Postsecondary Student Perspectives on Lifelong Learning in Digital Era

A qualitative research document analyzes 18 university students' practices and perspectives on lifelong learning shaped by digital technology. The analysis produced 46 discrete codes grouped into 11 themes, organized within Agency, Growth, Connection, and Envisioning Future categories. The study uses self-determination theory to frame how digital tools support students' autonomy, competence, and relatedness needs.

Use Cases

• Analyze the 11 themes (e.g., Agency, Growth, Connection) to understand core categories of student experience with digital learning tools.
• Examine the 46 discrete codes to identify specific student practices and perspectives mentioned in the focus groups.
• Apply the self-determination theory framework to interpret how themes relate to autonomy, competence, and relatedness needs.
• Use the conceptual framework of emerging lifelong learning practices to inform curriculum design research.

Strengths

• Qualitative analysis is structured around 11 distinct themes derived from focus group data.
• Research is grounded in the established self-determination theory framework.
• The document is openly licensed under CC BY 4.0 for broad reuse.

Limitations

• The dataset is a single 322.3 KB DOCX file containing textual analysis, not structured tabular data with rows and columns.
• Findings are based on a small sample of 18 students from unspecified professional programs, limiting generalizability.
• Data collection method (focus groups) may introduce group bias and lacks individual-level quantitative metrics.

Provenance

Source

figshare, authored by Tetiana Polishchuk.

Collection Method

Data gathered from five online focus groups with 18 university students, analyzed using template and reflexive thematic analysis.

Freshness

Last updated March 25, 2026.