Time to learn? : e-learners' experiences of time in virtual learning communities
By: ALLAN, Barbara
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ArticlePublisher: London : Sage Publications, November 2007Management Learning 38, 5, p. 557-572Abstract: This article argues that professional development mediated by a virtual learning community produces new temporal challenges for learners. The study explores the experiences of e-learners using a multi-method approach that includes time vision and metaphor analysis. The results suggest that e-learners develop and use different approaches to time, and this is linked to aspects of different time visions. Further, some e-learners reconstruct their approaches to time management at an early stage in their virtual experiences. They engage in reflective commentaries in their virtual learning communities and this helps them to adjust to the time demands of e-learning. This process of adaptation and change is reflected in the metaphors used by e-learners. It is proposed that if the issues of time are explored with newcomers to e-learning, as part of the explicit curriculum, then this will help e-learners benefit from the flexibility inherent in virtual learning communities
This article argues that professional development mediated by a virtual learning community produces new temporal challenges for learners. The study explores the experiences of e-learners using a multi-method approach that includes time vision and metaphor analysis. The results suggest that e-learners develop and use different approaches to time, and this is linked to aspects of different time visions. Further, some e-learners reconstruct their approaches to time management at an early stage in their virtual experiences. They engage in reflective commentaries in their virtual learning communities and this helps them to adjust to the time demands of e-learning. This process of adaptation and change is reflected in the metaphors used by e-learners. It is proposed that if the issues of time are explored with newcomers to e-learning, as part of the explicit curriculum, then this will help e-learners benefit from the flexibility inherent in virtual learning communities
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