Reducing barriers to online learning

Many learners encounter cultural and psychological barriers to online learning as well as practical and technological ones, as the following case study explores.

Case study

Fakhri has worked for 10 years for an international non-governmental organisation which supports disadvantaged young people to become entrepreneurs. She has regularly attended face-to-face training sessions lasting anything between half a day and four days. In 2020 she was expecting to attend a three-day training event on safeguarding, a topic that she is particularly interested in.

However, because of Covid-19 the face-to-face training event had to be cancelled and moved to a series of half-day webinars with some required pre-reading. Fakhri had endless difficulties undertaking this training, despite her commitment to the topic. Initially she was very anxious about the video conferencing software used for the webinars, although in the event she found it fairly easy to learn to use. She never managed to do the pre-reading because whenever she thought about doing it there always seemed to be something more urgent that she had to attend to. In addition, the long, dense text looked intimidating.

She found the webinars rather dull and found it hard to stay focused – there were lots of people talking through PowerPoint slides and very little opportunity to talk to the experts or her peers. She missed one of the webinars completely because her line manager called her just beforehand to discuss a complicated issue, even though he could see that the time for the webinar was blocked out in her diary.

Activity: Reducing barriers to online learning

Timing: Allow about 10 minutes

Fakhri encountered practical, technological, cultural, and psychological barriers to online learning. What could she, her line manager and the people organising the training have done to improve her experience?

We have suggested some barriers in the table below, but you may wish to add others from your own experience in the bottom rows.

BarrierPossible ways to remove or lessen this barrier
Unfamiliarity with software
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It always felt as if other work was more important than doing the preparatory reading before the webinars.
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The preparatory reading looked intimidating.
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The webinars were dull.
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There was little opportunity for interaction with peers or experts.
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Her line manager did not respect the time she had blocked out in her diary to attend the webinars.
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Discussion

Here are some possible answers, but you may have thought of others.

BarrierPossible ways to remove or lessen this barrier
Unfamiliarity with software

The trainers could have arranged an initial optional session introducing the software.

Perhaps Fakhri could have asked a colleague or friend for help

The trainers could have chosen a piece of software with which people were already familiar.

It always felt as if other work was more important than doing the preparatory reading before the webinars.

Fakhri’s line manager could have helped her to identify that this work was just as important as attending a face-to-face training and so needed to be prioritised.

Fakhri could have blocked out time in her diary to do the preparatory reading and defended it as a priority task.

The preparatory reading looked intimidating.

The trainers could have improved the look of the reading – simple changes like adding colour, pictures and bulleted lists can make a big difference to how intimidating text appears.

The trainers could have replaced some of the reading with videos to watch or audios to listen to.

Perhaps the trainers could have reduced the amount of preparation that needed to be done by thinking again about the learning outcomes of the course as a whole and only including essential materials.

The webinars were dull.The trainers could have shortened the sessions, or they could have kept them at half a day but used a structure of shorter presentations interspersed with private study or opportunities for interaction.
There was little opportunity for interaction with peers or experts.

The trainers could have built in more interaction and opportunities for collaboration, e.g. by using breakout rooms for small group discussions.

Fakhri could have set up an informal discussion group with colleagues also attending this training.

Her line manager did not respect the time she had blocked out in her diary to attend the webinars.

This would require a cultural change within the organisation, so that online training is understood as important in people’s diaries as face-to-face training.

If the webinars had been recorded, Fakhri could have caught up on them later.

While participants can encounter barriers to online training, of course there are also many advantages to learners. As already mentioned, online training can be more accessible to people with disabilities and it can also enable people with significant caring responsibilities to participate. Asynchronous online training can be particularly accessible because of the flexibility it offers as to when you learn.

Online training can potentially reach many more people than face-to-face sessions. While producing good quality online training in the first place is not cheap, it can be scaled up at relatively little additional cost because there are no costs for fuel, accommodation, or venue hire.

Online training spaced over several weeks or months can suit some participants because it does not take them away from their ordinary work or other responsibilities for long periods of time.

Another possibility that benefits many learners is using a blended approach – this is where some of the training takes place online and some in a face-to-face setting. Participants can access materials such as videos, recorded presentations and readings online, while face-to-face time is reserved for activities that are best done in a face-to-face group.

The more you know about your learners and their previous experiences of training in general and online learning in particular, the better you will be able to design your sessions to enable them to benefit from the advantages of taking your training online.

Barriers to online learning

Using learner profiles in online training