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Top21St Century Learners
Self-directed learning (SDL) has been strongly encouraged in the digital society (Siaw, 2002). Conrad and Donaldson (2004) asserted that success in distance education depends on the use of learning strategies that support the development of self-direction. It is critical to understand the importance of self-direction due to the increasing prevalence of distance education for university work, non-degree training, and skill enhancement intended to retool workers reentering — or transitioning into — the labor market. In order to benefit from these online courses, students should possess at least some minimal level of readiness for SDL (Dynan, Cate, & Rhee, 2008).
Although students vary in their desires for autonomy and guidance (Magolda, 2007), self-directed learning develops autonomous learners able to control and take responsibility for their own learning (Ng, 2008). Yet, the physical absence of an instructor and increased responsibility of learners to effectively engage in learning may present difficulties, particularly to those with low self-regulatory skills (Lee, Shen, & Tsai, 2008). With the development of new technologies, learners are gaining the resources to pursue their own learning agendas. This experience is much more powerful, and significantly benefits society when learners decide to learn for themselves (Collins, 2006).
Distance education should be student-centered, mainly moving learners from dependency toward self-directedness (Richards, Dooley, & Lindner, 2004). Shokar, Shokar, Romero, and Bulik (2002) found that a learner’s level of self-directness increases as their level of education increases. Self-direction depends on one’s levels of psychological and social maturity, as generated by the assumption of adult life roles, as well as one’s internal or external locus of control (Knowles, Holton, & Swanson, 1998).