Exploring the Use of WhatsApp in a Distance Learning Context

The focus of the proposed scholarship project is to explore the perceived advantages and disadvantages to using WhatsApp within distance education. 

The Associate Lecturers/researchers suggesting the development of this scholarship project have been experimenting with the use of tutor-student WhatsApp groups for two years (outlined in more detail below). The project builds on a staff development workshop one of the researchers delivered at the Scotland ALSPD Staff Development Conference in November 2018 and an online seminar provided as part of the Social Science Talking Teaching event series in 2018. The researchers are keen to deepen their engagement with this topic through a scholarship project that will allow more scholarship and evidence-informed understanding of the potential of WhatsApp groups that can extend these dissemination activities, potentially shape wider Associate Lecturer practice, and indeed University policy in the use of such software to support student engagement, retention and success. 

Within the Open University, our focus is supporting learners at a distance. In the landscape of post Group Tuition Policy (GTP) implementation, where students may not attend regular learning events with their designated tutor (Associate Lecturers), there has been much discussion within the institution on the impact of GTP on the student-tutor relationship. Anecdotally – from discussions with Staff Tutors, peers and other tutors at staff development conferences and AL Assembly workshops – it is recognised that for many tutors the methods of contact with their students are commonly through group emails, cluster or tutor group forums, and, seemingly less frequent, telephone communication. There is a strong sense that tutors ‘hear less’ from their students compared to previous experience. Tutors also report issues with students not reading email correspondence. 

In March 2018, it was suggested to Associate Lecturers in FASS that attendance at face-to-face tutorials was declining and that there was a clear rationale for a move to a Day School model including more online tutorials. The learning event attendance picture for 2018-19 remains unclear. However, taking account of this information on changing attendance patterns and the nature of tutor-student communication, there is an anecdotal sense that tutors and students are in less teaching contact and have less communication than previously. There is limited communication between tutors and individuals as a tutor-led group, and one could therefore suggest, limited communication between students as peers. 

This raises questions over the type of connectedness or engagement students have with the University, their studies, their tutor and importantly their peers. This comes at a time of continued Open University strategic focus on: widening participation to higher education; supporting the transition of new students into online and distance learning; supporting the retention and progression of all students; and most pertinently, exploring mechanisms for fostering informal and collaborative learning opportunities to support successful student outcomes. 

There are pockets of literature from which this scholarship project could be informed and to which the findings could contribute. First, theories of learning and of building a community of practice. Within contemporary higher education, learning environments whether face-to-face, distance or virtual are increasingly supported by a range of synchronous and asynchronous tools, used to facilitate communication and interaction, underpinned by constructivist interpretations of learning as an inherently social activity. This work is based in social constructivist theories of learning (Vygotsky 1978), viewing the social as paramount and the site of knowledge construction as through interaction. The importance of interaction, and learning collaboratively in groups or communities (Wenger, 1998) through creating meaning with peers and supporting ‘novice’ group participants to develop, is inherently social. To go further, proponents of social constructivist theories also view learning and the creation of real-world meaning as a form of social participation. Social constructivism offers the opportunity for students to engage in a more active way in the construction of knowledge as well as allowing for agency marking a potential shift in the power balance within education and within this learning is viewed as an inherently social activity. A further outcome of this engaged and collaborative engagement or control over learning, is that students become more self-regulated learners (Zimmerman, 1990). How we support this form of social learning, in light of the aforementioned institutional context is at the heart of what this scholarship project seeks to investigate. 

A second body of literature to which this scholarship could speak is that on digital capabilities and the incorporation of Web 2.0 technologies in higher education. Scholarship of learning and teaching has given attention to the use of Web 2.0, social media, social networking sites as these types of technologies are increasing incorporated into personal and professional life. Indeed, the JISC (2018) project on digital capabilities underpinned the prolific digital technologies in various aspects of staff and student life. The debate on ‘the digital divide’ and ‘digital natives’ (Margaryan, Littlejohn and Vojt, 2011) has prompted critique however, from an initial literature search the researchers have identified that investigating the use of this technology in an online and distance education context, particularly with a widening participation focus, has received comparatively little attention within scholarship external to the Open University. Furthermore, there is limited scholarship on the use of WhatsApp. The lack of exploration of the use of this technology for a distance education provider with a widening access focus, merits investigation. 

The uniqueness of distance learning is the absence of physical space and therefore the challenge of how to facilitate interaction (Huang, 2002). Significantly, this project will explore the advantages and disadvantages of an instant messaging app in light of traditional theories of learning, but heavily situated in the distance learning context. The potential of new technology, particularly that enabled by Web 2.0, is for various dynamic learning opportunities, many of which are underpinned by the notion that learning is a ‘social’ activity (Kelm, 2011) and that students actively engage with each other as part of a distinct network or ‘community of practice’ (Wenger, 1998) as a key component of their learning. The nature of learning spaces in the digital age, and the extent to which learning communities / communities of practice are achieved for distance or online students requires investigation. The issue of constructivism, technology and space is interesting due to the potential for more egalitarian power dynamics between teachers and students and the creation of unique learning spaces aided by technology. 

Another strand of literature relates to the development of informal learning opportunities. As mentioned previously, Web 2.0 technology offers the chance for interaction and collaboration therefore if learning is understood as a social activity then social media would appear to have significant potential (Callaghan and Fribbance, 2016). Furthermore, the various social media tools available could blur the boundaries between formal and informal learning. This in turn may facilitate socially-situated learning through which stronger connections to the social world in which learners live may be more obvious to learners, making education more valid and encourage more active learning – as well as self-regulated learners (Zimmerman, 1990). 

Another body of literature that the researchers have not yet been able to explore is that of belonging and the experience of transition into university life. Here the work of Carruthers-Thomas (2012 and 2016) is relevant – particularly given the focus on her widening participation students – although the distance context again affords a unique scholarship opportunity 

To consider a final theoretical approach that is particularly pertinent to the distance education context is Moore’s (1997) theory of transactional distance. His attention to the space between tutors and students is explored through the concepts of ‘dialogue’, ‘structure’ and ‘learner autonomy’ supporting investigation of themes outlined above. ‘Low transactional distance’ for learners is accompanied by what Moore calls high dialogue and less structure which raises questions over how this is achieved when distance learners are rarely participating in direct synchronous dialogue with their peers and their tutor. Exploring the notion of transactional distance as bridged by learning communities which bring students together with their peers and their tutor could be an additional theoretical framing for this project that is particular to distance education. 

It’s not been possible for the researchers to undertake a full literature review at this stage, and indeed one of the anticipated outcomes of the project would be a full literature review enabling the grounding of the scholarship in a wider context. At this stage, and from the Associate Lecturer researchers’ existing awareness of the field, key exploratory themes framing the project, and existing research and scholarship to which the project could contribute surround exploring the use of an instant messaging app to support: 

– The transition to higher education distance study 
– To support online learning communities 
– To foster student belonging amongst distance learners 
– To provide the space for learner reflection-in-action 
– To develop self-regulated learners 
– To support student success 
– To consider experiences of students from diverse backgrounds, and with different abilities