13.3.1 Societal changes

Society has changed fundamentally in the past 20 years, largely driven by opportunities afforded by emerging technological devices that have become seamless to use and offer mobility and grown transmission capabilities that connect individuals to information, tools, other individuals, family, and friends. “Community” has expanded from local connections to global ones. News is global, job markets are global, expertise is sought from global sources, and the list goes on. The impact of emerging technology on an expanded society is evident in its increased complexity, its diverse and informed citizenry, and the globalization of information and instruction.

In this technologically connected society, a basic acceptance of online instruction (e.g., see Harvard President Emeritus, Derek Bok (2013)) has emerged, along with an expectation of being connected locally, nationally, and even globally. Each of these changes in societal makeup impacts the technology of learning and technology in learning by the different content, processes for learning, types of learners, and learning environments. Table 13.2 outlines these changes in society and our assumptions about how they impact learning technology.

There is a high demand in both academic and adult contexts for more efficient and globally distributed learning events. Complex societal modeling can be done using integrative learning to help performers (both children and adults) develop deep understanding of relevant subject matter and become more efficient and effective problem solvers and performers (Fink 2013; Kinzie 2013; Welsh and Dehler 2012). Audiences are more diverse in their learning preferences, schooling experiences, cultural characteristics, and instructional expectations. They have different amounts of time to expend on learning and expectations to complete learning activities at their own pace, in their own learning spaces, and using their own technologies (Davison, Nora, and Yaw 2006).

Large numbers of adults need to be re-trained as economic downturns have resulted in lay-offs and the emergence of new industries and careers. Yet, workers today are not always experienced technology users or learners. Some demand high levels of interaction during learning cycles, while others lurk or want to work on their own. Rarely are there homogenous groups of learners proceeding together, as in traditional instruction. Thus, the push for global connections, technology-based or - enhanced solutions, and flexible instruction (in delivery, time requirements, design of activities, types of resources) based on societal changes is challenging designer and instructor thinking and practices.

In this era of rapidly increasing globalization, particularly in the information and education sectors, new alliances between educational entities, especially those representing both developed and developing nations, can be useful in co-mingling resources and expertise to offer new educational opportunities to underserved areas on a worldwide basis. There exists a compelling rationale for institutional collaboration in view of formidable challenges faced by many institutions that are attempting to deliver new programs and services:

• addressing the needs of new and diverse learners
• providing alternative methods of teaching and learning
• meeting increased demand for student access
• being more efficient and effective
• encouraging innovation and external collaboration
• managing change
• overcoming institutional inertia.

Added to this daunting list of obstacles is a call for designers and instructors to create learning solutions that

• overcome a potential lack of infrastructure for planning and developing technology
• provide expertise in information utilization
• have the international cooperation needed to launch projects
• have collaboration and trust among institutions and agencies.

13.3.2 Evolving digital technologies

Technology is continuing to emerge as an integral tool for living and learning fueled largely by the passion for social connection made possible by the Internet and the ever-expanding availability of ever-smaller mobile devices. Communities have expanded into networks, news has become instant and global, and answers to mundane, fun, or monumental questions are a touch away. All the while, tools for learning continue to be developed that provide scaffolds for thinking and learning, and that can be manipulated to develop individual and collaborative understanding using these larger and smaller devices. Indeed, these technological changes have made a dramatic impact on the possibilities now afforded to teaching and learning, and, in turn, competencies for designers, instructors, and most importantly learners themselves. Table 13.3 outlines the more significant evolving technologies and our interpretation about how learning technology is influenced by the types of designs that are now enabled.

The evolution of the Internet—allowing for the introduction of online teaching and learning—and its nearly global usage is arguably the most dramatic change in education in a millennium. Its widespread adoption has provided educational opportunities to many learners who were previously underserved by conventional instruction, and it has enabled fundamental changes in how designers design, instructors teach, and students learn.

As the emergence of the Internet led to more connectedness to information, people, and interactive tools (for a variety of purposes, including learning), the growing uses of technologies proliferated from the corporate and educational institutions to the everyday lives of people in even the poorest of nations around the world. This ubiquity of technology has spawned an evolution of technology tools for learning on the go and pedagogical models that incorporate technologies in both safe common ways requiring little change in teaching strategies and in ways that disrupt traditional teacher-centered approaches (Stead et al. 2006). Technologies are being creatively used to deliver content, connect learners with others not typically reachable in a classroom, and engage students with highly interactive, hands-on activities that support their learning and enable them to demonstrate their knowledge gains in multiple ways.

13.4.1 So what now? professional foundations: improving professional knowledge and skills

Keeping track of findings regarding these issues is a prime responsibility of a competent designer or instructor, as noted under the professional foundations domain. How, then, do designers and instructors apply their understanding, and how do learners immersed in these societal changes, technological advances, and evolving learning processes demonstrate competent role performance? The next sections answer these questions individually by role: designer, instructor, and learner. Note that societal, technological, and pedagogical changes influence how one makes decisions in this evolving learning landscape and affect decision making, but how they affect instructional designers and instructors versus learners is quite different. Learning opportunities are enabled for instructional designer and instructors who can select learning activities from a vast repertoire of demonstrated effective learning strategies. Instructional designers and instructors take advantages of the changes in the design and offering of their instruction, but learners live within and expect learning events influenced by the changes. Therefore, the instructional designer and instructor sections start with competencies, followed by tactics, whereas the learner section begins with changes followed by competencies affected by those changes. The selected ibstpi competencies and performance statements referred to in the next sections are copyrighted by ibstpi and are reprinted with permission from the Board. See ibstpi.org for a complete set of the instructional designer, instructor and online learner competencies with the accompanying performance statements.

13.5.1 Demonstrating instructional designer competence

… instructional designers should be involved in … a science-based approach in which the … development of actual instructional materials should be done by the use of principle-based procedures …

(Merrill 2007, 336).

Practicing designers go by many titles, have a full contingency of tools, perform various types of tasks, and work in a variety of contexts and environments with significantly different situational factors—it is almost a faux pas not to include the word technology in the designer’s title or major responsibilities. There is also a growing number of professionals who are “designers-by-assignment” (Merrill 2007). These professionals are not specifically trained in the design sciences, yet by default are required to create instructional solutions as part of their jobs as educators, trainers, or specialists in areas like engineering and healthcare at the demand of their administrative leaders. These 21st century designers must continually be attuned to the societal, technological, and learning trends of today. They must also take a leadership role in promoting best practices in applying design theories, principles, and strategies in support of improving human performance.

ibstpi competencies help designers prepare themselves to successfully attend to the issues of today’s world in their instructional practices. ibstpi validated and published its fourth generation of instructional designer competencies and performance statements in 2012 (Koszalka, Russ-Eft, and Reiser 2013). This current version reflects the social complexities of today, evolving technologies, and new understandings of learning processes. Nonetheless, these standards are rooted in the traditional notion of designer competence, that is, identifying performance problems, designing and developing instructional solutions, planning for implementation, and evaluating the success of instruction.

In the next three sections the foundational instructional designer competencies informed by changes in society, learning processes, and technology are identified and then discussed in terms of how they change the tactics and decisions designers make.

13.5.2 Societal changes that affect the designer’s job

The competent designer is defined, in part, by competencies and performance statements that are informed by evolving societal changes. These are found in professional foundations, planning and analysis, design and development, and evaluation and implementation domains (as noted in parentheses).

• Apply research and theory to the discipline of instructional design (professional foundations).
• Select and use analysis techniques for determining instructional content (planning and analysis).
• Design instructional interventions (design and development).
• Design learning assessments (design and development).
• Evaluate instructional and non-instructional intervention (evaluation and implementation).

The settings and conditions in which designers work have continually changed over the years, providing a backdrop for the emergence of new practices:

• Designers work in interdisciplinary and global design teams, both in person and now more commonly through distributed communication channels.
• Changes in instructor and learner roles and technologies have caused designers to pause and take notice of demands for enhanced strategies that meet new environmental circumstances and personal and organizational preferences.
• Changes in the complexity of new and evolving careers and the capabilities of a dispersed, experienced, and aging employee pool have challenged designer thinking in terms of flexible instructional materials and programs to support re-training.
• Changes in society’s economics, notions of global citizenry, value of online instruction, and compulsion for social interactions have prompted designers to deeply consider the usefulness of research and theory, the need for enhanced assessment and evaluation strategies, and tighter overall design techniques that tackle these challenges.

13.5.3 Evolving digital technologies that affect the designer’s job

The competent designer is now defined, in part, by competencies and performance statements that address quickly evolving changes in digital technologies. These competencies are found in professional foundations, planning and analysis, and design and development domains.

• Update and improve knowledge, skills, and attitudes in the instructional design (and related fields) (professional foundations).
• Identify and describe target population and environmental characteristics (planning and analysis).
• Assess the benefits and limitations of existing and emerging technologies (planning and analysis).
• Design instructional interventions (design and development).
• Develop instructional materials (design and development).

To create successful digital technology-based or –supported learning experiences, designers and their collaborative teams must select technologies based on features that help to overcome the challenges presented by geographic boundaries, distributed knowledge, and individual instructor and learner preferences.

Emerging technologies provide abundant opportunities for designers to support learners or inadvertently inhibit learning processes. The ease of use of these emerging technologies offers the designer-by-assignment easy development capabilities, thus often encouraging the production of instruction that is not well thought out, aligned with expected learning outcomes, or well suited to the learner (Merrill 2007; Oliver 1999; Underwood et al. 2005). However, the competent designer can integrate technologies in ways that create powerful learning partnerships among learners, provide learners with guidance to think critically, efficiently, and effectively, and offer capabilities to demonstrate their learning.

Nowadays designers must be well versed in design sciences (e.g., instruction, learning, message, visual, assessment), development sciences (e.g., production processes, project management, collaborative activities), and feature new technologies (e.g., video, hypermedia, social media) that lend themselves to facilitating different types of learning. This is not to say that designers should be turned into production or information technology specialists. Rather, this implies that it is critical to prepare designers with competencies that help them identify performance problems and their causes, and then align content, instructional and learning strategies, assessments, learner and environmental characteristics, and accessible technologies into instruction that is intended to close identified performance gaps.

Designers are tasked with using systemic thinking practices (e.g., how instruction affects the individual and the organization, how materials and activities support learning) and selecting sound instructional design and development tools (e.g., knowledge, artifacts) to support their own productivity and maintain quality when creating instructional solutions. They must understand how instructors teach and learners learn in the most complex technology-informed environments. They must consider these evolving technologies as they perform learning assessments, evaluation processes, and basic research.

Thus, the basic definition of designer competencies includes performances demonstrating technology application competencies (e.g., visual literacy, message design, screen design, interactivity design), business acumen (e.g., project management, cost analysis), and more sophisticated evaluation skills.

Finally, the designer must pay particular attention to the affordances that different types of educational technologies provide to support human learning. For example, blended learning environments are being produced that facilitate in-person and virtually distributed synchronous and asynchronous learning events (Knox and Wilmott 2008; Koszalka and Wu 2010; Wu and Koszalka 2011). Flexible informational, instructional, and learning resources are being produced that can be used for multiple purposes or adapted by learners to meet their own learning needs (Grabowski and Small 1997; Wiley 2002).

13.5.4 Evolving understanding of learning processes that affect the designer’s job

The competent designer is now defined, in part, by competencies and performance statements that address our evolving understanding of the learning process. These are found in professional foundations, planning and analysis, and design and development domains.

• Promoting how instructional design research and theory and practice literature may affect design practices in given situations and applying concepts, techniques, and theories of learning to the design of instruction (professional foundations).
• Describe the nature of a learning or performance problem (planning and analysis).
• Design and develop instructional solutions and materials (design and development).

At the very center of designing instruction is the definition and process of learning. Designers use this understanding to prescribe instructional strategies, resources, and assessment approaches that will move learners toward expected performance. Thus, as the role of the learner has evolved over time, the practices of the designer have advanced to design instruction that more fully engages learners in deep thinking, in collaborative and social activities, in knowledge sharing and distributed problem-solving activities, and in scaffolding their development of self-efficacy and internal goal-setting for learning.

These types of instructional activities help learners to better understand the increasingly complex nature of everyday problems, develop multiple perspectives of content issues, model construction tasks, and participate in other critical-thinking activities that lead to deeper knowledge. For example, designers should be able to create instruction that effectively uses cognitive flexibility, case-based methods, and problem-solving approaches to successfully engage learners deeply in the content.

13.5.5 General overarching designer competencies

With the growing demand for designers-by-assignment, that is, those not trained in the design sciences, to create instructional and learning materials and events, the role of the designer has expanded greatly. Thus, the competent designer is also defined, in part, by competencies and performance statements that address the evolving overall need to support and lead efforts to support human performance improvement.

• Apply communication, management and business skills to all designer activities (management).

Competent designers should be shepherding designers-by-assignment in applying best practices, promoting effective relationships among stakeholders, and allocating resources to support productivity and effective/efficient completion of designer projects.

The competent designer, however, is only part of the equation in the continuous process of improving human performance in an ever-changing world influenced by evolving trends in societal expectations, technological advances, and understandings of learning. The designer’s work has a critical relationship to the instructor, who may be a designer-by-assignment and, more importantly, who may implement instructional solutions, and the learner who benefits (or not) from the instruction.

13.6.1 Demonstrating instructor competence

ibstpi, in its third revision of instructor competencies published in 2004, refers to instructors as “… individuals who are responsible for activities intended to improve skills, knowledge and attitudes … [and] … those who actively and directly support learning and performance” (Klein et al. 2004, 2). Their competencies cover many similar titles, such as trainer, facilitator, teacher, or tutor. Most significantly, however, the instructor’s role has expanded to include responsibilities for teaching in a myriad of old and new settings, including corporate training rooms, brick and mortar schools, on the job, in the field, in the community, and multiple types of online settings.

With extensive discussions of societal factors, pedagogical research, and emerging digital technology, the ibstpi competency development team identified five competency domains to specify the required skills, attitudes, and knowledge of a competent instructor. The first, professional foundations, includes a key competency statement that captures the spirit of this chapter: “Update and improve one’s professional knowledge and skills” (Klein et al. 2004, 31). For the instructor, this means keeping up to date with the current state of society, current digital technology that can be used in learning, and pedagogical advances. This information directly informs the decisions instructors make when they plan, prepare, select, and implement the methods and strategies they will use when they teach. This informed decision making occurs in three other relevant competency domains discussed in this section: planning and preparation, methods and strategies, and assessment and evaluation.

In the next three sections, foundational instructor competencies informed by changes in society, learning processes, and technology are identified and then discussed in terms of how they change the tactics and decisions instructors make.

13.6.2 Societal changes that affect the instructor’s job

These competencies are demonstrated in the planning and preparation domain. ibstpi specific competencies include:

• Plan methods and materials.
• Prepare for instruction.

The new society is global. Individuals and groups function and interact within larger social circles and the problems of living have become more complex. Instructors must plan instruction for this evolved society; learners have new characteristics, expectations, and methods for approaching problems. Instructors must analyze these new learners within this context, and take their characteristics into account when anticipating difficulties and selecting materials that are relevant to the learners. Instructors must also analyze the learning environments, especially those enabled by new technologies. Additionally, the complexity of the content must be analyzed so that appropriate higher-order thinking skills are taught in an appropriate sequence.

The methods and materials have continually changed over the years, providing an expanded toolbox of instructional methods. Methods that instructors should consider viable for learners in this changed society include:

• integrative learning models
• problem-based learning
• culturally sensitive learning activities
• collaborative, social learning spaces
• flexible learning models that accommodate diverse learning needs.

13.6.3 Evolving digital technology that affects the instructor’s job

Competent instructors “continuously update their technology skills and knowledge,” as noted in the professionals foundations domain. This means understanding the affordances of each type of digital technology to make wise and informed selections of technology tools and use them appropriately to motivate and engage learners, facilitate discussions, and provide feedback. An understanding of emerging technology applies most appropriately to the instructional methods and strategies domain. The relevant ibstpi instructor competencies are:

• stimulate and sustain learner motivation and engagement
• demonstrate effective presentation skills
• demonstrate effective facilitation skills
• demonstrate effective questioning skills
• provide clarification and feedback
• promote retention of knowledge and skills
• promote transfer of knowledge and skills
• use media and technology to enhance learning and performance
• assess learning and performance.

Technological advances and the ubiquity of technology in everyday life have created learner expectations of finding learning opportunities in both formal and informal settings, and in flexible learning configurations. Technology has changed how learners approach problems. Instructors, like designers, must take these characteristics into account and capitalize on them in the methods they use to teach complex content. Software is a powerful tool for learning, not just for consumption. Learners can take advantage of field-based learning, but only if instructors are tuned into the affordances of technology that make it possible, and into current perspectives of pedagogy for specific generations of learners.

Evolving digital technologies put myriad, constantly changing technology tools in the hands of instructors. The Internet, mobile computing, ubiquitous computing, tangible technologies, and large, small, and wearable devices that are easy to use are the current tools. This list will be longer and different next year.

For now, strategies for instructors to select in this new technologically advanced society should be those that use technology:

• to enable learners to distribute their understanding about what they are learning
• to immerse learners in authentic experiences, such as finding mentors who actually use the skills being taught
• to connect learner to learner for peer knowledge construction, but then get expert assessment from the field
• to apply cognitive flexibility theory to gather decision-making data from multiple and diverse audiences
• to require research that reaches beyond local resources
• to enable learners to collect, review, evaluate, and synthesize peer understandings from online discussion to draw their own conclusions and understandings
• to enable learners to manipulate information digitally to develop understanding
• to gather real data in the field using mobile devices that enable problem solving and decision making
• to send kinesthetic signals as feedback to teach psychomotor skills, such as in sports, manipulating equipment, or those requiring fine motor skills, such as those required in surgery
• to juxtapose data on large or multiple screens for synthesis.

13.6.4 Evolving understanding of the learning processes that affect the instructor’s job

An understanding of evolving learning processes applies most appropriately to the instructional methods and strategies domain. These are the same competencies listed in the previous section.

Pedagogical research of learning processes provides support for selecting effective methods, modes, strategies, and technologies for different types of learners in various contexts. In this domain, instructors use methods and strategies to motivate learners, engage them in “presentations,” facilitate learning, ask appropriate questions, provide feedback, and promote retention. Instructor practices should change based on new evidence from research about learning processes. For example, methods that actively engage learners, use social collaboration appropriately, and apply case-based and problem-based learning to stimulate higher-order thinking capitalize on current emerging understanding.

These competencies, while seemingly simple, are complex in how they are performed because of the complexity of society, technology, and pedagogy that will inform instructor planning decisions.

13.7.1 Demonstrating online learner competence

To understand learner competence, one must first define learning. Visser (2001) offers a useful definition of learning: “To engage in continuous dialogue with the human, social, biological and physical environment, so as to generate intelligent behavior to interact constructively with change.” But how might we define what constitutes a competent online learner? Learners need to develop certain competencies if they are to perform well in online settings. Defining competencies that enhance learner success, and enable them to acquire the optimum benefit from their studies, can be somewhat elusive. Before learners are able to be helped to develop such competencies, it is necessary, as Hong and Jung (2011) point out, to identify empirically what constitutes a valid and reliable set of competencies.

In its competency development work, ibstpi defines online learners as individuals who engage in learning activities within settings that may be designed and delivered entirely online or in hybrid courses (partially online and partially face-to-face), and in teaching–learning environments. Learners are active participants in the teaching–learning dynamic, and just as instructional designers and instructors require certain attitudes, knowledge, and skills to be successful, so too can learners benefit from a greater awareness of specific competencies that enable them to better succeed and achieve their learning goals.

Through systematic inquiry involving an analysis of the experiences, ideas, and opinions of both consumers and providers of online education, ibstpi developed a set of competencies to reveal what works and does not work, what contributes to and what detracts from successful online learning, and what these learners want and need from their online experiences. From these data, online learner attitudes, knowledge, and skills were identified and articulated in the form of 14 specific competencies and supporting performance statements.

These competencies were categorized into three domains: personal, learning, and interaction. The first competency domain (personal domain) covers competencies related to learners’ personal attitude, knowledge, and skills that are necessary for successful online learning. The second competency domain (learning domain) covers competencies related to the learning processes specifically applied to successful online learning in a formal learning setting. Learning is commonly defined as a process that brings together cognitive, emotional, and environmental influences and experiences for acquiring, enhancing, or making changes in one’s knowledge, skills, values, and world views. The last competency domain is the interaction domain. The online learning environment is unique in its capacity for providing flexible and interactive features in learning. Unlike other environments, where a one-way mediated communication channel allows passive participation or fixed roles of learners, online learning makes it possible for learners to take an active part through interactions with the instructor and peers. This engagement usually happens at a distance, often asynchronously, without the learners being online at the same time.

The changes noted in this chapter, in addition to creating new opportunities and expanding settings for learning to occur, have also introduced new challenges for learners, requiring suitable knowledge, skills, and attitudes appropriate for success in the online environment. The 14 specific competencies housed within the three domains appear below, organized in relation to how learner immersion in societal changes, evolving technologies, and learning processes affects competent learner performance.

13.7.2 Societal changes that affect learner competence

As noted previously, the introduction of online learning and its nearly global usage is arguably the most dramatic change in education in a millennium. Its widespread adoption has provided educational opportunities to many learners who were previously underserved by conventional instruction, and it has enabled fundamental changes in how students learn. Indeed, since it has even influenced pedagogy in classroom settings, many who transitioned to online courses for learning have gained new insights into their own learning styles. This remarkable growth in online education has led to its increased acceptance as a viable environment and means for teaching and learning.

Online education has evolved from a questionable approach for learning, during a period when its methods had to be justified and legitimated, to one which is now often preferred as a first choice by learners. As further evidence of the emergence and acceptance of online education, many learners choose online options and, in doing so, gain new confidence and competence in achieving their educational goals.

Learners must consider differing perspectives, examine their own cultural, social, and ethical assumptions, and develop the capacity to build on and mutually benefit from common ground. Sensitive and flexible learners both thrive by recognizing and adapting to cultural differences, manifested not only in language and social contexts, but also in learning styles (e.g., learning modes range from rote vs reasoning; from memorization to application and analysis, lecture vs discourse, empirical vs anecdotal, etc.). Many accessing online learning for the first time have to adapt not only to the medium, but also to the culture shock of academia, requiring that learners become rapidly “enculturated” to new practices, relationships, expectations, rituals, etc.

Social structure has a strong influence on students’ learning and satisfaction, and on the method by which the course is presented (Swan 2001). In these settings, active participants become part of a social milieu with anyone else who uses a computer. The online learning environment represents a unique cultural context and students come to this setting with preconceptions based on prior experiences in virtual situations, as well as in offline contexts. They bring with them differing norms, levels of proficiency, communication styles, comfort levels, expectations, etc. Some of their respective attributes and behaviors are likely to enhance their experience, but others might become impediments.

In Chen, Chen, and Tsai’s 2009 study examining student–student interaction in a synchronous discussion, they noted that during the early periods students related to each other on a social level, and as the discussion ensued, fewer posts were related to the topic. This behavior suggests that many online students assume that the digital environment they are most accustomed to exists primarily for the purpose of facilitating social exchanges and “stories,” rather than to enhance learning activities involving theories and concepts. Not surprisingly, Pena-Shaff, Altman, and Stephenson (2005) found that increased participation in online discussions correlated with greater student satisfaction in the course.

The following ibstpi competencies are especially relevant to learners as they adapt to and take advantage of online resources made increasingly available and acceptable due to changing social and educational changes to achieve their goals. They are all from the personal domain.

• set realistic expectations for online study
• maintain determination to achieve learning goals
• manage the challenges of online learning
• manage time effectively
• comply with academic, ethical, and legal standards.

13.7.3 Evolving digital technologies that affect learner competency

Learners choosing from among various online options must be attentive to the hazards as well as the promises of these resources, and must be confident of their capacity to optimize the advantages of online courses and guard against being lulled into a false sense of competence and efficacy. Otherwise, they could find themselves foundering within vast and unfamiliar virtual environments and paying for questionable educational offerings while yielding little gain toward their aspirations. This is further evidence that learners today must be competent at managing technology effectively.

The prevalent notion that online courses allow “anytime, anyplace” learning belies a myth, as most LMSs involve scheduled units of instruction, include deadlines for students’ posting of responses and assignments, require regular monitoring on the part of learners, and, as is the case with classroom-based instruction, include specified parameters for what is expected from learners. As LMSs have incorporated additional features to make online teaching and learning more efficient, some resistance (from both instructors and students) has surfaced, supported by the argument that classroom constraints have been replaced with electronic versions, inhibiting the presumed freedom that would be possible in the online environment.

Arguably, one of the most significant features and values of the virtual environment that the Internet has made possible is online interaction between students and instructors, students and peers, and students and various instructional resources. Students have a need for social connection and a sense of personal presence in electronically-mediated distance education (Palloff and Pratt 2001).

There is now research to indicate that interaction via online discussion tools can increase student achievement. In some instances, more reflection and thought about a particular topic/idea in the course can produce better cognitive outcomes than just surface posting or posting only because it is a requirement. In Bluic et al.’s 2009 study, students showed an increase in course achievement based on how the online discussion and chat tools were used. Students who approached online and face-to-face discussions with deep learning methods (e.g., integrating ideas, reflecting, thinking about larger perspectives) had higher achievement than students who approached discussions with surface learning methods (posting because it is a compulsory), and did not actively reflect on ideas and concepts.

The following ibstpi competencies are relevant to learners as they adapt to and take advantage of technology changes to achieve their goals. Domains are noted in parentheses.

• use technology proficiently (personal)
• engage in effective online communication (interaction)
• engage in productive online interaction (interaction)
• engage in collaborative online communication to build knowledge (interaction).

13.7.4 Evolving understanding of learning processes that affect learner competence

As online instructors become less involved in transmitting content to students, and instead facilitate the learning process for students, they create conditions within the course environment for students to derive maximum benefit from diverse means of acquiring information and ideas more through self-discovery than through instructor directives. In this way, the instructor becomes just one of several key resources needed by students to achieve learning objectives. Student-centered learning, in venues where instructors have adopted this philosophy, has encouraged movement away from primarily instructor-sourced learning objects and prescriptive prompts that direct students’ learning activities. This progression seems to foster more spontaneous and serendipitous learning, enabled by students’ own selection and manipulation of materials and tools within and beyond the course.

It is the learners’ own intentionality and internally-driven attitudes and behaviors (e.g., self-motivation, self-efficacy, time-management) that ultimately appear to have significant impact on their online studies, rather than externally-driven elements, such as provider services, course software, and, perhaps most significantly, faculty (Beaudoin et al. 2013). Thus, a subtle but important distinction can be discerned from student opinion regarding satisfaction and success: when asked, in a 2006 study of online learners in four countries, about perceptions of their successful learning experiences, most respondents identified learner-driven factors. Based on the ibstpi findings from the 2006 study and its competency development work (Beaudoin et al. 2013), what are often referred to as inner-directed attributes, rather than other-directed elements, are what ultimately affects students’ experiences and opinions of what works and does not work in online settings. This is the case regardless of what role faculty might play, what technology is utilized, and what institutional support may be proffered.

Competencies especially relevant to the manner in which learners engage in the process of learning are:

• be an active learner
• be a resourceful learner
• be a reflective learner
• be a self-monitoring learner
• apply learning.

As online learners acquire greater competency in the specific knowledge, skills, and attitudes listed, suggested ways in which students can optimize these competencies for success in their online studies include:

• prepare one’s self for taking an online course
• reflect on everyday behaviors and set goals for possible improvement
• share knowledge gained from online learner competencies with other learners
• diagnose one’s strengths and weaknesses regularly
• engage in self-development to become a more successful learner
• interpret stories, tips, and advice regarding online learning, referring to the online learner competencies.

The shifts in the “learner landscape” we have chronicled have affected how learners learn, in ways that are both significant and subtle. These changes require attention to means and methods by which learners’ success in achieving their goals can be enhanced by the acquisition of knowledge, skills, and attitudes (competencies) that are compatible with the online environment in which they increasingly function.