The Magic of Online Learning

I invite you into a sparkling, crystal-clear memory to stand by the side of an eight-year-old girl and watch the moon. I remember sneaking out of our house in the early hours of morning, in the little village of Chare in Nagaland, to determine whether the moon always turned the same face towards the earth. I had questions but no answers – I was physically away from all sources of knowledge. There was no library nearby, nor any shops to buy books from; the nearest bookshop was at Mokokchung, which was an hour-long drive from Chare.

Three decades have passed since then. I don’t know whether things have changed there; but they have certainly changed in many other places. The phenomenon that removed the hurdle of physical distance from the path of those who wish to learn is, of course, the Internet. Internet has broken all barriers of distance to unite the learning community and the learning providers – no matter where they are located on earth. Online learning is today a reality for many knowledge hungry souls.

But then online learning has its own share of challenges. True, it breaks the barrier of distance and propagates through different cultures and nationalities; but it also makes the job of an instructional designer more difficult. Let us begin our discussion by reviewing some of these challenges.

The Challenges:

• Online learning though provides the comfort of relative anonymity to many, but for the online facilitator, it makes life tough! While the on-ground instructor works with an excellent feedback mechanism, which is available in form of the learners’ body language, and is able to implement required changes and modifications to content delivery on a continuous basis; this is impossible in the online scenario.
  
  
• On-ground trainings are implemented for an audience profile, which is homogeneous as compared to the audience of online trainings. As online courses can be taken by anyone around the world, they need be designed more carefully. Even if the online courses are designed for a particular country/region, the audience is quite diverse. This makes the job of an instructional designer more difficult.
  
  
• Online courses are not implemented in a classroom, which has physical boundaries. In a real classroom, even if the training is not “very effective” (touché) the learners experience inhibitions in leaving the classroom while the training is in progress. In a virtual classroom, such inhibitions do not exist.
  

But then online learning had numerous advantages over the more traditional methods of learning. Though online learning places a lot of responsibility on the learner’s shoulders, it also provides the learner convenience and flexibility. Following are some of the main advantages of online learning:

The Advantages:

• Online learning allows you to learn at your own pace. What this means is that unlike in a classroom, where you need to understand the concept during the fixed time session; in the online learning scenario, you can spend as much time as you want for understanding a particular concept.
  
  
• The online medium ensures that the course content is “designed” to suit the instructional requirements. It is the audience and task analysis that leads the way in the case of online learning. This ensures that the online course remains potent all through. In a classroom training session, the credentials, capabilities, and personality of the instructor play an important role in the effectiveness of content delivered as a lot of extemporization takes place.
  
  
• The online medium can ensure that each competency in a course receives the attention it deserves. The medium equips the instructional designer with the power of interactive exercises that are extremely useful in driving the concepts home. The learning interaction, “Bloom’s Taxonomy” from the IDCWC Online is a good example of how technology helps in reinforcement of the concepts.
  
  
• Another great advantage of online learning is the ability to resolve queries through written discussions. Let me explain this in more detail. When a learner posts a query (or a response to a discussion question,) he or she articulates it. The consciousness of the fact that the post would be visible to the entire group, guides the learner into analyzing and evaluating the content before posting.
  
  
• It reduces the costs of commutation and helps in prioritization of other activities (social, sports, and so on.) It allows the learner to learn without disrupting other activities.
  
  
• Technology is making online learning better each day. Today online learning can be supported with live-chats, virtual classrooms, and digital note taking. Though some of options may be economically non-viable for the learners and some organizations in India today, but technology prices almost always come down.
  

Online learning essentially frees the learner from the disenchantment of individual personality and knowledge lapses of the instructor, the commutation issues, and the prioritization dilemma. It also helps the learner become more expressive and correct in communication. It enables the learner to spend as much time as is required to become comfortable with a concept. If correctly implemented, online learning can help the learner reach the stars, without ever leaving the ground.

Despite the benefits of online learning listed above, we need to understand that these benefits are manifest only through a properly designed and implemented course. An instructionally weak and technologically poor implementation of online learning can wreak havoc on the learner’s confidence in the medium.

I recommend, both to designers and learners alike – please use the online learning medium to your advantage. Learners need to understand that a poor example of online training shouldn’t be taken as a representation of online learning. Designers need to use the strength of the medium to ensure that all ID principles are followed while designing the course. The potency of any course depends on the instructional design that has gone into it – It is the quality of instructional design and the supporting technologies that make an online course good or bad; just the way, it is the content knowledge, course structure, and delivery method of a classroom instructor that defines the effectiveness of a classroom training.

Analysis of "Bloom's Taxonomy"
( A Learning Interaction from IDCWC Online course)

Let’s review the learning interaction “Bloom’s Taxonomy” instructionally. It is a learning interaction that can be classified as a learning game.

Before we begin analyzing the learning interaction, please click the following link to experience it.

Bloom’s Taxonomy Learning Interaction

1. This learning interaction is at the end of the IDCWC Online Course lecture that discusses Bloom’s Taxonomy. Thus it assumes that the learner understands the various levels of Bloom’s Taxonomy. The learning interaction begins with some instructions and an image of a person who stands at the bottom of what looks like a six-step staircase.
   
   
2. When the learner clicks the NEXT button, a randomly chosen statement describing a person’s capability in a particular content area appears. The learner is expected to click the Bloom’s level (displayed as one of the six steps) that the statement corresponds to.
   
   
3. When the learner clicks a step a “tick” or a “cross” appears. Irrespective of the correctness of the response, a feedback button appears (the “F” within a circle) near the step clicked by the learner. The learner is then served a feedback that comprises the details of the Bloom’s level clicked, and the Bloom’s level of the statement served. This allows the learner to analyze why the response was correct or incorrect.
   
   
4. Finally, when either the learner has exhausted all the statements or has identified the six levels correctly, the learning interaction ends. The next frame provides some information that reiterates the concept of Bloom’s taxonomy.
   
   

There are some details to be noted:

1. The learning interaction manifests Gagne’s events – Elicit Learning and Provide Feedback. Both are essential for ensuring that the learner’s knowledge is reinforced.
   
   
2. The learning interaction is intelligent. The audience for the IDCWC Online course comprises intelligent and mature learners, and an unintelligent learning interaction will not gain their confidence. Review the following characteristics of the learning interaction, which make it intelligent.
   
   
   • The gentleman, who ascends the steps in this interaction, begins ascending only when the first step is constructed – he goes up only to the last constructed step.
     
     
   • Statements are served randomly to the learner. This ensures that the freshness of the learning interaction remains intact, even if the learner decides to experience the interaction again.
     
     
   • When the learner has correctly identified the Bloom’s level of a statement, no further statements corresponding to the same Bloom’s level are served again.
     
     
   • After the learner responds for a statement against one Bloom’s level correctly, no other statements related to that particular Bloom’s level are served.
     
     
   • Irrespective of the learner’s response, the feedback served connects the learner response to the correct answer. For example, if the learner clicks Bloom’s level 5 against a statement that corresponds to Bloom’s level 2; the feedback explains why the statement corresponds to Bloom’s level 2 and what are the characteristics of Bloom’s level 5. This enables the learner determine the flaw in his or her logic and correct it.
     
     
3. The learner can continue playing with the interaction until he or she understands the concept completely. The reward that the learner “learns” to expect is to see the little gentleman at the top of the staircase.
   

Another learning interaction that is highly intelligent is “Experiencing Dale's Cone of Experience.” I leave it you, to explore this interaction and analyze its instructional effectiveness.

Also experience some other learning interactions that have been pulled out of the IDCWC Online for a preview by clicking http://www.vibrantwavelength.com/idcwconline_preview.htm.

Author: Shafali R. Anand