The first blog on the Digital and Online Learning (DOL) component of the Creating New Learning (CNL) initiative set out the purpose and aims of the DOL research and reviewed potential significant emerging topics. The second blog summarised some intriguing formative themes from the DOL research.
This third blog reflects on the process of gathering, sifting and analysing thematically the research on DOL in VET. It is important, as well as collating findings to produce coherent final reports, that researchers take time to review, reflect and comment on the evidence base itself.
When examining the evidence base for innovation in DOL, especially in times of significant disruption such as those we are experiencing in 2020, it is important that we work wherever possible with current, relevant literature. In any areas of significant innovation, insightful articles on research written even as recently as 2015 can have been overtaken by events and hold less currency than they did at the time of publication.
The availability of contemporary, emerging research conducted in VET still does not solve all of our problems regarding the relevance of our sources. On examination, we find that many journal articles and papers may largely duplicate previous research, or conclude that further innovations are necessary, without further clarification on exactly what or why.
Other research conclusions promote generic findings, ‘gamification may increase learner engagement’, ‘online collaboration can build soft skills,’ phrases which we read back in 2010. That is not to say that this research did not hold value for the VET practitioners or learners participating, for the authors producing it or for many readers, as engagement with research into practice always holds some value.
An emerging conclusion from reflections on the available DOL in VET evidence base, however, is a significant need for further research which analyses or draws together specific, successful use of DOL use across all VET scenarios. To add to our body of knowledge, we need to be told the ‘how’, the ‘who’ and the ‘why’, of DOL effectiveness, rather than simply being told ‘what is needed next’ or ‘what may occur’ in future. This will require calls on theories of learning, motivation, individual and group behaviour and consider barriers to and inequalities in DOL use.
An additional, persistent challenge is that much valuable DOL research is undertaken with school-age learners or university students rather than in the many and diverse areas of VET, workplace development or wider lifelong learning.
The final DOL research report aims to bring these themes together, summarising key DOL innovations and development needs and drawing some conclusions for likely future impactful uses of DOL in the next decade. What comments would you share on discovering insightful research on DOL in VET or the challenges of engaging with it?
(Banner image by art130405 used under license from Pixabay)
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