Abstract
Self-regulated learning (SRL) is useful for understanding self-directed learning practices. However, SRL behaviours - despite being deemed highly context-dependent - remain mostly unexplored for healthcare workers in low-income countries. This study details how SRL strategies vary and impact on healthcare providers' learning gains when using digital learning platforms. We apply Latent Profile Analysis (LPA) to questionnaire responses from a sample of 264 healthcare providers, arguably the first time LPA has been applied for the context in this subject-domain. We identified four SRL profiles: High, Above-Average with Low Help-Seeking, Average, and Low SRL profiles with significant differences in SRL strategies between the four profiles confirmed by Kruskal-Wallis test and logistic regression. Healthcare providers with more specialised clinical training were most likely to be in the Low SRL profile, but compared to the other profiles, maximised possible learning gains in the fewest learning iterations. From our findings, SRL may not adequately represent the nature of the interaction between these learners and contextual characteristics. Exploring the important role of various external learning regulation behaviours that influence healthcare providers SRL might help address this shortcoming. These findings provide insights into the learner factors to consider when implementing technology-mediated learning in these resource-contexts. They also offer plausible future research directions into how to maximise healthcare providers’ learning gains on digital platforms that is informed by how learners in low-income contexts regulate their self-directed learning.
Highlights
Countries in the Global South have more than 20% of the global disease burden and the most severe health workforce shortage; they account for 64% of the global health workforce shortage, with Sub-Saharan Africa being the hardest hit (M. Roser & Ritchie, 2019; WHO, 2016)
Given the varied but low task strategies and help-seeking behaviours in the Self-regulated learning (SRL) profiles (Table 5), it is conceivable that the lack of maximising on the possible learning gains from using the LIFE platform in all SRL profiles apart from low SRL profile can be attributable to a low persistence and effort-regulation with limited help provided/sought
This study adds to empirical evidence on the SRL of clinicians in these contexts by generating insights into how these healthcare providers self-direct their learning on digital platforms
Summary
Countries in the Global South have more than 20% of the global disease burden and the most severe health workforce shortage; they account for 64% of the global health workforce shortage, with Sub-Saharan Africa being the hardest hit (M. Roser & Ritchie, 2019; WHO, 2016). The dire need for trained health workers is compounded by a severe lack of training opportunities and resources, which contributes to almost half of avoidable deaths globally (UNICEF, 2018; WHO, 2019). Mobile- and online-based learning have the potential to help address the training need in these regions, given their growing ubiquity and use for seeking information (Edgcombe, Paton, & English, 2016; Silver & Johnson, 2018). This is because face-to-face training is costly to resource-constrained individuals and (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). Unlike structured face-to-face learning, learners using digital platforms determine the nature of engagement with and spaced repetition of, the study content (Kizilcec et al, 2017)
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