From this week’s peer discussion, it is clear that online learning can bring huge benefits to students. Those who need to balance study around other life commitments can access education and institutions that they would otherwise not be able to. Many of my peers on this PGcHE, and indeed my MA, would not have studied these subjects if they had to attend a set university at a set time.
It can offer flexibility in the time when learners can participate in courses, reducing or removing restrictions arising from that balancing of work or home commitments with study.
(Littlejohn and Pegler, 2009, p.21)
Initial research into online learning suggests that designed well, many online resources benefit students with differing learning needs as they can take their own time to engage with and absorb learning materials that may come in audio, video, and written form. ‘Traditional’ teaching often disadvantages students when a lecture is given live, once, and the student has only their notes to rely on the recall the details.
Left to absorb new material in their own time, and their own pace without the fear of asking for something to be repeated benefits all students. As Sal Khan points out in his TED talk given when his platform The Khan Academy was in its infancy
The very first time that you’re trying to get your brain around a new concept the very last thing you need is another human being saying “Do you understand this?”
(Khan, 2013)
My colleague on the course, Sneha backs this up with her statement that
Being dyslexic, it is super beneficial to work at my pace and have the flexibility to go back and forth. This has meant I am able to digest information and find a rhythm in my way of working.
(Modhvadiya, 2023)
It seems then that when it comes to being a learner even those who were sceptical about the online experience when joining the PGcHE have found it works really well for them. There is a twist though: those with extensive teaching experience find that delivering online education is much more difficult than doing it face-to-face.
Tim, a peer on the course sums it up well…
I have found the online learning experience as a student better than I have found when I am the tutor
(Neligan, 2023)
So online learning can make things easier, for the dedicated student at least, but tougher for the teacher?
Many peers have discussed the challenges of reading a room when delivering lectures via Zoom, of students either not turning their cameras on or, conversely, turning their cameras on and doing something entirely unrelated to the lecture. One educator I spoke to this week described doing a lecture during which a student took in their food delivery, cooked dinner, and then sat and ate it.
Although i have limited experience in teaching in the last two weeks I have given the same talk twice: once in a face-to-face context in the UK and once on Zoom to the US. Although the Zoom call allowed me the luxury of being in my own home and surround myself with off-camera notes and prompts I found the online experience much more exhausting than doing it in person.
Online learning isn’t just about live delivery of lectures or workshops. It is also about prerecorded videos and selected reading materials. In this regard there was a lot of concern from my more experienced peers that, left to their own devices to self-study, many students may not bother. In response to Julian’s comments about these issues, Stuart Elliott noted that really it came down to design.
If done properly and designed for the on-line environment a course enables people like you and I to be both a student and continue working. There is flexibility to allow students to learn in their own way and in their own time with support which is teaching to how students learn (Biggs and Tang).
(Elliott, 2023)
We need to be mindful then that simply shifting what used to be done in a classroom to an online equivalent may not work to the benefit of students or educators.
Technology holds the promise of improving educational experiences, but we must be careful not to assume that technology itself improves learning. Technology is simply a tool. (emphasis theirs)
(Stein and Graham, 2014, p.30)
I believe, then, that the move to online education requires a redesign of the experience to meet the characteristics of those new environments and the expectations of new students. In ‘Preparing for Blended e-Learning’ Littlejohn and Pegler talk of the need to create “new etiquettes of learning” and to set new expectations of ourselves and our students. Maybe it is ok to cook during a lecture after all!?
In any learning context we need to design learning activities that “motivate students and capture their imagination” (Littlejohn and Pegler, 2009) but how we achieve that online may require very different techniques. It should be worth the effort though…
A 2009 US Department of Education report comparing online learning with traditional face-to-face courses concluded that “students who took all or part of their class online performed better, on average, than those taking the same course…face-to-face. (Yates, Bakia, Means, & Jones. 2009.)
(Stein and Graham, 2014).
Reference list
Elliott, S. (2023). Week 1: Forum – What are the benefits and constraints of online learning? [online] flex.falmouth.ac.uk. Available at: https://flex.falmouth.ac.uk/courses/1154/discussion_topics/28621 [Accessed 5 Jun. 2023].
Khan, S. (2013). Let’s use video to reinvent education – Salman Khan. [online] YouTube. Available at: https://youtu.be/DC58z4N0IWw [Accessed 5 Jun. 2023].
Littlejohn, A. and Pegler, C. (2009). Preparing for Blended e-Learning. London ; New York: Routledge, p.21.
Modhvadiya, S. (2023). Week 1: Forum – What are the benefits and constraints of online learning? [online] flex.falmouth.ac.uk. Available at: https://flex.falmouth.ac.uk/courses/1154/discussion_topics/28621 [Accessed 5 Jun. 2023].
Neligan, T. (2023). Week 1: Forum – What are the benefits and constraints of online learning? flex.falmouth.ac.uk.
Stein, J. and Graham, C.R. (2014). Essentials for Blended Learning. Routledge, p.30.