Topic 4

Target Audience

 Contents 

Overview

Source materials for this topic

Characteristics of open and distance learners

Demographic factors

Motivation

Learning factors

Subject background

Resource factors

Typical problems of distance learners

Adult learners

Identifying learning styles

Kolb’s theory of learning style

Approaches to learning

Implications for materials design

Practice exercise

Profiling your target audience

 1. Overview 

These materials support a discussion on the topic of learner or target audience characteristics in the form of checklists that course designers will find useful in focusing their materials appropriately.

1.1 Source materials for this topic

Kolb, D. Learning-style inventory: a self-scoring inventory and interpretation booklet. Boston: McBer and Co., 1985.

Rowland, M. Management development for women: a trainer’s handbook. The Commonwealth Secretariat and Government of Papua New Guinea Commission for Higher Education, 1995.

Rowntree, D. Preparing materials for open, distance, and flexible learning. London: Kogan Page, 1994.

Sparkes, J. What type of student do you have to teach? In Times Higher Education Supplement, February 6, 1998.

 2. Characteristics of open and distance learners 

What do you need to know about your learners in order to design effective learning materials for them?

Discussion: From your own and your participants’ experience, what do you need to know about the learner to design effective learning materials for them?

2.1 Demographic factors

·       How many learners are you likely to have?

·       What ages are they? Are they children? Adults?

·       Are your learners men? Women?

·       What is their family status?

·       How many children do they have?

·       What is their geographic location (for example, rural, urban)?

·       What is their previous education?

·       What language or languages do they read and speak?

·       Do they hold jobs?

2.2 Motivation

·       Why are they learning?

·       How might your programme relate to their lives or work?

·       What do they want from the programme?

·       What are their hopes and fears?

2.3 Learning factors

·       What are their beliefs about learning?

·       What learning styles do they prefer?

·       What learning skills do they have (for example, reading ability)?

·       What experience do they have of open and distance learning?

2.4 Subject background

·       How do they feel about the subject of the programme?

·       What knowledge and skills do they already have in that subject?

·       What misconceptions or inappropriate habits do they have?

·       What personal interests and experience might they have that are relevant?

2.5 Resource factors

·       Where, when, and how will they be learning?

·       Who will be paying their fees or expenses?

·       How much time will they have available for study?

·       What access will they have to facilities such as study centres?

·       What access will they have to the equipment and media required for the course?

·       What access will they have to human support from tutors, mentors, colleagues, and other learners?

2.6 Typical problems of distance learners

·       Family pressures;

·       Worries about work and money;

·       Lack of books and libraries;

·       Lack of their own study space;

·       Isolation;

·       Lack of transport to get to tutorials;

·       Lack of confidence;

·       No undisturbed study time;

·       Low levels of reading ability; and

·       Too busy to attend tutorials.

 3. Adult learners 

In the field of adult learning, andragogy — the art and science of helping adults learn ‑ is clearly differentiated from pedagogy — the art and science of teaching children.

The andragogical model is based on several assumptions, which have a number of implications for the trainers of adults:

Adults are self-directed.

·       The learning climate should be one which causes adults to feel accepted, respected, and supported.

·       Learners need to be involved in a process of self-diagnosis of learning needs and in the process of planning their own learning.

·       The teaching and learning process is the mutual responsibility of learners and teachers.

Adults have many and varied experiences.

·       Tap the experience of learners by using participatory experiential techniques.

·       Encourage learners to plan how they are going to apply their learning in their day-to-day lives.

·       Incorporate activities that encourage learners to look at their experiences objectively and learn how to learn from them and from each other.

Adults are ready to learn when they recognise the need to know.

·       Participants need to know why a particular topic or session is included and why they are expected to learn it.

·       Adults learn best with a real world approach, which uses case studies or role plays and allows participants to test strategies to solve realistic problems.

·       The concept of developmental readiness should be considered in the way learners are grouped.

Adults prefer problem-centred or performance-centred learning.

·       Trainers need to design and develop learning experiences that are relevant to these concerns.

·       Learning needs should be sequenced according to problem areas, not subjects.

·       Early in any learning session, provide an exercise that allows participants to identify the specific problems they want to be able to deal with more adequately.

·       Trainers must enable learners to see that their learning has been successful.

 

 4. Identifying learning styles 

Many ways of categorisation and modelling learners’ learning styles and of learners themselves have been suggested. Here are two for you and your participants to consider.

4.1 Kolb’s theory of learning style

Kolb’s is one of the best known approaches to determining ways in which individuals process information and their preferences for ways of learning.

Kolb (1985) proposes four stages in learning:

·       concrete experience: being involved in a new experience;

·       reflective observation: observing others in an experience or developing observations about one’s own experience;

·       abstract conceptualisation: creating concepts and theories to explain one’s observations; and

·       active experimentation: using the theories to solve problems and make decisions.

These four stages form a learning cycle through which most people proceed when engaged in learning. Through experience, individuals come to prefer one stage of the learning cycle more than others.

·       The activist prefers learning through concrete experience. The activist is good at brainstorming, enjoys interacting with people, and likes to explore all possibilities.

·       The reflector prefers learning through reflection and observation. The reflector will work out a model as a solution. Reflectors learn best by reading, listening, and observing. They like to integrate ideas into models and theories, but are relatively uninterested in applying theory to real life.

·       The theorist prefers learning through abstract concepts. The theorist will focus quickly on a task, and prefers working with ideas or things rather than people.

·       The pragmatist prefers learning through active experimentation. Pragmatists will experiment with countless solutions, and prefer to learn by experience. They take risks and perform well when they have to adapt to situations. They prefer trial and error to reading the instructions first.

For example, a nurse may most often learn through the active experimentation stage, whereas an academic may most often learn through abstract conceptualisation.

4.2 Approaches to learning

John Sparkes (1998) suggests that learners may take any number of approaches to learning, to some extent as a matter of preference and to some extent dependent on the task at hand. For example, differences between learners’ natural learning styles may not be so significant when skills are being taught, since the appropriate style is determined more by the activity involved than by learners’ natural capabilities.

·       Some learners are holists: They like to take an overview of a subject first and then fill in the details and concepts in their own way. This suggests that learning materials should include signposts, summaries, alternative explanations of difficult concepts, explanatory figure captions, a glossary of terms, a good index, and so on, to help holist learners find their own way through them.

·       Some learners are serialists: They like to follow a logical progression of a subject, beginning at the beginning. Serialist learners will need step-by-step guidance through a project-type assignment, for example.

·       Some learners are visualisers: Their learning is helped by the inclusion of diagrams, pictures, flow charts, films, and so on.

·       Some learners are verbalisers: They prefer to listen, read, discuss, argue, attend tutorials, and write during their conceptual development.

·       Some learners are doers: They find that overt practical activity is best. The saying that ‘to hear is to forget, to see is to remember and to do is to understand’ is true for doers, but not necessarily for other types of learners.

With a typical mix of learners, attempts should be made to serve each preferred learning style.

 5. Implications for materials design 

The characteristics of your learners have implications for the way you design your learning materials. Here are some additional examples.

Complete the sentence ...

If my learners ...	... then I must ...
are paying for the package themselves,	then I must try to avoid expensive media.
have a fixed amount of time available for studying the package,	then I must be strict about how much material I include.
will not see any obvious reason why they should study the package,	then I must emphasise how the package might benefit them.
have considerable experience in the subject covered by the package,	then I must appeal to that experience by using examples suggested by learners.
differ from me in the way they use certain key terms and ideas,	then I must begin by laying bare and exploring our differences.
are women and men,	then I must make sure my language and examples are equally welcoming to and inclusive of men and women.
may not be aware when the package has become relevant to their work-related needs,	then I must persuade line managers to introduce the package to learners at the appropriate time.

Discussion: Again, draw on your own and your participants’ contexts and experience for further implications and examples. All the case studies provided with this kit contain examples of programmes and materials that have been designed for specific audiences.

 6. Practice exercise 

6.1 Profiling your target audience

Instructions: You may wish to try the following:

·       Have participants select a sample target population (for example, the kinds of learners they expect will be attracted to a programme they are developing).

·       For that target population, instruct participants to answer the questions that have been posed in this session. The sets of characteristics can be divided up so that one small group deals with demographic factors, a second with motivation, and so on.

·       Have participants chart these characteristics and their implications for the design of the course or programme, and present these to the group as a whole.

Timeframe: Approximately an hour, depending on the size of the group. Small group discussions will take approximately three-quarters of an hour.

Materials: Newsprint sheets and marker pens for charts and reporting back.