E–learning ‘Bites’ for Adult Learners: mixed messages from research

Abstract

Accompanying awareness of the potential for lifelong learning to secure social inclusion and economic survival, e–learning has grown in significance and a fragile consensus about its purposes has emerged among stakeholders. The University for Industry (Ufi) and its e–learning arm, learndirect, have focused efforts especially (but not entirely) upon previously disengaged learners. With increasing technological investment in individualised learning and fewer evaluations of its worth, this article draws on exploratory research in England by the author and others, and upon a McDonaldisation thesis, to examine the translation of rhetoric, particularly of ‘bitesized’ e–learning, into realities for meeting the needs of adult learners. Confusion about what constitutes ‘real’ or ‘serious’ learning signifies mixed messages among providers, those who accredit learning pathways, and for learners, including those for whom the learning journey may be more important than accreditation. Given support for ‘joinedup’ qualification frameworks, suggestions for further research are provided.