Digital Equity & Perspective Pod Project

Persona

Personal Info Name: Bob

Age: 47

Gender: Male

Location: Victoria

Education High school diploma
Roles/Responsibilities Store manager
Tech skills Very low level of IT proficiency.

Has a smartphone.

Domain and knowledge Running a business, good social skills.
Goals Manage his store better. Automate data entry etc
Obstacles No personal computer, Limited technological skills

Far sighted, minor difficulty reading things off a screen

Working full-time, not as much time to study (not as much flexibility)

 

Chart

Persona Characteristic Barriers or Challenges Distributed Environments Open Environments
Has no personal computer Can’t access MicrosoftExcel or save files locally Check course materials  using library computer, saving files on a hard drive Check materials using mobile app, saving files in personal blog or cloud storage
Far sighted, minor vision issue Can’t read text on screen clearly Zoom in the browser. Customize user’s preference by using a bigger font.  Siri-like feature to read texts out.
Working full-time Not flexible to take synchronous  online or face-face courses Having recorded videos and materials ready for learner to learn afterwork Sharing learning outcomes with others and getting feedback instantly. 
Very little tech skills Has no experience in using any computer softwares. Provide user manuals or videos.  Learners can share his problem with others who encounter the same issue.
English second language Does not fully understand instructions that are written in English Translate course materials into native language. Using a grammar checker before posting anything.  Access relative materials in his native language. And communicate with learners who speak the same language as him.
Good social skills N/A Able to communicate with teacher efficiently Better Opportunities to spread his learning results widely.  Get to know more fellows. 

Pitch

Bob faces many challenges as a learner with a full time job, little technological knowledge, poor vision, and English as a second language. Both a distributed learning platform and an open learning platform provide Bob the access he needs to be able to learn on his own schedule and the tools he will need to overcome his lack of technological skill. We find, however, that Bob would best be suited for an open learning platform that will allow him to work through his many learning barriers as well as take advantage of his natural people skills to further overcome his challenges using collaboration and communication.

An open learning strategy will offer Bob many different options for engagement. Bob does not own a personal computer which will make watching live virtual lectures difficult. An open learning plan allows him to work at his own pace with tremendous autonomy as he can read and watch class materials during his downtime at work or on his smart device at home, provided the software his professor uses is easily accessible on a mobile platform. Distributed learning will offer the same flexibility, however the social aspect of an open learning platform will encourage Bob to remain diligent and engaged with his coursework as well as collaborate with his classmates.

Open learning offers the ability for Bob to customize the material he is learning as he does not speak English as a first language and his poor vision requires a larger font. A translation feature on an open platform will help Bob better engage with material and possibly find classmates who speak his native language. Discussing material with classmates and learning in his own language will help him better comprehend his coursework. Bob’s status as a non-native English speaker is a large part of why an open learning platform will help him learn more seamlessly by collaborating with others who speak his language.

Through open learning, Bob is provided more options and  support for learning and sharing information. This offers him various methods for navigating and responding to materials, as well as allow equal interaction of the course content. These will be very helpful for him as he will feel included, overcoming his barrier of poor vision and  low level of computer skills. Moreover, an open learning environment offers Bob immediate support with tools needed to complete his course to suit his needs. Furthermore, since English is not Bob’s first language, having different media for expression and communication will be very beneficial to allow him to access and interact with the material easily i.e. videos translated to his native language. Finally, he also has the option for setting his own goals, tracking his progress and modifying strategies as needed to create a better learning outcome for himself.

To overcome the barriers to learning that Bob faces, we have concluded, based on the information above, that an open learning platform will be the better option for him. It offers him many options that he can optimize to create flexible and equal learning opportunities. 

 

References

CAST. (2018, August 31). The UDL Guidelines. Retrieved July 20, 2020, from http://udlguidelines.cast.org/

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