Policy and contextual considerations for enabling learning support roles in digital environments

This paper is in response to Nacu et al.’s (Educ Technol Res Dev 66(4):1029–1049, 2018) guidelines to enable educators to fulfill learner support roles in online education from a contextual perspective and how their heuristic method can be utilized in today’s current pandemic. It also explores how learner support roles can be leveraged to balance affordances offered by the learning environment and the learners themselves. Additionally, this paper discusses the implications for addressing social inequities in digital environments and education policy reform.