The pursuit of an exceptional online learning experience. Seven principles to guide development.
As we engage in a high number of online experiences at all levels, the questions around the quality of these experiences are even more piercing in the context of the COVID pandemic. Thus, this reflection on what makes an online learning experience extraordinary. What will truly resonate with the online learner and offer a life-long impact? Here are SEVEN important principles that I apply to my online teaching and learning that have been proven to be successful in creating exceptional online learning experiences.
Put Yourself in the Learner’s Shoes.
ONE) Put Yourself in the Learner’s Shoes. I have experienced firsthand being an online learner as well as an online instructor. I have engaged in virtual design work, joined a Massive Open Online Course (MOOC), and researched the synchronicities of geographically distributed teams. Besides, I have designed, developed, and delivered dozens of online courses and modules. I have collected feedback from many online learners on what they expected from online learning. This myriad of lived understandings informs my online teaching every day. It is important to connect, care and empathize with the online learner and tailor a learning experience that meets their needs and fulfills their aspirations.
TWO) Make it Count. Especially when we teach adult learners, they expect their lives and professional experiences (e.g., work-related activities, family responsibilities, and previous education) are integrated into their online learning. Adult learners want to know why they are learning what they are learning and see a clear relevance and application to their professions and lives. That is why I connect their experiences to the course content and provide suggestions on how they can apply new knowledge and skills to their contexts of practice.
Apply it to the Real-World.
THREE) Apply it to the Real-World. Online learners are eager to push the limits of their class projects and use them as exemplary artifacts on their professional portfolios to (1) showcase their knowledge and skills; and (2) meet their potential or current employers’ expectations. They want to use what they learn and to solve problems and have a positive impact on their lives and the communities that they inhabit. Students who take my online courses engage in experiential e-learning and work in teams to address educational issues that have been brought to them by real-world community partners. Concomitantly, they learn that collaboration is a symbiotic relationship, i.e. a win-win situation for all parties including their team members and their partners. When I guide students through their projects, I help them to negotiate the balance between learning and service, as they are acting simultaneously as learners in the course and learning design consultants on a project. This approach results in mutual benefits for both the students and community partners.
Share the Center-Stage.
FOUR) Share the Center-Stage. To have learners committed to the online learning experience, they need to feel that they have an authorship role in it. To promote learner ownership and facilitate engagement, I offer students the opportunity to lead weekly asynchronous discussions. Online discussions are led by and for the students. More specifically, each student is invited to create and facilitate asynchronous discussions during at least one week of the semester, although they had the opportunity to volunteer for additional weeks. I identify the weekly topics in advance and select the core readings/views. Even though asynchronous discussions have been dominated by the instructor’s moderation in the past, I feel it’s more than time to share the center-stage with our students. Student-focused discussions foster meaningful dialogue and engagement on their part and prepare them for facilitating discussions outside of the class.
FIVE) Aim at Deep Learning. When creating online learning experiences, my goal is to achieve deep learning – that is, learning that is situated in applied contexts and knowledge that is construed from rich interactions with teachers, peers, and reality. The interactions with their peers, with me, and the communities where they live, are at the core of the online experience. I attract students from a variety of programs into my online courses which allow for peer-to-peer interaction to be richer because of the variety of their backgrounds and experiences. This also situates the educational problems we address to originate from an array of communities and networks.
Express Yourself.
SIX) Express Yourself in Different Formats & Venues. Throughout the online learning experience, learners should be encouraged to use audio, video, and images to help create their meanings and express their points of view. They should be able to fully utilize the multimedia capabilities of the learning management system adopted. They wanted to create content for the course that allow the full expression of their points of view. During synchronous and asynchronous discussions, students feel confident in using a variety of media (e.g., video, text, music, still images, and infographics) to express their reflections and take-aways from the weekly readings, to introduce themselves to each other, and develop a sense of social presence, and to problematize and conceptualize concepts and procedures. Online learners are eager to explore other forms of expression other than writing/text. They want to expand their ideas and test new ways of conveying their thoughts and the learning experience should provide an outlet to maximize this expression.
To strengthen the social presence and create a true online learning community, I have shared with the class my Southern European upbringing and international background, which have a major impact on my life and work as a teacher and researcher. To illustrate this influence and the value of social bonds, I set up a “Café,” which is an informal social space in the learning management system. I found that the “Café” fosters a discussion that supports socialization beyond readings, assignments, and technical issues. Participation is always voluntary, but it quickly becomes a place to share challenges and victories and post available positions in the field and professional development opportunities.
SEVEN) Extend it Beyond the Class. Real-world implementation beyond the online learning experience is an indication of the impact and success of it. The goal is to create an experience that continues to live beyond course completion and the end of the academic semester.
Master of Learning Technologies at The Ohio State University.
I often explore entrepreneurial opportunities when I teach about learning design since it’s important not only to expose students to alternative careers in this field but also to facilitate the understanding of entrepreneurial thinking – that is, the concept of entrepreneurship as “a way of life, and a need driven desire to create and innovate” (Kao et al., 2002, p. 29). In other words, students are encouraged to apply what they learned into endeavors that live beyond the class or module. As an example, in November 2020 a design team enrolled in my course on Applied Instructional Design won the Crystal Award (2nd place) presented by the Association for Educational Communications & Technology, Division of Distance Learning. This award recognizes innovative and outstanding multimedia-based distance education courses or multimedia-based distance learning projects. They compete with a self-paced online module, The Circulatory System and Associated Diseases, created for The Ohio State University’s College of Nursing Community Health Worker Training Program.
In sum, bringing authenticity to the online learning experience and following a learner-centered design contribute to exceptional online learning experiences. One that excels when compared with experiences focused on the transmission and replication of knowledge and exclusively based on reading and writing/text as forms of expression. The quality indicators used to determine the quality of the online experience are first and foremost the online learners’ accounts and what they do with the knowledge and skills they gained.
References
Correia, A.-P. (2020). Finding Junctures in Learning Design and Entrepreneurship: A Case of Experiential Learning in Online Education. In M. J. Bishop, E. Boling, J. Elen & V. Svihla (Eds.), Handbook of Research in Educational Communications and Technology (5th edition) (pp. 689–712. Springer. https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-030-36119-8_32
Correia, A.-P., Liu, C., & Xu, F. (2020). Evaluating videoconferencing systems for the quality of the educational experience. Distance Education. https://doi.org/10.1080/01587919.2020.1821607
Correia, A.-P., North, C. A., Korkmaz, C., Simmerman, V. E. & Bruce Wallace, K. A. (2019). Authentic Online Discussions: A Narrative Inquiry into Sharing Leadership and Facilitation Among Teachers and Students. International Journal on E-Learning (IJEL), 18(2), 165-189.
Kao, R. W. Y., Kao, K. R., & Kao, R. R. (2002). Entrepreneurism: A philosophy and a sensible alternative for the market economy. Imperial College Press.
-- Please cite the content of this blog as: Correia, A.-P. (2021, March 18). The pursuit of an exceptional online learning experience: Seven principles to guide development. Ana-Paula Correia’s Blog. https://www.ana-paulacorreia.com/anapaula-correias-blog/2021/3/18/the-pursuit-of-an-exceptional-online-learning-experience-seven-principles-to-guide-development