Bridging the Literacy Gap for Adults: Streaming and Engaging in Adult Literacy Education through Livestreaming

Title of the Paper

Bridging Adult Cultural Gaps: Streaming and Interaction for Adult Cultural Education through Live Streaming

Paper Information

• Field of Study: Human-Computer Interaction (HCI), Adult Cultural Education, Live Streaming Platforms
• Keywords: live streaming, adult culture, education, digital skills, platform design, community support, educational equity, adult learning, Chinese culture, technology-assisted learning

Research Background and Issues

• Problems and Challenges:

  • Globally, 750 million adults remain illiterate, particularly in resource-limited rural areas.
  • Traditional adult literacy campaigns are constrained by scarce resources, low participation rates, and insufficient course durations.
  • The number of adult literacy programs is declining, and there is a lack of comprehensive online literacy resources, facing geographical, technological, and economic barriers.
  • The potential of live streaming as an educational tool has not been systematically explored.

• Significance of the Research:

  • Illiteracy impacts economic development, social participation, and family well-being.
  • UNESCO regards literacy as a fundamental human right, and cultural education is a critical component of global educational equity.
  • Live streaming platforms may create an accessible and interactive learning approach, potentially providing educational support to marginalized groups.

• Research Motivation and Prior Work:

  • Existing studies highlight the interactive potential of live streaming in video gaming, cultural heritage preservation, and e-commerce but have not sufficiently discussed its role in literacy education.
  • Chinese live streaming platforms (e.g., Douyin and Kuaishou) have already reached a wide range of urban and rural users through diverse content, offering an opportunity to explore their educational effects.
  • Prior research has examined the educational potential of live streaming but has not deeply analyzed its application for illiterate adults.

Solution

• Research Methods:

  • Mixed methods: A 7-day observation of 20 live streaming users, along with in-depth interviews with 12 streamers and 10 viewers.
  • Research questions:
    1. What motivates streamers to conduct adult literacy live streams?
    2. What practices do streamers adopt to promote cultural education?
    3. What challenges do streamers and viewers face in using live streaming for cultural education, and how do they address these issues?

• Innovations:

  • Analyzed how live streaming technology transforms from an entertainment function into an interactive tool for adult literacy education.
  • Highlighted innovative teaching practices using tools such as real-time comments, voice feedback, and WeChat groups.
  • Addressed the unique content area of digital literacy (e.g., operating smart devices), which significantly differs from traditional text-based learning.

Research Findings

Motivation

• Streamer Motivation:

  1. Caring for low-literacy populations and filling gaps in educational resources (mentioned by 11 participants).
  2. Gaining a sense of self-worth through knowledge sharing, especially for retirees rediscovering personal identity.
  3. Generating economic benefits (e.g., selling literacy books, receiving donations), though emphasizing knowledge sharing over profit.

• Viewer Motivation:

  1. Improving basic cultural literacy to overcome daily challenges (e.g., reading public signs).
  2. Choosing live streaming for its low entry barriers, ease of use, real-time interaction, and free access.
  3. Attracted by flexible learning schedules and high accessibility, particularly for rural residents or busy individuals.

Practices

1. Live Streaming Content:

   • Teaching pinyin and Chinese character writing.
   • Educating on digital skills, including basic smartphone operations (e.g., using search engines).
   • Focusing on practical daily needs of viewers and adjusting course difficulty based on learning levels.

2. Interaction Management:

   • Enhancing teaching feedback and learning engagement through real-time comments and "live connections."
   • Establishing learning communities via WeChat groups to provide customized teaching resources and encourage peer interaction.

3. Teaching Innovations:

   • Utilizing multiple platforms to aid learning: creating short videos and offering tiered instructional guidance.
   • Designing flexible live streaming courses (basic lessons during the day, advanced lessons in the evening).

Challenges and Countermeasures

Shared Challenges

• Lack of teaching certification: Unqualified performers may reduce learners' trust in the courses.
• Limitations of live streaming features: Balancing real-time comment management with ongoing teaching is challenging.
• Misunderstandings and malicious behavior: Some viewers disrupt classes due to misunderstanding the content or engaging in malicious actions.

Streamer-Specific Challenges

• Different teaching needs for adults versus children: Content must be tailored to practical adult needs (e.g., bus stop names).
• Technical burden of multiple platforms: Creating short videos and providing individual guidance adds time and energy demands.
• Internet traffic limitations: Educational live streams struggle to attract traffic compared to profit-driven streams.

Viewer-Specific Challenges

• Fear of self-exposure: Particularly during initial participation in real-time interactions, viewers often feel shy.
• Complex interactive features: Some features are not user-friendly for low-literacy individuals.
• Long learning curve for elderly viewers: Repeated learning or family assistance is often required to overcome difficulties.

Design Implications and Future Directions

1. Optimizing Live Streaming Education Platforms:

   • Provide simpler interactive interfaces to reduce learning costs.
   • Enhance content presentation with keyword visualizations and highlighted comment points.

2. Supporting Professional Educational Streamers:

   • Introduce course certification features to improve teaching quality.
   • Incorporate auto-generation technologies to create short videos summarizing key knowledge points for review.

3. Enhancing Content Accessibility and Diversity:

   • Governments and platforms should proactively increase exposure for this demographic, promoting educational equity and social impact.

Research Limitations

• Data sources are limited to Douyin and Kuaishou, excluding other live streaming platforms.
• The observation period is relatively short, limiting the analysis of long-term behavioral evolution.

Future work could explore larger samples across multicultural contexts to deepen the understanding of the applicability and regional characteristics of live streaming education.

Conclusion

This study reveals the practices and potential of live streaming in adult literacy education, providing a reference for improving global educational equity. Additionally, the supportive online educational ecosystem formed through live streaming offers a new model for lifelong learning among adults.