The COVID-19 pandemic gave college faculty and instructional support staff a crash course in online teaching and course design. Educators and students alike discovered certain benefits of online courses, but the shift to “online all the time” bore out the warning in past research that online learning—particularly asynchronous, self-paced courses that lack live interaction between faculty and students—puts more demands on students to manage their own learning and is associated with lower pass rates. The shift also revealed that many faculty have not been adequately prepared for the challenges of teaching and learning online, and that faculty often lack access to resources and institutional support for using technology effectively to foster student learning.

Initial Publication (2023)
Louise Yarnall, Rebecca Griffiths, and Hannah Cheever

This paper, initially published in 2023, provides practitioners with guidance around how to build students’ self-directed learning mindsets and skills. It also reviews the theory and scientific evidence on instructional strategies that can be integrated into STEM courses and have been shown to help students understand and use self-directed learning processes.

The paper presents an initial attempt at translating these ideas and evidence into an actionable framework to guide the design of instructional strategies in online and hybrid courses.

Addendum (2026)
Susan Bickerstaff, Krystal Thomas, Carl Lewandowski, and Louise Yarnall

An addendum, published in 2026, identifies three new studies published between 2023 and 2025 that also used rigorous methods to test SDL interventions that could be adapted to online teaching in postsecondary contexts. These new studies, identified by Collaborative researchers using the same search and screening criteria as the initial paper, feature interventions targeting metacognition, motivation, and self-efficacy, among other learning outcomes.

Two of these interventions use “intelligent” technologies that engage students in dialogue related to their learning. As the use of artificial intelligence expands in higher education, evidence on AI-supported strategies to promote SDL is expected to grow.

The third intervention aimed to increase motivational and metacognitive processes by improving student collaboration in group tasks. Collaborative engagement has many benefits, but it is challenging to implement effectively, particularly in online settings.

As in many of the studies identified in the first literature review, these interventions were implemented in STEM courses in four-year university contexts. Two of these studies and six of the original studies were conducted internationally.

• Read Teaching and Designing Online STEM Courses to Support Self-Directed Learning Skills

• Read the Addendum to Teaching and Designing Online STEM Courses to Support Self-Directed Learning Skills

 

Categories: Publications