4 Higher Education Spaces and Protracted Displacement …
45
vehicular languages—English and Arabic. The research aim was to increase our
understanding of the variables which mediate successful learning outcomes for
all refugee learners. Especially when it came to the variable of tutor support, the
qualitative analysis generated particularly useful results designed to inform the
adaptation of OERs in general, and MOOCs in particular, to fragile contexts. In
fact, through quantitative analysis of on-site tutoring support the latter emerged as
the single most decisive variable to boost learner success, particularly for female
refugee learners in refugee camp settings. The study carefully documented the
differential use of social media and learning technologies and concluded that fragile
learning contexts make use of different modes of modern communication and that
choices are usually dictated by connectivity, accessibility, and financial affordances.
This confirmed the relevance of the Technology-Access-Matrix, designed by
InZone to support all of its online and blended higher education programming
(InZone 2015). This matrix contends that higher education courses for learners
in fragile contexts should be designed to integrate a carefully planned progression regarding the use of learning technologies and communication media in an
effort to provide pedagogically sound incidental learning opportunities. This contrasts with the more traditional approach to HEiE, whereby ICT courses are offered
prior to launching content-rich and engaging higher education programs, thus artificially separating the acquisition of ICT skills from the actual skill of learning. This
approach compartmentalizes skills that together are essential for supporting learning, making it more difficult for learners to understand their respective relevance and
hampering their required cognitive integration. Skill and knowledge acquisition are
co-determined by learners’ capacity, learning opportunities, motivation, and engagement. In challenging learning contexts, integrative learning pedagogies are vital to
building successful learning strategies.
Support courses, such as language enhancement or ICT courses, often do not elicit
the kind of engagement from learners in general, and refugee learners in particular
need to maintain motivation in the face of contextual adversity. This spans a wide
range of challenges, including insufficient, irregular access to learning resources that
are not explicitly made available by course providers in a durable format, but which
learners are expected to access; and language and cultural barriers that represent
cognitive challenges that are not easily resolved in a virtual learning environment.
The MOOC Multi-Center Study offers rich qualitative and stringent quantitative data to inform course providers about learner support requirements. These need
to be integrated into course planning if large numbers of refugee learners are to
succeed and remain motivated to continue their learning journey. While this study
did not specifically address the question of credentialing OERs and allowing learners engaged in non-formal higher education to obtain regular academic credit for
their work, the different requirements for session-based and on-demand versions of
OERs and the way learners navigated these provide important information as to how
such credentialing may have to be approached in the future. Of particular note are the
issues related to hard deadlines, peer-assessed learning activities, learning ethics—including the interpretation of the concept of plagiarism across different cultures—and
free-loading. In the refugee context, learning goes global. Nevertheless, humanitarian
45
vehicular languages—English and Arabic. The research aim was to increase our
understanding of the variables which mediate successful learning outcomes for
all refugee learners. Especially when it came to the variable of tutor support, the
qualitative analysis generated particularly useful results designed to inform the
adaptation of OERs in general, and MOOCs in particular, to fragile contexts. In
fact, through quantitative analysis of on-site tutoring support the latter emerged as
the single most decisive variable to boost learner success, particularly for female
refugee learners in refugee camp settings. The study carefully documented the
differential use of social media and learning technologies and concluded that fragile
learning contexts make use of different modes of modern communication and that
choices are usually dictated by connectivity, accessibility, and financial affordances.
This confirmed the relevance of the Technology-Access-Matrix, designed by
InZone to support all of its online and blended higher education programming
(InZone 2015). This matrix contends that higher education courses for learners
in fragile contexts should be designed to integrate a carefully planned progression regarding the use of learning technologies and communication media in an
effort to provide pedagogically sound incidental learning opportunities. This contrasts with the more traditional approach to HEiE, whereby ICT courses are offered
prior to launching content-rich and engaging higher education programs, thus artificially separating the acquisition of ICT skills from the actual skill of learning. This
approach compartmentalizes skills that together are essential for supporting learning, making it more difficult for learners to understand their respective relevance and
hampering their required cognitive integration. Skill and knowledge acquisition are
co-determined by learners’ capacity, learning opportunities, motivation, and engagement. In challenging learning contexts, integrative learning pedagogies are vital to
building successful learning strategies.
Support courses, such as language enhancement or ICT courses, often do not elicit
the kind of engagement from learners in general, and refugee learners in particular
need to maintain motivation in the face of contextual adversity. This spans a wide
range of challenges, including insufficient, irregular access to learning resources that
are not explicitly made available by course providers in a durable format, but which
learners are expected to access; and language and cultural barriers that represent
cognitive challenges that are not easily resolved in a virtual learning environment.
The MOOC Multi-Center Study offers rich qualitative and stringent quantitative data to inform course providers about learner support requirements. These need
to be integrated into course planning if large numbers of refugee learners are to
succeed and remain motivated to continue their learning journey. While this study
did not specifically address the question of credentialing OERs and allowing learners engaged in non-formal higher education to obtain regular academic credit for
their work, the different requirements for session-based and on-demand versions of
OERs and the way learners navigated these provide important information as to how
such credentialing may have to be approached in the future. Of particular note are the
issues related to hard deadlines, peer-assessed learning activities, learning ethics—including the interpretation of the concept of plagiarism across different cultures—and
free-loading. In the refugee context, learning goes global. Nevertheless, humanitarian