How do students understand and interpret learning gains? Perspectives from in-depth interviews of UK distance learners

Universities are increasingly looking Learning Gains as a means for the effective measurement of student progress and the contribution they make to their students' learning and development. However, there remains much to understand about the validity and reliability of these measures used. This paper seeks to probe the relationship between how students understand and interpret the learning gains they experience and the proxy measures of learning gain such as assessment marks universities use. The findings are based on an analysis of nineteen semi-structured interviews of UK distance learners. The paper will present key findings and discuss their significance in respect to how to reconcile students own experience of gain and proxy measures of gain and the assumptions on which learning gain measures are predicated.