of existing materials. However, they caution that the success of this work rests on tutors’ receiving suitable professional development. Coben and colleagues furthermore note that open source software and “creative commons” licensing readily allow practitioners to share resources and activities and to adapt these to accommodate the needs of other learners.

After evaluating a wide range of easily accessible digital technologies implemented by tutors engaged in teaching numeracy skills to adults, Coben and colleagues (2007) cited the following technology-based initiatives as the most successful:

• An audio file embedded into a web-based worksheet for ESOL students;
  
• Web quests with embedded web links, including online numeracy tasks, such as buying a ticket;
  
• Mind-mapping software;
  
• Blogs that provide details of activities and shared progress;
  
• Simple spreadsheets to make numeracy more meaningful and attractive to learners.

In New Zealand, professional development communities are also emerging within particular vocational areas. For example, one of the stakeholders we interviewed told us of an online community of practice where tutors ask colleagues for material that not only suits their particular vocational purposes, for example, teaching learners how to mix fertilisers, but also develops the learners’ numeracy and literacy skills. The company that this stakeholder represented said access to downloadable resources and exercises had opened the company’s eyes to the potential for providers and practitioners to work together to develop and share supplementary learning materials contained in a databank-type facility, and offering links to other websites. Recognition was also given to the need to structure these resources so that tutors and learners were not left determining the best order in which to access them.