Cheerleading persistence: towards the design of peer interactions in distance learning programs with open cohorts of adults learners

Europe aims at improving adults’ participation in lifelong learning. To this end, Flemish adult education centers (AEC) are increasingly developing online and blended learning programmes. Allowing for flexible learning, these formats are considered to better fit mature students’ complex lives and multiple responsibilities. In spite of high enrolment numbers, online and blended programmes suffer from learner dropout. Especially in modular adult education and dynamic cohorts of adult learners, reduced social opportunities lead to isolation and lower learner retention. Since online and blended learning are entirely or partly mediated by internet technology, the promotion of social presence, transactional presence and learner immediacy becomes increasingly important to remediate isolation and improve learner retention. Experiencing belongingness to a group of learners has been shown to foster persistence in the face of diverse obstacles (e.g. a balancing act between studies, work and family, a mismatch between the learning programme and learner expectations, decreased motivation, etc.). The aim of this PhD research is to identify effective interventions to create a sense of physical and psychological closeness among adult learners. Available literature provides insufficient empirical proof about how to frame and support adults’ persistence by means of arrangements in online and blended learning programmes. Most studies focus on single (online) courses within higher education, regular student populations and descriptive research. By means of design-based research, the study intends to provide scholars and practitioners with theoretically sound and empirically valid programme design guidelines in view of enhancing learner retention. To this end, this research addresses the question: “How can we create transactional presence, social presence and learner immediacy in online and blended learning programmes to prevent adult learners’ drop-out?”