Is online learning particularly adapted to students on the autism spectrum ? Part 1/3

One would think that since autistic individuals often face challenges in social settings, studying in their own space would be an ideal solution.

But is this kind of training really aligned to their needs? Or does it present a new set of challenges that need to be addressed? 

Digital learning is clearly becoming more and more popular and it is necessary for us to ensure that all students, including those on the autism spectrum, can fully benefit from online education. 

This article, the first in a series of three, attempts to identify some unique obstacles that students on the autism spectrum may encounter while completing their tasks in virtual learning environments.

The second article will focus on communication and sensory processing difficulties, and the final one will be dedicated to emotional response variances and autistic burnout. 

I will also be sharing some measures that have been put in place in our learning company,  and offering some recommendations for learning designers and training providers to enhance the inclusivity and effectiveness of online education.

What does it mean to be on the autism spectrum ?

Being on the autism spectrum refers to having a neurodevelopmental condition that affects how a person perceives the world, interacts with others, and processes information. It is recognized as being a handicap but unlike a lot of physical disabilities, this condition is often invisible, making it hard for these students to receive the necessary support in educational settings.

The term "spectrum" emphasizes the fact that autism manifests itself differently in each individual, with a wide range of strengths and challenges. Some people on the spectrum may experience difficulties in communication and social interaction, exhibit restricted or repetitive behaviors and interests, and have unique sensory sensitivities. Some, however, may also possess remarkable strengths, such as attention to detail, strong memory, and excellence in specific areas of interest.

On one side of the spectrum, some people may need minimal assistance, while on the other, some typically require significant support for coping in daily life.

Although reliable statistics in this field are difficult to find, they do give us a rough idea. The European Network of National Autistic Societies (ENNAS) estimates that approximately 5.4 million individuals in Europe are diagnosed with autism, corresponding to about 1 in 100 people (1%).

In the USA, the figures are significantly higher. The disparity could be due to broader diagnosis criteria used in the USA and greater awareness of disability in general. According to the most recent data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), about 1 in 36 children have been identified with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). This represents a significant increase over time, partly due to better diagnostic techniques

The number of children diagnosed with ASD in the USA has increased significantly over the years.

In 2000 : 1 in 150 children 

In 2010 : 1 in 68 children 

In 2020 : 1 in 36 children 

But being on the spectrum is not simply a matter of being categorized as mild or severe. It is a complex interplay of various traits and abilities that can vary in intensity and impact, across different contexts and areas of functioning. 

To identify the best ways to help students on the autism spectrum, let’s look at some common difficulties that autistic students may experience during an online training program. I’ll be using the pedagogical model of OpenClassrooms, the online learning company where I work, as a basis. The mission of OpenClassrooms is to make education accessible to everyone, everywhere. Although a lot of effort has already been made to make our training accessible to people with disabilities, there are still areas that we hope to improve in, and we are always on the lookout for suggestions or recommendations.

"Make education accessible" - official mission of OpenClassrooms

The OpenClassrooms model in a nutshell

Let’s look briefly at how training at OpenClassrooms works. 

Once enrolled in the training program chosen, students complete a number of hands-on projects, based on real-world tasks. Typically, they have between 10 and 14 projects to complete. To do so, they will need to follow online courses (video and text based), do personal research if necessary and complete a number of deliverables. Depending on the program and the type of financing, students have roughly between 6 months and 3 years to complete their training. They start when they like and follow their own rhythm.

Each week, the student has an individual online meeting with a mentor, who will help them to progress. At the end of each project, either the mentor or an assessor will evaluate the deliverables during an exam in the form of an online project presentation. In this session, the student will have to present the deliverables orally and answer some questions from the assessor, thus proving that the necessary skills have been acquired.

The key elements of OpenClassrooms training:

• fictitious projects to complete
• courses to follow
• personal research to do
• deliverables to complete
• weekly mentoring sessions to attend
• project presentations to give
• questions about the project to answer

What are some of the typical difficulties autistic students could face during their online training? 

This article will not be able to address all challenges of all autistic students, as they vary so greatly from one person to the next. I will be highlighting various sets of challenges that these students could face and the impact these could have on their learning. In this first article, we will look at challenges that impact the completion of tasks in their learning program.

Let’s start by looking at how autistic students could be impacted by their unique way of processing information.

Difficulties with executive functioning

• Feeling overwhelmed: 

"I have read the instructions from beginning to end, but I still don’t know what I have to do."

• Difficulty linking learning elements: 

"The deliverables require skills I don’t have, and I don’t know where to start."

• Difficulty estimating time required for tasks: 

"I have a basic idea of what is expected, but there is no rush as I have a whole year of training ahead. I'll start in a few weeks."

• Less cognitive flexibility:

"They say we need to make a presentation, but there are no precise details on what to include, and there is no example to follow.

• Perfectionism: 

"I cannot present my project the way it is, I see so many things that need to be improved.”

What causes these difficulties ?

The nature of online learning itself contributes significantly to these challenges. In online environments, students often lack the immediate support and social cues present in physical, in-person settings. Unlike in traditional classrooms, students have fewer opportunities to ask fellow students for help, or at least to benefit from questions asked by others, if they themselves prefer not to speak in public, for example. Furthermore, without immediate clarification, and in absence of concrete examples,  project requirements might seem too abstract, making it difficult for students to grasp expectations and find meaning in their tasks. 

Most neurotypical students are able to easily:

• plan tasks
• organize activities
• adapt to new situations
• manage time
• focus attention and 
• complete tasks

But those on the spectrum could find these tasks extremely complicated, due to what is known as executive functioning difficulties. Let’s look a bit closer at what this means.

Executive functioning encompasses a complex group of cognitive processes that enable goal-directed behavior, problem-solving and decision-making. These processes include:

• the working memory: the ability to hold and manipulate information in one’s mind while performing tasks.
• cognitive flexibility: the capacity to adapt one’s thinking and behavior in response to changing contexts.
• inhibitory control: being able to suppress irrelevant stimuli or inappropriate responses.
• planning and organization: the ability to create and execute strategies to achieve goals.
• task initiation: being able to start tasks without undue procrastination.
• self-monitoring: the ongoing objective assessment of one's performance and ability.

We can see the importance of efficient executive functioning to ensure academic success, professional performance, and even to navigate daily life challenges. Students who have weak executive functioning may frequently forget simple instructions, or appear to ignore certain requests, for example. It is not due to lack of attention or laziness, but simply because their working memory has been unable to retain the necessary information. They may also need to refer back to information a lot more often than neurotypical individuals, to remind themselves what is needed and to recall the details of what they had just read.

Furthermore, autistic brains typically take in significantly more information than neurotypical brains and they often tend to focus on details rather than grasping the big picture. This naturally leads to longer processing times as they navigate through a larger amount of information. It also makes it more difficult to give rapid responses to questions, such as those asked during an oral exam. 

Finally, autistic individuals often have an all-or-nothing perspective, meaning that they tend to categorize things or people as entirely good or bad. They may perceive their work as being either perfect or totally worthless, finding it difficult to nuance these perceptions and find a middle ground.

During online learning, therefore, students may require more time to achieve objectives, more structure to be able to find information when they need to refer to it, more guidance in terms of sequencing of tasks, and more encouragement if they feel they are not achieving what they had hoped to.

Some OpenClassrooms solutions to support students with weak executive functioning

Although there is still room for improvement, here are some measures implemented by OpenClassrooms:

• We have added project milestones to most projects, in the form of guided steps that need to be followed. The steps include expected outcomes, suggested resources, recommendations and typical pitfalls.  
• We have included auto-evaluation sheets, with checklists that students can use to be sure they have completed all necessary elements of a project.
• We have removed any superfluous content, such as detailed story-telling, or decorative images, for example. If they add no vital information for project completion, we prefer to remove them as they could easily lead to cognitive overload or distraction.
• We have added an AI bot for immediate help with understanding the project or the corresponding deliverables.
• Specific accommodations are put in place for students with disabilities, such as extra time, shorter and more frequent mentoring sessions, and the possibility of having questions written (instead of orally) during the project presentation sessions.

It is interesting to note that the measures put in place to support people with disabilities have clearly proved to be helpful for all students. 

(The following authentic feedback from a student on one of our training programs is translated from French): 

“Despite the high-quality courses and projects, sometimes the instructions and indications are a bit too scattered across different attachments, although during my training there has been a great improvement with the implementation of steps to follow for each project.”

We are also investigating the possibility and pertinence of adding the following elements:

• Downloadable summaries of key content, including visual aids such as charts and mind-maps, when useful.
• Small group mentoring sessions to develop working relationships with other students on the same program, enabling students to learn from one another and support each other.
• Further guidance in the form of templates or tutorials, to help students organize the information that they need in order to complete their deliverables.
• Including in-company internships in more of our training programs, to facilitate the transfer of skills and add further meaning to the training.

But weak executive functioning is just one of numerous obstacles that can hamper the progress of ASD (Autistic Spectrum Disorder) students as they follow their learning program. Let’s look at another condition that is closely related to executive functioning. 

Autistic inertia

Here are some examples of how this could feel.

• Difficulty with task initiation:

"I set my alarm to ring early in the morning, but I cannot get myself to start working before late in the afternoon. I'm wasting so much time!" 

• Hyperfocus on specific aspects:

This part of the project is really interesting, all the rest seems so boring in comparison…Let me just continue this part, I would really like to know more about this."

• Difficulty making a decision and taking action:

"I have finished my project, but I can't get myself to make an appointment for the project presentation session."

Autistic inertia can be described as a tendency to remain in the same state - whether that's staying in bed, or engaging in an activity. Often mistaken for laziness or lack of motivation, this condition is actually linked to a neurological difference in how the autistic brain processes and responds to changes in activity. 

Brain imaging studies have shown that autistic individuals often have different patterns of connectivity between brain regions. In fact, research published in October this year has shown that the fewer connections (synapses) the brain has, the more autistic characteristics a person will have. This can affect how information is processed and how different brain areas communicate, potentially making transitions between activities more challenging. This condition is often exacerbated by stress, fatigue, or sensory overload.

Furthermore, some research suggests that autistic individuals may have differences in dopamine regulation. Dopamine is a neurotransmitter involved in motivation, reward, and task initiation. Atypical dopamine functioning could also contribute to difficulties in starting or changing activities.

Some OpenClassrooms solutions that support students with autistic inertia

• An automatic reminder on the student’s dashboard reminds them if they are falling behind with their projects. (The message has been skilfully crafted by the UX team so that students do not feel further anxiety or stress related to this reminder.)
• We have included courses in our programs on how to use AI to help plan one’s tasks.
• A new course is being developed to support mentors working with disabled students. Our aim is to raise awareness, enabling mentors to recognize diverse student profiles more easily and provide more appropriate guidance. By doing so, we can prevent students from being misjudged as being lazy, uninterested or even incompetent.
• The flexibility of our learning programs enable students to progress at their own rhythm.

(The following authentic feedback from a student on one of our programs is translated from French): 

“ I really enjoyed this training program. I appreciated being able to work at my own pace . When I was quick, I finished my projects early, and when I needed much more time, I had it. I was able to go at my own rhythm.”

Here are some other possibilities for further exploration:

• Integrate a better, more visual interactive interface enabling students to see exactly where they are in the project and what still needs to be done.
• Develop adaptable project tasks that could enable students to include their special interests. This could increase engagement, motivation and potentially lead to better learning outcomes.
• Offer on-demand mentoring or coaching to provide support and strategies for students during times of difficulty.

We can see the importance of understanding executive functioning and autistic inertia, but these are just two pieces of the puzzle. Many autistic individuals also grapple with sensory and emotional sensitivities that can turn seemingly ordinary situations into overwhelming experiences. And we cannot forget the unique communication challenges faced by many students on the autism spectrum.

In my next article, we'll dive deeper into these aspects, exploring how they impact the online learning experience for autistic students and suggesting some further solutions that could help to make online education more inclusive for all learners.