Helen Scott, PhD Candidate Abstract From the point at which a learner commits to undertaking a course of study, and conceivably some time before, that learner holds an intention to study. This paper offers a theory which explains how that intention to study is strengthened or weakened as a course of study progresses. It suggests that it is much less a matter of learners deciding to persist with or depart from a course of study and much more a matter of continuing upon a course of action embarked upon – of maintaining an intention – by its temporal integration into the structure of their daily lives. The theory of temporal integration explains the process enabling learners to engage in the learning experience and how for some students, the intention to learn is weakened to the extent that they leave the course, most often by default. Introduction The paper commences with an explanation of the main concern of connected learners and, before presenting the core category of temporal integration, will introduce the related categories of connected learning and connected learner and their respective sub-categories of time design and personal commitment structures. It will also detail the properties (and their dimensions) of the category, connected learner which includes personal competencies, value of study and satisfaction with study. A brief overview of the temporal integration process, its three stages of juggling, engaging and evaluating and its feedback loop, ‘the propensity to study’, will be presented next. Different connected learners experience the temporal integration process in different ways and are distinguished by their personal commitment structures, personal competencies, value of study and cost of failure. Using these distinctions, four main types of connected learner can be discerned; juggler, struggler, fade-away and leaver. Since the temporal integration process is experienced differently by each, the temporal integration process is presented in detail first as experienced by jugglers, followed by the differing experiences of strugglers, fade-aways and leavers. The Main Concern The main concern of the adult connected distance learner is to fit study into his or her life on an ongoing basis. Distance learning is taken on in addition to existing commitments and inevitably life intervenes and study gets in the way. The problem is that the learning materials do not go away. The 24/7 availability of the learning environment accessible from increasingly diverse locations and the persistence of learning materials means that lectures are always there to be attended and past discussions are waiting to be ‘overheard’. The difference between the traditional distance learner and the online learner is the mode of delivery i.e. the Post Office or the Internet. The difference between the online learner and the connected learner is pedagogy. Where collaboration is built into the learning design then learners must communicate. This brings with it, its own special strains on a learner’s diary; the more intense the pattern of communication, the greater the strain. The problem of fitting study into a learner’s life is achieved, more or less successfully, through the basic social psychological process of ‘temporal integration’. This is the process by which the structure points of the time design of a connected learning opportunity are combined into the personal commitment structure of the connected learner. Thus two related categories are of import to this theory; the connected learning opportunity and the connected learner, as are their respective sub-categories of time design and personal commitment structure. Connected Learning The studying process occurs under certain conditions which are; the ‘technology’ used,...
