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Abstract

Research informing adult education teachers’ didactic practices in distance education is scarce. Approaching the adult learner’s perspectives on how distance education is perceived is key to informing future initiatives. This study explores adult learners’ perception of distance education, concentrating on aspects such as, social presence, course structure, and perceived learning and satisfaction. A survey was distributed to teachers (n = 78) in five schools organising adult distance education. Findings show that teacher accessibility and course structure correlated positively with social presence and perceived learning and satisfaction. Overall, adult learners are satisfied with their distance teaching. A challenge facing adult distance education is to create a sense of social presence despite the high demand for flexibility. Thus, we explored learner perceptions of benefits and challenges in distance education and structured these into social, cognitive, spatio-temporal, emotional, and technical dimensions. Findings reveal that one challenge in the social dimension was a lack of connection with peers, and a benefit in the cognitive dimension referred to autonomy and self-regulation. These findings are important as educational institutions and policymakers may strive for high flexibility, which in turn may lead to lower group cohesion and a lack of social presence.

Keywords

Distance education social presence adult learning open communication adult education online learning

Introduction

Many adults do not qualify for university studies. For these individuals, Sweden offers adult education, which is a free of charge option to supplement upper secondary school or secondary training. Adult education in Sweden is delivered face-to-face or through distance education (Muhrman & Andersson, 2022). Adult learners often appreciate not having to travel the distance to the physical school (Gegenfurtner et al., 2018; Muhrman & Andersson, 2022). Adult learners form a diverse group. This includes native adults with incomplete education pursuing necessary qualifications for higher studies, and immigrants with a range of educational experiences. Some immigrants hold academic degrees and focus primarily on language acquisition, while others, potentially illiterate, require foundational skills to integrate effectively into society and access further education or employment opportunities. A Ukrainian report identifies challenges of adult education such as: a lack of digital skills and resources. In addition, teachers have insufficient training in teaching immigrants with varying cultural and educational backgrounds and lack of best practice guidelines (Zamora et al., 2017). Such findings are troublesome as a lack of training in teaching immigrants can become more apparent in an online context, where conditions differ from school-based learning. European rural areas have been identified as a common challenge in terms of unemployment rates (Commission of the European Communities, 2006). While adult education is meant to tackle this, a recent Swedish study noted that adult education problems revolve around inadequate quality, that remote learners' results are decreasing and that dropouts are frequent. In Sweden, the quality control of education is conducted through recurring audits by the Swedish Schools Inspectorate (Carlbaum, 2016). A study investigating the quality of these audits found that ‘quality’ was frequently equated with meeting educational standards. However, there were ambiguities concerning who held the responsibility for ensuring this quality (Mufic, 2022). Muhrman and Andersson (2022) interviewed adult education school leaders who proposed that adult education may be most suitable for highly motivated learners, given the risk of learners with negative school experiences failing again. In response to such challenges and to better cater to diverse learner needs, adult education teachers in Sweden are continuously undertaking professional development training.

Several studies point to ongoing interventions in which adult education teachers explore new pedagogical approaches synchronously or asynchronously to strengthen the communication with learners online and develop their online teaching abilities (Bergdahl, 2022; Hilli & Åkerfeldt, 2020, 2022). While routine online instruction is common in distance education, other crucial aspects haven’t been sufficiently explored. For instance, the impact of learners having met their tutor, their satisfaction with the learning process, and their experience of social presence in the online learning environment warrant further investigation.

While recent studies have identified a general need for more research in blended and online learning (Oberländer et al., 2020; Rohs et al., 2019), the research informing adult education teachers' didactic practices in online and blended learning is particularly scarce (Fejes, 2019; The Swedish Government’s Official Investigations, SOU, 2018). Approaching the adult learner’s perspectives on how education is perceived is key to informing future initiatives. Adult education has received little attention from research in general, and the authors could not find any prior study exploring how adult education learners in remote areas perceive their education. For online adult education to be an efficient option to lifelong learning, it must meet the needs of the adult learner and overcome well known hindrances in online learning, such as interaction and communication (Bergdahl, 2022; Bond et al., 2021). With this in mind, the researchers adapted an existing survey to the adult education context, to function as an internal support measure for adult education school leaders. Using this survey, the study explores adult learners' perception of distance, with a focus on social presence (group cohesion and open communication), course structure, perceived learning and satisfaction. Informed by this aim, we raised the following research questions:

RQ 1

Which relationships between adult learners' perceptions of social presence, course structure, and perceived learning and satisfaction can be identified?

RQ 2

Which benefits and challenges do adult learners perceive with distance education?

Background

Distance education for adults

Exploring the maturity and utilisation of digital technologies to support lifelong learning in adult education (in a pre-pandemic perspective), Sweden was, together the Netherlands, Estonia, UK, Norway, Brazil, and the USA, part of the countries that exhibit ‘an integrated strategy for lifelong learning and ICT; [where] public and private actors collaborate with municipalities and local providers of adult education/…/[and adopt] innovative ICT approaches; and actively address barriers that prevent the development of ICT-enhanced adult education’ (European Commission, 2014: ii). From this perspective, it seems that the prerequisites to deliver high-standard education are in place. However, against the background that Sweden has one of the highest participation figures (per capita) in various forms of adult education (formal and informal) and that the number of participants in adult education exceeds that of upper secondary education but still has received fairly limited (financial) resources in comparison, the situation is not tension-free (Fejes, 2019). All education, and in particular adult education, is a result of politics. Adult education derives from visions of employability, and a better, more inclusive society (Jesson & Newman, 2020). With its expectedness to remain flexible, adult education has, more than other kinds of education, the freedom to assimilate and make use of the potential of using digital technologies. Their conditions are characterised by flexible approaches, both in terms of time and space, when and where the studies are conducted, when to start, and the pace to study. However, as a result of certain geographical matters, adult education in this study is not only subjected to ‘traditional municipal structures for lifelong learning’ but also subject to specific conditions of distance education. Moore and Kearsley’s define distance education as: ‘the planned teaching and learning activities provided through the use of a communication channel within an institutional organisation without any time and place limitations’ (2011, p. 2).

Adult education has traditionally been associated with education that relates to otherness as they endeavour to appeal to those not (yet) in the labour market, adult immigrants, refugees (Auerbach, 2021), others that are disadvantaged or are looking for a second chance to learn (Keddie, 2018) or make a career change (Masdonati et al., 2017). From an international perspective, adult learning and education are seen as a way to ‘ensure inclusion and equitable quality education and to promote lifelong learning opportunities for all’ which is one of the Sustainable Development Goals (The Global Goals, 2022). The idea of lifelong learning is not new (Ferrari et al., 2013; Pettersson, 2018; van Laar et al., 2017) and addresses the need to employ new ways and modes of education to enable flexible education (Nørgård, 2021). In Sweden, adult education can be offered by both private providers and municipalities (as was the case in the study by Andersson & Muhrman (2022). In this study, the distance adult education is organised by the municipality. Regardless of provide, the degree of flexibility allowed in adult education is reflected in the Education Act. The Education Act (2010) defines distance and remote education as two distinct modes of education, currently, separated by temporality, where distance education is described as asynchronous education and remote education as synchronous education (2000: 800, Ch 1, §3). Further, one of the arguments from municipalities in Sweden to provide distance education is to increase flexibility and accessibility (Andersson & Muhram, 2022). Andersson and Muhram (2022) put forward that learners who apply for distance courses think it is an easier way to get through a course. However, many students realise that it is demanding to study on their own without the support of a teacher. Even though synchronous modes of delivery have been employed since the beginning of distance education, online courses may now use affordances of both asynchronous and synchronous modalities to establish a sense of online presence (Martin et al., 2022). However, as digitalisation develops, the conditions for learning continue to change along with the expectations of its delivery (Nørgård, 2021). While it is possible for anyone with internet access and a device to engage in synchronous interaction, for example, via in real-time video-conferencing applications (e.g. MS Teams, Google Meet and Zoom) or other applications that support real-time communication (e.g., Discord, WhatsApp, Messenger and Telegram). However, asynchronous learning still requires the ability to study independently as less real-time support is available. Recently, however, the Swedish School Inspectorate observed that in adult distance education, the traditional asynchronous mode had become the least common, and that half of the learners take part in synchronous learning activities (The Swedish School Inspectorate, 2020). Currently, the terminology of emerging combinations of synchronous and asynchronous education is being debated (see, for example, Amiti, 2020; Bergdahl & Chireh, 2023; Gazan, 2020; Heilporn et al., 2022; Martin et al., 2022; Martin & Borup, 2022). Onwards we use the term adult distance education. With this term, we include synchronous and asynchronous modes of delivery. However, as synchronous and asynchronous elements may affect how learners perceive their course, we do explore to what extent learners are involved in synchronous and asynchronous learning along with their perception of their education.

Adult learners’ perception of distance education

Due to the demands of flexibility regarding spatio-temporal dimensions, distance education has traditionally employed asynchronous communication. This allows learners to study when and where they want to, which is an advantage as adult learners often want to combine work, family, and studies. However, asynchronous learning environments may be a disadvantage if learners benefit from feedback in real-time, synchronous discussion and collaboration (Akcaoglu & Lee, 2016; Sung & Mayer, 2012). Learners need to juggle parallel employment and children and that older learners may experience the use of digital technologies as obstacles if they lack the digital literacy needed (Kara et al., 2019). Further, a perceived distance between learners and teachers may lead to a sense of isolation and disconnectedness (Feng et al., 2017; Barbour, 2018; Kim et al., 2016). To establish and maintain social interaction and create a sense of presence, when the teachers and learners are not co-located, has been a challenge for teachers and organisers of distance education over the last decade.

Previous research has identified that knowledge creation and meaning-making is not something linked to the ‘individual, but in joint activity, typically in accordance with established social practices’ (Stahl et al., 2014, p. 239). As social presence can be hard to establish asynchronously, this mode may reduce the perception of social presence (Martin & Borup, 2022). Further, social presence is closely related to learning outcomes, learners’ satisfaction (Akcaoglu & Lee, 2016; Bickle, & Rucker, 2018; Swan, 2001; Richardson & Swan, 2003; Uijl et al., 2017) and engagement (Armellini & De Stefani, 2016; Dixon et al., 2015; Martin & Borup, 2022; Meija, 2020), and is a prerequisite to forming productive relationships according to Garrison & Akyol, (2013).

Social presence in distance education refers to the degree the learners perceive the connection and interaction with other peers and teachers in an online learning environment (Sung & Mayer, 2012). It is viewed as beneficiary if the learning climate promotes a sense of belonging, open communication, mutual support, contributions of ideas, and peer-to-peer collaboration (Garrison & Akyol, 2013). Social presence is strongly linked to cognitive presence (Rolim et al., 2019; Stranach, 2017) and teaching presence. Therefore, striving for social presence online is critical. This can potentially be done by designing for small peer-to-peer discussion groups that may support deeper conversations and peer-peer relationship building (Akcaoglu & Lee, 2016). Exploring social support from school, teachers, and peers, Moreira and Lee (2020) showed that while cognitive engagement declines as students’ progress through their education, the decline was less for students who were given scaffolding and support. Teaching presence may positively influence agentic and emotional engagement (Kucuk & Richardson, 2019) and moderate the association between social presence and final grades (Joksimović et al., 2015) indicating that teachers have a significant impact on the development of social presence when designing courses and activities that increase the level of meaningful interaction (Swan, 2001).

Method

Context and participants

This study was conducted as part of the research and development (R&D) program Digital learning environments – equal education through remote and distance teaching (2019–March 2022). The R&D program was led by the Swedish non-profit organisation Ifous. Eight municipalities in Sweden and Finland participated in the program. There were around 65 participants (teachers and school leaders) from fifteen different units and schools (including K-12 and adult education). Four researchers (three of which are authors of this article) were involved in the program. The overarching aim of the R&D program was to find ways and develop methods to use digital learning resources and create and enhance equal education opportunities. The aim was split into specific objectives for researchers, teachers, and school leaders.

During the program, the participants focused on challenges in their practice. One of these challenges was how to develop rich communication between students in group discussions as well as strengthen the communication between teachers and students and explore additional ways to enable a sense of social presence. Twice each year, the participants were invited to participate in a two-day seminar to discuss and share ideas and experiences. Between the seminars, twelve project managers meet regularly in a smaller group to discuss their work and get input from the researchers (see Hilli & Åkerfeldt, 2020; Hilli & Åkerfeldt, 2022; Åkerfeldt, 2022). Further webinars and literature seminars were arranged, and supportive material was developed, such as the survey used in this study.

Data collection

For the purpose of this study, purposive sampling was used (Bryman, 2016). Distance education teachers in five schools were invited to distribute the survey (in September 2021), along with a letter (information about the study, that data was anonymised, and that it was optional to participate), and instructions to learners. The educational organisers estimate that they distributed to about 250 respondents, with a final response count (n = 78) including answers from female, n = 51, male n = 25, and prefer not to say n = 2 learners, quite evenly distributed across the five invited schools, although one school in one of the bigger cities of Sweden received more responses (n = 28, 36%). The respondents studied a wide range of subject disciplines, although most studied Swedish (n = 15), wood planning (n = 13), health care (n = 7), English (n = 6), and physics (n = 6).

Design of the questionnaire and analysis

Research informing adult education teachers' didactic practices in distance education is scarce. Approaching the adult learner’s perspectives on how distance education is perceived is key to informing future initiatives. This study explores adult learners' perception of distance education, focussing with a focus on social presence, course structure, and perceived learning and satisfaction. A survey was distributed to teachers (n = 78) in five schools organising adult distance education. Findings show that teacher accessibility and course structure correlated positively with social presence and perceived learning and satisfaction. Overall, adult learners are satisfied with their distance teaching. A challenge facing adult distance education is creating to create a sense of social presence despite the high demand for flexibility. Thus, we explored learner perception of benefits and challenges in distance education and structured these into social, cognitive, spatio-temporal, emotional, and technical dimensions. Findings reveal that one challenge in the social dimension was a lack of connection with peers, and a benefit in the cognitive dimension referred to autonomy about self-regulation. These findings are important as educational institutions and policymakers may strive for high flexibility, which in turn may lead to lower group cohesion and a lack of social presence.

The survey was pre-tested for ecological validity with learners and through comments from teachers. As a result of the pre-test, some questions were revised to adapt the language to increase clarity. One such example was in the question regarding if the students had seen the teacher in ‘real life’. The teachers pointed out that some learners regard that they are meeting the teacher ‘in real life’ when video conference is used. Therefore, in the process of validating the survey, the question was changed from ‘real life’ to ‘in-person’. The structuring of the survey was also considered regarding clarity and length, in order to continue to be a useful tool for school leaders and teachers’ internal assessment. For example, we adopted less complex language to support second language learners' understanding and limited the number of questions. A benefit with shorter surveys is that they may have a higher response rate (Deutskens et al., 2004), while a limitation is that the measures may include fewer indicators. In addition to the above measures, two open-ended questions asked adult learners what they perceive as benefits and challenges with distance education. N = 55 (70%) learners chose to answer what they perceived as challenging when studying at a distance and N = 59 (75%) answered the question of benefits of distance education. Data from the open-ended questions were analysed through a thematic analysis (Terry et al., 2017) to identify possible patterns, which we have chosen to call dimensions, within the data in relation to the research question. Two of the authors conducted the analysis separately. The dimensions were compared and discussed to align the analysis. The dimensions were adjusted after the discussion.

Results

Many students had met their distance education teacher in person (n = 55, 71%). Most commonly, there were between 10 and 20 students in a class (n = 26, 33%). Half of the respondents had no contact with other students (n = 39, 50%), while others had sporadic interaction at least once per week (n = 22, 28%). Many students had studied on a distance for several semesters (n = 25, 32%), while this was the first course for a similar number of students (n = 22, 28%). The remaining numbers of students had studied for less than three months (n = 10, 13%) and approximately one semester (n = 19, 24%). Two students had studied for several years. Almost all the students studied from home (n = 75, 96%), often using video conference systems (n = 62, 80%). Most students agreed (n = 17, 22%) or strongly agreed (n = 40, 51%) that it was easy to connect to the teacher when needing support.

In Table 1, descriptive statistics for the items of each measure are presented. The perceptions were slightly positive, as the mean was between ‘neutral’ and ‘agree’ for all items. The students were satisfied with distance teaching (M = 3.9, SD = 1.3) and perceived that they learn a lot when studying at a distance (M = 3.8, SD = 1.2). Most students also agreed that it felt good to ask questions (M = 3.8, SD = 1.3) and that everyone could share their thoughts (M = 3.8, SD = 1.2). However, students were more hesitant when asked whether other students were interested in what they had to say (M = 3.2, SD = 1.2) and whether they perceived that they collaborated well when the teaching was at a distance (M = 3.3, SD = 1.3).

Table 1.

Descriptive statistics for the measures in the survey.

	n	Min	Max	M	SD
Course structure
Is it easy to understand instructions for assignments?	78	2	5	3.5	1.2
The distance teaching has a clear structure	78	2	5	3.7	1.2
Open communication
It feels good to ask questions at a distance	75	2	5	3.8	1.3
It feels safe to discuss with other students at a distance	68	1	5	3.4	1.3
It feels safe to communicate in course lessons and activities	71	1	5	3.6	1.3
Group cohesion
Everyone can say what they think at a distance	73	1	5	3.8	1.2
Other students are interested in what I say at a distance	62	1	5	3.2	1.2
We students collaborate well when the teaching is at a distance	64	1	5	3.3	1.3
Perceived learning
I could tell others what I learn when I study at a distance	71	1	5	3.7	1.3
I learn a lot when I study at a distance	74	1	5	3.8	1.2
I feel that I learn more when I study at a distance than in a classroom	75	1	5	3.3	1.4
Perceived satisfaction
I am satisfied with the distance teaching	73	1	5	3.9	1.3
I would recommend my friends to study at a distance	72	1	5	3.7	1.4

In Table 2

Table 2.

Correlation matrix.

	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12
1. Gender	1.0
2. Number of students	.19	1.0
3. Experience distance ed.	−.05	.14	1.0
4. Met the teacher in person	.16	.13	.10	1.0
5. Contact with other students	.15	.16	−.15	.43^**	1.0
6. Use video conference	.16	.25	.23^*	.37	.28^*	1.0
7. Easy to reach teacher	.00	−.13	−.10	−.12	−.14	−.14	1.0
8. Course structure	.09	.03	−.18	−.16	−.14	−.12	.80^**	1.0
9. Open communication	.23	.31^*	−.14	−.22	−.06	.08	.52^**	.60^**	1.0
10. Group cohesion	.17	.30^*	−.19	−.13	.12	.19	.39^**	.55^**	.80^**	1.0
11. Perceived learning	.06	.13	−.09	−.30^*	−.07	−.14	.54^**	.68^**	.65^**	.75^**	1.0
12. Perceived satisfaction	.00	.24	−.07	−.24^*	−.07	−.11	.58^**	.66^**	.63^**	.67^**	.88^**	1.0

*Correlation is significant at the .05 level (2-tailed).

**Correlation is significant at the .01 level (2-tailed).

, a correlation matrix is presented, which is interpreted by drawing on Cohen (1988). No or occasional weak correlations were identified for gender, number of students in class, students’ previous experience of distance education, whether students had met the teacher in person, to what extent students were in contact with other students, and depending on if video conference was used. Interestingly, if it was perceived as easy to reach the teacher achieved significant correlations of varying strength with course structure (r = .80, p < .01), but also open communication (r = .52, p < .01), group cohesion (r = .39, p < .01), perceived learning (r = .54, p < .01), and perceived satisfaction (r = .58, p < .01). There were also positive correlations between course structure and open communication (r = .80, p < .01), group cohesion (r = .55, p < .01), perceived learning (r = .68, p < .01), and perceived satisfaction (r = .66, p < .01). This indicates that course structure seems to significantly influence the experience of several critical aspects of distance education. There were statistically significant correlations between all dependent variables, especially between open communication and group cohesion (r = .80, p < .01), group cohesion and perceived learning (r = .75, p < .01), and perceived learning and satisfaction (r = .88, p < .01).

Open-ended questions

The thematic analysis of the two open-ended questions generated three dimensions that were similar and two dimensions that differed. The three dimensions that were similar were: I. The social dimension, II. The cognitive dimension, and III. The spatio-temporal dimension (see Table 3). Dimensions that differed were: IV. The technical dimension and V. The emotional dimension. The former was not present for challenges and the latter not present for benefits. N = 55 (70%) learners chose to answer what they perceived as challenging when studying at a distance and N = 59 (75%) answered the question of benefits of distance education.

Table 3.

Perceived challenges and benefits of distance education with examples in each dimension.

Dimensions	Examples challenges	Examples benefits
Social dimension	‘Not being able to have peer discussions’.	‘That everyone gets the same information’.
Cognitive dimension	‘It is difficult to take the time to study when you are at home and see everything that needs to be done’.	‘Own responsibility and disposal of my own time’.
Spatio-temporal dimension	‘It is difficult to take the time to study when you are at home and see everything that needs to be done’.	‘I have never enjoyed being in the school environment and it, therefore, feels good to be able to study at home’.
Technical dimension	‘Sometimes IT can be a hassle’.	N/A
Emotional dimension	N/A	‘Avoid messy environments with people around you all day’.

Perceived challenges

The social dimension of learning was related to a lack of communication and collaboration with peers and communication with teachers. The learners missed the small talks with other peers as they lack a digital forum for collaboration.

Not being able to have peer discussions.

To ask the teacher questions and to get timely feedback was put forward. There are also learners that perceive learning challenging when they do not see the teachers. Further, the lack of digital forums and communication channels for asking teachers questions was also perceived as challenging.In addition, some teachers were not working full-time and the answer could be delayed which in turn could lead to the learner feeling unable to continue the schoolwork as they felt uncertain how they would continue as they were afraid … of learning an incorrect way to solve the tasks. When asking questions to the teacher, one of the learners perceived that the teacher gave a standard answer that was not related to the question that was asked. In a digital forum, it can be challenging to write a question and convey what you want to communicate especially if it is an asynchronous communication where there are limited possibilities to have fluid communication.

The learners also perceived that the lack of peer collaboration was challenging. They missed the discussions with peers and getting feedback and being involved in in-depth conversations that they used to have in the classroom. The learning opportunity with the spontaneous questions that appear in the physical classroom is absent or less frequent in the digital classroom. Learners that are undergoing vocational training report that it is hard to show the teacher their skills as well as understand how they can practice better to improve their skills.

In the cognitive dimension, the learners expressed challenges with self-regulation, for example being distracted easily, not having routines for planning and organising, and struggling with concentration and focus.

These issues and challenges related to self-regulation are affecting the students' motivation to pursue their studies.

You do not have routines, the motivation is lacking so you get easily preoccupied with small things around you when you are at home, I have a bit of a hard time explaining what it is that I do not understand….

The spatio-temporal dimension is connected to the social dimension especially when it comes to the spatio-dimension. The place where the learners have chosen to study, often at home, has an effect on the ability to concentrate. Some learners mentioned that being at home can be a distraction.

It is difficult to take the time to study when you are at home and see everything that needs to be done.

The time is also an issue for the learners as they have limited time and the private life of picking up the kids from preschool or other privacy issues that need to be taken care of. Organising the time is a challenge for the learners as well as it is a benefit (see below).

As an adult with children to be picked up and left (at the preschool - authors remark), it can sometimes feel a little stressful.

There are few students that mention technical issues as challenging which is part of the technical dimension. They mention IT problems such as the network not working and teachers' lack of digital competence.

Perceived benefits

Among the benefits of distance education, clear consideration of others was expressed in the social dimension.

The good thing about distance, though, is that we keep our distance because it's Corona times.

That everyone gets the same information.

The above quotes illustrate concerns about reducing the spread of the COVID-19 virus, as well as perceived equal opportunities for all in relation to distance learning.

In the cognitive dimension, a majority of the respondents expressed that autonomy with regard to self-regulation was imperative for a positive experience.

Own responsibility and disposal of my own time.

That you do not have to compulsorily listen to the teacher's reviews, i.e., ‘waste your study time' and choose how to learn best.

You can set up your own planning and adapt to your own lifestyle.

The reflections centred around self-regulative traits such as supporting autonomy, being able to choose learning strategies, and planning one’s time for learning to sustain a work-life balance.

In the spatio-temporal dimension, several participants reported that aspects relating to the changed conditions for learning, in relation to space and time were positive:

Personally, I do not want to feel that I need to be somewhere when I study, like at school. I have never enjoyed being in the school environment and it therefore feels good to be able to study at home.

Not having to get ready and cycle to school is also of course an advantage because you have more time for other things.

I would never have been able to attend this course if it wasn't offered as a distance course.

The participants addressed the learning environment, saving time and the conditions for online learning, where participation in a course depended on being offered the learning through the distance education mode.

Importantly, we identified emotional wellbeing as a theme only expressed within the perceived benefits.

Longer sleep.

You do not have to sit in a classroom, it is easier to relax at home, it does not become as stressful.

Avoid messy environments with people around you all day.

Respondents pointed out that studying from home enabled them to sleep longer and feel calmness in situations that otherwise would have caused the stress.

Discussion

In general, the findings indicate that adult learners are content with their experience of distance teaching. Nevertheless, it is evident that the design and organisation of the courses play a crucial role in shaping their perceptions of various aspects of distance education. Statistical analyses revealed significant relationships between social presence (in terms of open communication and group cohesion), perceived learning, and overall satisfaction. Two essential factors that emerged as influential were the ease of reaching the teacher and the clarity of the course structure. These factors were found to be positively correlated with social presence, perceived learning, and overall satisfaction. In other words, when learners found it easy to communicate with their instructors and had a well-structured course, they experienced a stronger sense of social presence, enhanced perceived learning, and greater overall satisfaction with the distance learning experience. Furthermore, the study found positive connections between social presence and perceived learning, as well as social presence and overall satisfaction. This suggests that a sense of belonging and connectedness within the learning community positively impacts learners' perception of their own learning progress and their overall satisfaction with the distance education mode.

Earlier research has emphasised the importance of including activities that require collaboration (e.g. Stahl et al., 2014). According to Stahl et al. (2014), individualisation and lack of joint activities are not fruitful for adults' knowledge creation and meaning-making. Due to the demand for flexibility when starting the course and the spatial-temporal factors, it is challenging to organise and maintain a vivid and fruitful discussion. As learners point out, one of the benefits of distance education is to organise and take responsibility for their own time and the pace of their studies and being involved in vivid synchronous discussion could interfere with the benefits of flexibility. As social presence can be challenging to establish in asynchronous adult education (Martin & Borup, 2022), the organiser needs to consider how this can be designed. Social presence is an essential factor to consider as previous research has shown it is linked to learning satisfaction (see Bickle & Rucker, 2018; Richardson & Swan, 2003; Swan, 2001; Uijl et al., 2017).

In the open-ended questions regarding benefits and the social dimension, learners referred to COVID-19. The results were further explored using thematic analysis. The findings were grouped into social, cognitive, spatio-temporal, emotional, and technical dimensions. For example, one challenge in the social dimension was a lack of connection with peers and one benefit was referred to the Covid-19 situation such as the possibility to pursue education despite the restrictions. The results confirm that the socio-cognitive dimension in CoI can be referred to as a construct which is both socially situated and socially constructed (Garrison & Akyol, 2013). A challenge facing adult distance education is to create a sense of social presence despite that the demand for flexibility is high. Learners and policymakers often strive for high flexibility within the spatial-temporal dimension which in turn leads to lower group cohesion and lack of social presence. While Nørgård (2021) forwards that the question of spatiality might be obsolete as the boundaries between digital and non-digital, as well as classroom- and distance-learning becomes a blurred reality, it indicates that there is a social dimension to the spatial-considerations. All responses are influenced, generally or specifically, directly, or indirectly by perceived social presence. As the survey was distributed at the time of the COVID-19 spread, this was expected to appear in the material. Therefore, further research needs to be conducted to investigate adult learners' perceptions of distance education in the post-COVID era.

Limitations and further research

The instrument needs to be tested in other settings, for example, in other subjects, larger cohorts of learners and outside of Sweden, to be further validated. As this survey was developed to be used as a formative tool for school leaders and teachers, further research could explore how teachers and school leaders use the survey to inform further development of distance education. Andersson and Muhrman’s (2022) study shows that the most common way to organise distance education in Sweden (57%) is a mix of both public and private adult education providers. In the same study, school leaders report that learners are often left without teacher support. More research is needed to explore how physical interactions influence online learning and if there are differences between private providers' distance education and distance education organised by the municipalities related to the teacher’s role in distance education.

Implications for practice

A challenge facing adult distance education is to create a sense of social presence and, thus, organise for open communication and group cohesion, while the demand for flexibility is high. One interpretation of the presented findings is that adult learners and policymakers strive for high flexibility. The students appreciate the flexibility, but they also want to learn through peer discussions and mention that they would like to contact the teacher when they are stuck. The condition for the organisers is to create a high level of flexibility. This flexibility might be at odds with creating synchronous communication as time and place are important factors for the students to control in their daily life as they juggle with family life and work (Kara et al., 2019). Therefore, it is essential to design asynchronous communication to be open and contribute towards a sense of social presence. However, adult learners expressed that it could be challenging to communicate effectively in asynchronous modes (see Akcaoglu & Lee, 2016; Sung & Mayer, 2012). Therefore, it is not an easy task to meet the demands of the learners, balance the requirements of high flexibility whilst assuring group cohesion. Creating group cohesion is essential from a learning perspective. Stahl et al. (2014) emphasise the importance to acknowledge that meaning-making is linked to joint activity which is important to consider when designing distance education. One way to address these challenges is to re-organise distance education so that cohorts of learners can collaborate across and between subjects to create a community. It could also be beneficial to organise courses that address issues regarding how to communicate in an asynchronous environment or provide techniques on how to study at a distance.

Conclusions

Investigating adult learners' perspectives on how distance education is perceived is key to informing future initiatives and development. The survey was developed during an ongoing research and development program with the purpose to be used as a research and formative assessment tool. Therefore, the tool can be used by organisations providing adult distance education to continuously inform improvement and development at local and regional levels. Such information might also be of interest to policymakers and school leaders. This study represents a valuable contribution to the field of adult distance education from a Nordic perspective. It addresses a notable research gap as previous attention from researchers has been limited (Fejes, 2019; The Swedish Government’s Official Investigations, SOU, 2018) despite the fact that Sweden has one of the highest participation figures (per capita) in various forms of adult education.

Footnotes

Acknowledgements

The research has been supported by eight municipalities participating in the non-profit organisation non-profit organisation Ifous (Innovation,research and development in schools and pre-schools) research and development program,Digital learning environments – equal education through remote and distance teaching (2019–2022).

Declaration of conflicting interests

The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research,authorship,and/or publication of this article.

Funding

The author(s) received no financial support for the research,authorship,and/or publication of this article.

ORCID iD

Anna Åkerfeldt

Data Availability Statement

The

given in this article are the datasets generated during and/or analysed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

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