Years ago, I took a correspondence course. I don’t even remember the school that offered it. I only knew that I had to get the course in, in order to graduate on time, and I couldn’t fit it into my class schedule. It was the worst educational experience of my life, bar none. I paid for the course, received the textbook and syllabus in the mail, and began to complete the reading and writing assignments. It was boring, arduous, and a test of endurance. What’s more, I waited days and days for any feedback in the mail. Thankfully, I earned a “B,” although I am not even certain how that grade was determined.
“We’ve come a long way baby,” as the saying goes. And we owe it all to technology and dedicated professionals who understand that there are multiple educational and training delivery systems as well as multiple ways in which students can demonstrate mastery of content and skills. There are some overriding conceptual premises, however, which should be guiding online teaching and learning.
1. Stop Separating It from Traditional Teaching and Learning
Effective teaching and learning are research-based. Whether that activity occurs in a traditional classroom or in a digital environment, these truths remain:
- Students of all ages learn better when actively engaged in their learning
- High-performance expectations result in higher performance
- Students who have a sense of personalization perform better
- Students who have multiple options for demonstrating mastery “own” their learning more and are more motivated
- Students who engage with their instructors and their peers in a collaborative environment perform better
- Students who receive frequent and effective feedback have the opportunity to improve their performance
A digital environment means that instructors have to upgrade their technology skills and plan more carefully to ensure that their students are engaged, motivated, and feel a part of the collaborative group. Fortunately, technology allows this to happen in many ways, whether the curriculum is for high school, college, or career professionals engaged in training programs. Here are trends that will continue to develop in online education so that teaching and learning will be effective.
2. Prioritizing the Individual
Online students are consumers. They pay for their coursework (or their organization pays for it), just as they pay for any other product or service. They have needs and want those needs met. In fact, this is the reason why online education has exploded in recent years. A traditional classroom environment does not meet those needs, for whatever reason, but it does not make them any less demanding for quality and personal attention.
Deliverers of online coursework must use and continue to develop ways to personalize that coursework for every individual student.
- This will mean using all of the communication tools available – email, video meetings/conferencing, individual messaging, including such tools as Skype and continued new tools and methodologies that will continue to evolve. Instructors would do well to study up on the latest in effective customer service.
- This will mean flexibility – providing lots of options for projects, working with non-traditional student schedules, and so on.
3. Adopting a Mobile Strategy
Especially when online education is expanding globally, there must be mobile learning solutions available to enrollees. Organizations and instructors both must ensure that their coursework design is mobile-friendly, and design architects will be critical in setting up these courses. Students who are unable to use their mobile devices will become frustrated and discouraged – and believe that their personal needs are not being met.
4. Getting Social
Online programs will continue to embrace social media as a way of collaboration with and among students. Using social media will engage students more and help to foster a friendly learning environment. Learning how to use social media for instructional delivery will require that instructors understand the full opportunities of all platforms. Social media platforms, for example, are particularly good for videos, podcasts, webinars. And to use social media platforms, and even newer innovations such as Meerkat and Periscope is to open up lots of contributions and conversations between students and between students and their instructors who, in using social media, have an already established platform for such discussion to take place. No new technology is needed; students know how to access and use these platforms. And the platforms themselves are continuing to improve their offerings to groups.
5. Gamification
Learning games have been around long before computers, and instructors have long extolled the virtues of in terms of both motivation and mastery. It is no surprise, of course, that technology and gaming would merge. Computer games have been used in classrooms for years. And older people have engaged in many non-educational online gaming activities. Moving gaming into e-learning is another natural extension of the enjoyment of learning in that environment – it increases engagement and motivation; it is challenging; it entertains, and it teaches.
Instructors cannot be expected to create gamification activities. However, there are a number of companies that can do this, and e-learning program will continue to increase their use of contracted developers for this initiative.
E-learning gamification does not mean games in the strictest sense. It means using gaming techniques in the context of teen and adult learning – interactivity, for example.
6. Continued Adaptive Learning
There is a lot of talk about synchronous and asynchronous delivery models, and sometimes they intermingle. These are attempts to adapt learning for students in remote but traditional classroom environments and for students enrolled from a wide variety of individual locations, even globally. Continued adaptation for an ever-increasingly diverse demographic will continue to occur, and continued accommodations for diverse timelines for coursework completion will be even more important. Pre-assessment of individual student start-points will have to guide decisions about what learning approach will be best. For example, students without significant experience in writing academic article will need a different approach to such an assignment versus those who have. Fortunately, again, technology is providing the wherewithal to do this. Continued adaptations will go a long way in enrollment retention.
Educational institutions are still grappling with online learning initiatives and management of a growing phenomenon. They want to use local resources and personnel as much as possible but realize that they will need to invest in components from outside of the institution. These trends will continue and put increased pressure on institutions to meet increasing needs of students for alternative means of getting their educations.
