Agency for Learning
Agency is inherent in students’ ability to regulate, control, and monitor their own learning. A learners’ effectiveness in regulating their cognitive, affective, and behavioural processes as they interact within the learning environment is critical to their academic success. Agency for Learning (AFL; Code, 2010) is a necessary extension of social cognitive theory as it situates agentic capabilities as mediating factors between the effects of personal, behavioral, and social-environmental aspects on the self. Individual agency is expressed or constrained in different contexts for different reasons, thus it is important to consider agency from the perspective of the learner in the context of learning – in situ. AFL posits that agency “is an emergent entity that is manifested in individual abilities to interact with personal, behavioral, environmental, and social factors in the learning context” (Code, 2010, p. 2). Ultimately, agency is an emergent capability that is intentional, self-generated, and has external sources of influence. Emergence refers to “the arising of novel and coherent structures, patterns, and properties during the process of self-organization” (Goldstein, 1999, p. 49). A capability is emergent if it has several component parts but is irreducible with respect to them (O’Connor and Wong, 2002; Martin, 2003). Since agency emerges through self-generated intentional action; it can only be explained by the interaction between its component influences. These component influences are represented by an individual’s intentionality, forethought, self-regulation, and self-efficacy. Agency and identity are central tenets of ALIVE Lab, within Applied Design Skills and Technologies (ADST) and STEM education broadly.
Selected themes of our research include:
Technology and its Applications to Educational Contexts:
- Critical examination of learning environments in ADST, STEM, and MHRT (Code et al., 2020);
- Democratization of knowledge through social media and technology (Code, 2013);
- Design and validation of virtual environments for assessment (Code & Zap, 2017);
- Critical pedagogy and the psychosocial impacts of technology (Code et al., in press).
Methodological Innovation for Understanding Self-Processes and Agency:
- Through measurement (Code, 2020) and learning analytics (Code, in press);
- As education through public discourse and knowledge translation (Code, 2019);
- As the object of study through autoethnography (Code, 2019).

Jillianne Code, PhD
Sample Publications
2021
Code, J; Zap, N; Ralph, R
Academic success online: Mediating the effects of personality and self-efficacy in online learning Journal Article
In: International Journal on E-Learning, vol. 20, iss. 4, pp. 377-410, 2021.
@article{Code2021b,
title = {Academic success online: Mediating the effects of personality and self-efficacy in online learning},
author = {J Code and N Zap and R Ralph},
url = {Preprint available at: https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-901632/v1},
doi = {https://www.learntechlib.org/p/212813/},
year = {2021},
date = {2021-11-01},
urldate = {2021-11-01},
journal = {International Journal on E-Learning},
volume = {20},
issue = {4},
pages = {377-410},
keywords = {},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {article}
}
2020
Code, J
Representations of agency emergence in learning analytics Journal Article Forthcoming
In: Manuscript in Preparation, Forthcoming.
@article{Code2020d,
title = {Representations of agency emergence in learning analytics},
author = {J Code},
year = {2020},
date = {2020-07-26},
urldate = {2020-07-26},
journal = {Manuscript in Preparation},
keywords = {},
pubstate = {forthcoming},
tppubtype = {article}
}
Code, J
Agency for learning: Intention, motivation, self-efficacy and self-regulation Journal Article
In: Frontiers in Education, vol. 5, pp. 19, 2020.
@article{code2020agency,
title = {Agency for learning: Intention, motivation, self-efficacy and self-regulation},
author = {J Code},
doi = {10.3389/feduc.2020.00019},
year = {2020},
date = {2020-02-26},
urldate = {2020-02-26},
booktitle = {Frontiers in Education},
journal = {Frontiers in Education},
volume = {5},
pages = {19},
organization = {Frontiers},
abstract = {Agency is inherent in students’ ability to regulate, control, and monitor their own learning. A learners’ effectiveness in regulating their cognitive, affective, and behavioural processes as they interact within the learning environment is critical to their academic success. This article advances a theory of learner agency, or agency for learning (AFL), as an emergent capacity that is intentional, self-generated, and reactive to social factors in the learning context. This article further traces the development of the Agency for Learning Questionnaire (AFLQ) and examines the internal consistency, predictive validity, and psychometric properties covering four dimensions of agentic functioning including intentionality (planfulness, decision competence), forethought (intrinsic and extrinsic motivation), self-regulation, and self-efficacy. The results of this research demonstrate that the AFLQ provides a reliable, valid, multidimensional measure of AFL based on existing theoretical and empirical findings, advancing both theory and practice. Understanding how agency develops and emerges within learning environments is a key factor in identifying why learning occurs enabling educational psychologists to potentially identify, measure, and study agentic processes in the context of learning across a variety of research designs.},
keywords = {},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {article}
}
2019
Code, J; Zap, N
A preliminary exploration of the effects of personality and self-efficacy for online learning in higher education Proceeding
AACE edmedia + innovate learning, Amsterdam, Netherlands, 2019.
@proceedings{Code2019b,
title = {A preliminary exploration of the effects of personality and self-efficacy for online learning in higher education},
author = {J Code and N Zap},
editor = {T Bastiaens},
year = {2019},
date = {2019-08-31},
urldate = {2019-08-31},
publisher = {edmedia + innovate learning},
address = {Amsterdam, Netherlands},
organization = {AACE},
keywords = {},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {proceedings}
}
Code, J
Design and Validation of the Agency for Learning Questionnaire Across Multiple Contexts Presentation
06.04.2019, (Canadian Society for the Study of Education Annual Meeting, Vancouver, Canada).
@misc{Code2019i,
title = {Design and Validation of the Agency for Learning Questionnaire Across Multiple Contexts},
author = {J Code},
year = {2019},
date = {2019-04-06},
urldate = {2019-04-06},
abstract = {Code, J. (2019, June). Design and Validation of the Agency for Learning Questionnaire Across Multiple Contexts. Presentation at the Canadian Society for the Study of Education Annual Meeting, Vancouver, Canada.},
note = {Canadian Society for the Study of Education Annual Meeting, Vancouver, Canada},
keywords = {},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {presentation}
}
2016
Code, J; Hatzipanagos, S
Open badges in online learning environments: Peer feedback as an engagement intervention for promoting agency Proceeding
AACE World Conference on Educational Media and Technology, Vancouver, BC, 2016.
@proceedings{Code2016b,
title = {Open badges in online learning environments: Peer feedback as an engagement intervention for promoting agency},
author = {J Code and S Hatzipanagos},
editor = {C Fulford and G Veletsianos},
year = {2016},
date = {2016-07-31},
urldate = {2016-07-31},
publisher = {World Conference on Educational Media and Technology},
address = {Vancouver, BC},
organization = {AACE},
keywords = {},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {proceedings}
}
Hatzipanagos, S; Code, J
Open badges in online learning environments: Peer feedback and formative assessment as an engagement intervention for promoting agency Journal Article
In: Journal of Educational Multimedia and Hypermedia, vol. 25, no. 2, pp. 127-142, 2016.
@article{Code2016,
title = {Open badges in online learning environments: Peer feedback and formative assessment as an engagement intervention for promoting agency},
author = {S Hatzipanagos and J Code},
year = {2016},
date = {2016-01-01},
urldate = {2016-01-01},
journal = {Journal of Educational Multimedia and Hypermedia},
volume = {25},
number = {2},
pages = {127-142},
keywords = {},
pubstate = {published},
tppubtype = {article}
}