Flora, Fauna, and Merry Weather: The Impact of Situational Context on the Distance Learning Experience in Higher Education

Abstract

As distance learning is a broadening mode in education, students have new roles: they are responsible for arranging their surroundings so that it supports learning appropriately. Eventually, teachers and educational institutes have a decreasing role as facilitators of physical learning surroundings. In this paper, we examine how students experience the impact of contextual factors in their everyday lives in distance learning settings. The flora, fauna and good weather emerged from the data as the characteristics of contextual features in distance learning. Our framework of the contextual reality is derived from the findings of a survey (n = 93) conducted in a higher educational institution. The results deliver contextual factors which have an impact on learning experience: environmental, personal, social, task, spatiotemporal change, device, service, access network, and time. Considering the ambivalent characteristics, we offer viewpoints to incorporate contextual factors for the technical and pedagogical development of distance learning systems.