July 22, 2025 | By Louise Yarnall
As online learning continues to play a significant role in the lives of today’s college students, instructors and researchers have been exploring new strategies to foster engagement and promote self-directed learning (SDL) skill development in virtual settings.
In March, the annual symposium of the International Society for Self-Directed Learning brought together a small but dedicated group of educators who develop and apply psychological theory and instructional techniques to support adult learners in realizing their own goals. The society’s first principle defines SDL as “an intentional learning process that is created and evaluated by the learner.”
Collaborative researcher Louise Yarnall joined the symposium to share a new Self-Directed Learning Instructional Model, the culmination of years of research by the Collaborative on empowering students to manage their own learning. The instructional model features three types of online strategies that instructors can integrate throughout their courses. These strategies develop students’ sense of belonging to build social connections and their habits of planning time for course work, reflecting on progress to develop confidence, and seeking help when needed. The strategies include:
- SDL videos that familiarize students with confidence-building strategies and encourage them to reach out to classmates and take a proactive approach to learning
- SDL prompts that support planning and reflection while studying
- Collaborative learning activities called “student peer interaction and networking” (SPIN)
Yarnall also offered findings from a recent study on the usability of the SDL instructional model, conducted by Collaborative researchers Susan Bickerstaff, Krystal Thomas, Hannah Cheever, and others. The study involved nine instructors and their students from three colleges in using and evaluating the model in 4- to 10-week online courses in STEM. Many of the online students worked and raised families while taking classes, and they took these courses online to juggle those responsibilities while deepening their topic knowledge and pursuing longer-term degree and career goals.
Findings from the usability study include:
- Online instructors found the instructional model usable overall, but they wanted to trim some strategies when courses were short and faced some challenges with consistent student engagement in the SPIN activities.
- Both students and instructors saw value in the instructional model. Instructors used SDL surveys and reflections to organize students into groups and identify areas where students needed more help. Students used the SDL strategies to support their connections with other students and help them spot areas for more studying, track their progress, and see how well they were keeping up in the class.
During the symposium, educators of adult students shared challenges they faced in sustaining student engagement in online courses. Attendees endorsed the Collaborative’s approach to supporting students’ motivation and helping them to plan, reflect, and seek help. Some attendees had developed similar strategies to foster student engagement, and others expressed interest in trying out the Collaborative’s resources and exploring the instructional strategies with their students.
Attendees also said they saw promise in the Collaborative’s new instructional model to provide ways for educators to improve online college students’ motivation and engagement.
Michael Ponton, editor of the society’s International Journal of Self-Directed Learning, encouraged the Collaborative to gather data to understand more about the ways college STEM students link online courses to their own lifelong learning goals.
Exploring students’ learning goals may contribute to SDL theory and practice. For example, while an institution may not reward students for getting a “C” or “C−“ in an undergraduate science class, a student planning to major in law might find such a grade acceptable if it helps them meet their personal goals toward a pre-law credential.
One relevant question in SDL theory-building could focus on how students connect the SDL skills and mindsets they use to succeed in college STEM education courses to their own longer-term life and career goals.
Visit the Collaborative’s Research Page to learn more about our various research strands or to explore our published findings on institutional practices, policies, and student experiences in online courses.
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