What is Learner Autonomy? - AcademyOcean
Highlights:
A desire to learn more is natural. Often learning is a must for career development, and in this case, it may feel like a burden. Modern mobile learning platforms utilize many measures to avoid this, and autonomous learning is one of them. It helps to deal with obstacles such as various commitments and also overcomes the downsides of formal learning.
The autonomous learner is a 21st-century answer to the growing need for quality and convenience of continuous education. This approach assumes a learner has a decent motivation to learn, as it gives the learners all the reins of power. Let's take a closer look at what autonomy is in education.
What Is A Learner Autonomy?
The concept of learner autonomy emerged in the 20th century, encompassing the idea of individuals taking control of their education. Initially focused on the ability to govern one's learning, learner autonomy has evolved over time, retaining its core principle of granting learners authority over their knowledge acquisition. Presently, learner autonomy encompasses three fundamental aspects: time, control, and pace.
Time
Time management is challenging, and the problem worsened at the beginning of the 21st century. Learner Autonomy is one of the answers to this issue. It works great for businesses unwilling to tolerate using the working time to educate their workers. In turn, workers can conveniently balance work, learning, and lives. Modern technologies help by allowing learners to choose learning conditions.
Control
Putting learners in control of their education allows for empowering self-directed learning. It adds convenience and motivates learners as they feel no pressure to process new information.
Pace
The first changes arose in the pace of learning. Everyone is different and can work and learn at a different pace. Learning certain information may take minutes or hours, considering different background knowledge and attitudes. Giving control over speed to learners is a great way to boost their success.
Benefits Of Autonomous Learning
The benefits of learner autonomy extend to students and organizations alike, shaping a positive learning environment and fostering personal growth. Key advantages include:
1. Active Learning: Empowering Engagement
Learner autonomy promotes active participation by granting learners control over their learning journey. Active learning sparks intrinsic motivation and enthusiasm, driving learners to take initiative and delve deeper into subjects of interest.
2. Motivates Self-Driven Exploration
Autonomous learners are motivated to explore subjects independently, promoting curiosity and a lifelong passion for learning. This inherent drive encourages students to delve into topics beyond the curriculum, nurturing well-rounded individuals.
3. Engages Through Personalization
Personalization is at the core of learner autonomy. Learners assume responsibility for their education, making the process personal and relevant. This engagement enhances comprehension, retention, and application of knowledge.
4. Explores Diverse Learning Avenues
Autonomous learning encourages students to explore diverse learning resources beyond traditional materials. They seek out various perspectives, enhancing critical thinking skills and enriching their educational experience.
5. Prepares for Lifelong Learning
Students who experience learner autonomy are better equipped for lifelong learning. They acquire essential skills such as self-discipline, time management, and research abilities, positioning them for success in a rapidly changing world.
6. Fosters Positive Learning Experience
The autonomy of learning fosters a positive learning experience. Learners find joy in taking charge of their education, leading to a sense of accomplishment, heightened self-esteem, and an overall positive attitude toward learning.
7. Drives Higher Returns
Organizations benefit from promoting learner autonomy as it results in higher returns on investment. Engaged learners exhibit enhanced knowledge retention, better application of skills, and improved performance, positively impacting the organization's productivity and bottom line.
Promoting learner autonomy, where students actively participate in their education, transcends traditional teaching methods. By fostering a culture of autonomy, educational institutions and businesses empower learners to become lifelong learners, critical thinkers, and self-motivated individuals who thrive in the complex and ever-evolving landscape of education and work.
Students` control of their learning carries many benefits, both for learners and company or business owners. I want to highlight and discuss the most prominent ones:
- Independence and proactivity
A liberal and free learning system gives the learner a feeling of controlling their learning. In turn, such a learner-driven approach creates a massive motivation for learning, compared to traditional methods with complete teacher control over the process. It benefits the learners with a comfortable atmosphere for learning. Business owners benefit from effective upskilling and obtaining skilled workers.
- Making it personal
One of many reasons why autonomy is substantial is that it makes the process personal. One carries next to full responsibility for their learning. They treat the learning process seriously, dedicating more effort to learning and becoming productive.
- Engagement
From AcademyOcean's experience, engaging in learning is the key to successful learning. Being in charge means setting goals, planning paths and ways to achieve them, and enjoying the results. It is engaging, allowing learners to develop an interest and connection with learning content.
- Encourages exploration
Exploration is one of the first ways humans use to start learning. It takes place in childhood and stays throughout life. Since autonomy is a basic human need, such learning feels more natural, pleasant, and convenient than formal education. Learning autonomy, combined with the freedom to explore, can give astonishing results in upskilling.
- Promotes responsibility
Employees promoted to work independently are more responsible and efficient in their work. Giving people the ability to work on their terms is a reliable way to raise their efficiency and provide a feeling of being influential, affecting the company's results.
- Happiness
The less weight is placed on one's shoulders, the happier they are. Traditional learning feels like an unbeatable amount of work a person must do. Autonomous learning feels natural as a person is internally motivated for it. It makes a huge difference that makes people happier. Being forced causes the opposite effect. Accordingly, higher happiness levels positively impact productivity.
- Increases Return
Another reason autonomy is essential is that it increases the return rate. The high engagement levels often result in efficient and effective learning. It drives a better return on investment regarding training. It can also encourage the workers to use their new skills at work, serving as an example for employees.
How To Incorporate LMS For Autonomous Learning
Promoting learner autonomy in your company or organization is a great way to engage and motivate workers to learn. Training remote employees is a very complex subject with numerous peculiarities. Giving remote employees a sense of ownership over their learning materials and other data is a great way to show the benefits they get from employment. It reduces their motivation to seek new opportunities.
Autonomous learning is critical, allowing the development of an effective learning strategy in an SMB or large company or organization. The central element is adhering to the basic principle of empowering learners to control their learning. Without control and emotional attachment caused by it, workers won't feel in charge of their learning. They will feel less motivated and might seek new growth, development, and employment opportunities.
An ideal training plan should resemble childhood times. Back then, the learning felt natural as it came informally at a natural pace. Giving the same feeling to workers is crucial. Look at ways and advice to incorporate a suitable LMS for autonomous learning.
1. Pre-plan everything
Plan what materials and fields of human activities you like to teach. Find out what tools can be helpful. It allows us to create a list of must features in the LMS. Ensure to take enough time to process this.
2. Choose the right LMS
Today's market is filled with numerous options. Each is a valid solution that can boost learning in a company or an SMB. From the perspective of autonomous learning, seek those LMS that offers flexibility for learners. For example, AcademyOcean allows administrators to assign courses to learners, allowing the latter to choose ways to complete them.
3. Control features
Pick an LMS with extensive control features. For example, it can gather statistics for how long a learner spent on a course, their answers, and their general statistics. Giving complete control over learning to workers is a great thing. You need to control their progress to guide them.
4. Guidelines, not rules.
Make groups of courses that resemble guidelines that a learner may or may not adhere to. Hinting learners on your approach to the learning process but giving them the right to decide it.
5. Step by Step
Implement changes without hurrying, slowly modifying existing learning culture, and giving more control over learning with time. In turn, developing a new learning program, consider steps to conveniently and comfortably implement it.
