Abstract
This paper reports the findings of a small-scale study that documented the use of information technology for learning by a small group of postgraduate students. Our findings support current knowledge about characteristics displayed by effective e-learners, but also highlight a less researched but potentially important issue in developing e-learning expertise: the ability of students to manage the combination of learning and non-learning activities online. Although multi-tasking has been routinely observed amongst students and is often cited as a beneficial attribute of the e-learner, there is evidence that many students found switching between competing activities highly distracting. There is little empirical work that explores the ways in which students mitigate the impact of non-learning activities on learning, but the evidence from our study suggests that students employ a range of ‘boundary management’ techniques, including separating activities by application and by technology. The paper suggests that this may have implications for students’ and tutors’ appropriation of Web 2.0 technologies for educational purposes and that further research into online boundary management may enhance understanding of the e-learning experience.Keywords: effective e-learning; boundary management; multi-tasking; distractionsDOI: 10.1080/09687761003657598
Highlights
Introduction eLearning is increasingly becoming part of the ‘core business’ of educational institutions
This group represents students who have already demonstrated their success as learners, and so seem likely to provide an opportunity to explore the attributes of effective e-learners (Sharpe et al 2005)
Students’ computer skills were, in many cases, limited to using e-mail, Internet searches and presentation software (Table 2), and their experiences of e-learning confined to accessing course materials on computers, video and audio files, computer-based assessment and electronic whiteboards (Table 3). This strongly suggests that, for this group of students, the usual experience of e-learning were those aspects that facilitate traditional lecture-based curricula. This was evident in students’ perceptions of ‘e-learning’, which were diverse; many felt that it involved little more than the delivery content through electronic media, whilst some recognised the opportunities for interaction online: I would think of e-learning as presentations online. (Male, age 25–34)
Summary
Introduction eLearning is increasingly becoming part of the ‘core business’ of educational institutions. Its potential significance for higher education (HE) in particular was noted in the Dearing Report (NCIHE 1997), which claimed that Internet technology was key to the creation of a learning society and, more recently, in the HEFCE’s e-learning strategy that stated “new technologies clearly provide exciting opportunities for enhancement and innovation in learning opportunities” (HEFCE 2005, 5) Despite these policy drivers, many institutions are struggling to embed e-learning effectively, and much remains to be learnt about how technology can best be used to enhance student learning. Research suggests that effective e-learners are often those who demonstrate goal-setting, information-processing, cognitive skills, deep processing skills and decision-making skills They tend to have high levels of content competence, self-awareness and cognitive empathy to learn collaboratively, as well as appropriate technological skills and the ability to manage their own time (Cramphorn 2004; Jong-Ki 2008). These learners are likely to have developed contingency strategies and support networks to assist them with technical difficulties (Creanor et al 2006)
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