Online Making-Based Learning at Scale: Towards Equity in STEM Learning

Abstract

Making, grounded in theories of constructionism, offers learners the opportunity to construct their own knowledge through constructing personally meaningful artifacts, thus making them interested and committed to the process of their own learning. However, making-based learning is challenging to implement owing to the limitations of materials and well-qualified teachers. Online learning is a way for marginalized learners, who often do not have access to quality educational resources such as well-qualified teachers and learning materials, to access well-qualified teachers. With the growth of synchronous e-learning, learners now have opportunities to interact with their teachers and obtain immediate feedback, a process known to be productive for learning. In this paper, we report on a large-scale making-based online intervention whose design leverages the potential of online learning and cheap, easily accessible materials to create a science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) learning pathway for girls from marginalized communities by engaging them in STEM practices. Using evidence from observations and interviews we evaluate the effectiveness of the intervention in creating these learning pathways. We find that while the intervention increases learner interest in STEM practices, thus initiating a pathway to deepening participation, the language used in the intervention, technology, material and teacher factors can become barriers that have the potential to constrain this pathway and further marginalize the students. We discuss implications and potential solutions to these challenges.