Web drop-in for dropouts

Dr. Stephen Reder, professor of applied linguistics, said he developed Learner Web after a research project called the Longitudinal Study of Adult Learning showed that “adults who had learning goals…often didn’t have realistic plans.”

Reder said, “My interests are really in literacy development.”

A move from a California suburb to Spanish Harlem in New York City, N.Y., sparked his interest. He was one of the few children who spoke English in his school and the only one who could read.

Since then, Reder has studied and been involved with literacy development in various adult learning contexts, including the civil rights movement and the abolishment of literacy as a prerequisite for voter registration.

The Longitudinal Study of Adult Learning “followed a random sample of approximately 1,000 high school dropouts over 10 years,” Reder said.

“[The researchers]were really interested in how people created learning opportunities for themselves and how they reconnected with education,” he said.

“Whether or not they participate in an adult education class, many people study on their own to improve their basic skills or prepare for the GED tests,” according to www.learnerweb.org.

However, many of those subjects who had educational goals did not know how to achieve them. For instance, Reder said that one person LSAL followed did not realize that he or she would need to go to college before medical school.

“So people really need plans [for] things we take for granted,” Reder said.
Learner Web provides students with a learning plan designed to help them achieve goals, such as getting a GED certificate, going to college or becoming a citizen. Each plan consists of a tree of steps, with resources like tutors available by phone and activities to help students complete each step.

They also have a segment on financial literacy and instructions on how to fill out the Free Application for Federal Student Aid.

“The learner creates a personal profile, may take a short reading assessment and interest inventory, chooses a goal from the available list and follows the learning plan independently or with a tutor or a teacher,” according to the Web site.

Unlike BlackBoard or WebCT, which revolve around a specific course or teacher, Reder said Learner Web is “really centered around the learner.”

Learners choose their own goals and work at whatever pace suits their situation and learning style.

“And you can ask for help when you get stuck at a step,” Reder said.

The program got a large grant to do a demo project in seven states, including Oregon. Learner Web has since expanded to other states and Scotland.

Because Learner Web’s learning plans depend in part on community resources, they are broken down by regions that “consist of a group of partnering organizations, usually led by a literacy coalition, public library, community college, or government agency in a state, county, city, or other geographical region,” according to the Web site.

It goes on to say “regions can also be organized around a specific constituency…or need rather than geography,” such as the Center for Workforce Development and Lifelong Learning at the Community College of the District of Columbia—which also provides free job training—and PSU.

PSU recently began to use Learner Web in hopes of limiting the number of students who drop out of the university. Reder said that students drop out of college for many reasons, “but one may be a lack of a clear plan to follow.”

According to Reder, Learner Web now partners with PSU to facilitate directed self-placement in writing courses, which allows new students to determine in which writing courses to enroll.

Learner Web makes recommendations by asking about students’ language background, like whether they are native speakers of English and what kinds of writing they have done in the past.

“The goal is to make a recommendation to students that’s insightful…but in the process of recommending tries to build some understanding [of college-level writing expectations],” Reder said.

Currently, Learner Web is piloting directed self-placement, but they hope that soon all new students will use the program, possibly as a part of orientation, in planning their schedules.