Learner success and digital technologies

This entry examines the role digital technologies play in learner success, both as a factor
that impacts on learner success and in the context of digital technology’s role in institutional
initiatives and supports designed to enhance learner success. The common goal of learners
and educational institutions is that a learner will achieve their educational goals within that
institution. When a learner withdraws from the institution this represents a loss of opportunity
for that individual to achieve those goals, a loss to the institution in terms of mission and
income, as well as a loss to society with regard to the benefits that accrue from an educated
populace. Where students do not exit the institution, but progress through a programme
without achieving the success of which they are capable, this also represents a loss of
potential for the individual, the institution, and society. Learner success is impacted by both
learner characteristics and institutional structures and processes. Institutions can enhance
learner success through strategic initiatives and the targeted deployment of effective learner
supports (Thomas, Hill, O’Mahony, & Yorke, 2017). In most cases such initiatives and
supports are mediated through digital technologies, as their use now permeates most forms
of teaching and learning activity.