TEN CHALLENGES TO LEARNERS IN ONLINE LEARNING

A number of institutions of higher Learning at the global level have decided to facilitate and encourage ONLINE learning to the learners from now on. The scenario in the school sector seems to follow suit, though there is a lot of thrust on formal learning in the classrooms essentially as an outcome of the parental demands. Though the resource inputs the students online would get may not be much different, the absence of a face-to face interaction as in regular classrooms would be missing in such a learning environment. At the school level, various other issues including psychological challenges to learners, parental interventions both for good and bad, inadequate learning supports, pedagogies which are not standardized are some of the issues that seem to haunt them.

In addition to all the above, the following ten challenges are unavoidable for any learner to be effective and successful in a program of this kind:

1.       Managing the ownership for learning

In the “online learning” modes, largely the onus and responsibility of learning is vested with the learner. The passion, the commitment, the attention of the learner is very critical for learning to happen. The individual learner has to take personal responsibility for one’s quality and quantum of learning. If one finds the resource inputs at his or her end, is not adequate, not motivating or not engaging, they cannot pass the buck to other corners. They need to identify, engage and participate with other learning resources which would supplement the process of learning. Neither the teacher nor the technology would be willing to accept any responsibility either for the inadequacy or failure of learning. It is equally important for the learner to create an appropriate psychological environment which would be comfortable for effective online learning.

2.       Managing Access, Time and space

One of the challenges the learners could often face in the process of online learning is right and quick access to the platform which empowers learning. Though in advanced technologies and in a well-articulated delivery system, this could be minimal, it is important to plan for alternate modes of transmission for access to information both in routine as well as in crises. With a large number of knowledge structures and sources available, oftentimes the learner would be left with inadequate time to locate the best articulated knowledge service. It would be prudent to seek advice, collaboration and facilitation from the teachers or peers for platforms which are not only popular but are more engaging and constructive. Time and space are two critical and effervescent factors that impact online learning. Learners should cultivate the habit of sifting the right information and storing them appropriately for periodic verification and enrichment so that they do not spend time for frequent visits to the same platform for verification each time. Learning online is not a casual exercise and as such needs more focus and attention; hence the place of learning, the physical environment that facilitates have to be selected with caution.

3.       Managing learning Resources

Online learning could certainly provide a huge spectrum of learning resources outside the normal classroom. Learning, becoming more open, hybrid and blended, would offer opportunities for selective, preferred, choice-based learning. Hence the essential learning resources need to be accessed and retrieved from a plethora of non-formal structures, which could offer opportunities for multiple perceptions giving scope for peer-debates, collaborative learning, extended learning and synthesis of learning. With a wide spectrum of resources distributed to a universe of knowledge platforms, the learner would be blessed to learn ‘anytime’ and ‘anywhere’. With technological interventions, the web resources would offer differential approaches to problem solving and hence the learners, if needed, can take up to multi-tasking challenges to feed their curiosity and develop their enterprise.

4.       Managing Quality in learning

The quality of learning is indeed a very debatable issue. With variant individual preferences to learning, standardization of quality would increasingly become difficult. Further with the given pace of knowledge dynamics, any process of defining quality, bench-marking and institution of normal will be increasingly irrelevant and out of focus. Further, the differing perceptions of the currency, relevance, context and importance of the contents between the learners and the teachers, between the curriculum administrators and the stakeholders would widen the gap of judging the quality. The existing State efforts and those of private enterprises to usher in quality through advanced tools will again create conflicts about definitions of quality. Increased nationalistic priorities of most countries across the world would redefine their curricular needs much against the international perceptions.

5.       Managing the gap between knowledge and skills

One of the underlying challenges in technology enabled online learning practices is the inadequate emphasis on skills and an overdose of the inputs to the cognitive domain. Any acquisition of knowledge without the concurrent skills is incomplete and as such gives more intellectual gratification rather than being relevant to the contemporary needs of the society. Further, the absence of skills retards possible scope for creativity, innovation, enterprise and currency. It becomes important for the learner to identify such gaps, find the resources either online or offline, and empower oneself with such requisites. This is true of any learning practice or any subject. Though attempts have been made to support such learning requirements through e-laboratories, e-skills, they need to be integrated more efficiently and effectively with the learning contents that are delivered to the learner. It is important to have blended approaches which are more inclusive rather than hybrid approaches which stand in isolation, leaving the challenge of integration to the learner.

6.       Managing learning strategies and pedagogy

The focus of the online methods is largely on enabling ‘self-learning’ and ‘personalized learning’. With a spectrum of pedagogical approaches, the learner might face conflicting decision-making situations. The choice of pedagogy, the choice of learning tools, the choice of strategies has to be specific, learner-friendly, close to the comfort zones and stimulating. It would indeed take sometime for each learner to come to terms with an appropriate strategy that is facilitative, participative and close to personal choice. A number of technologies enabled practices that help in ‘immersive learning’ appear to be complementing such needs. Such technologies may help in enriching the quality, the intensity and the thirst for learning, in addition to managing the difficulty levels in concept stabilization.

7.       Managing the scope for further and extended learning

Mostly, the delivery models in e-learning packages focus only to the ‘defined’ areas of learning. One reason for such designs could be the possibility of better business engagements with increasing learning capsules for the entrepreneurs. Hence, the learner, has to seek through diverse resources the opportunities for extension of learning. Further, the online packages do not adequately engage in ‘integrated’ or ‘inclusive’ learning content development. Hence, the learning universe of each learner is largely restricted to such defined domains. In order that the learners are able to see the relevance of the concepts in much better perspectives in the operating universe of diverse fields of knowledge, special efforts need to be taken by the teacher or the resource manager to design inputs that would catalyse further and extended learning.

8.       Managing co-construction of knowledge

Co-construction of knowledge has become an emerging imperative in the current knowledge dynamics. With increasing fluidity of knowledge and its mulita-dimensional relevance depending on socio-economic, geo-political and cultural contexts, social construction of knowledge to have wider acceptability and for maximizing universal practices is gaining ground. Composite knowledge structures breaking barriers are being considered, invested and developed to ensure better cohesion across the globe. In this scenario, every learner has to be a part of a team, near or far, intellectual or pragmatic, professional or social. For ‘online learners’ while wide opportunities at the global level do exist, the limitations arising out of cyber security, intellectual property rights and other considerations pose challenges to co-construction of knowledge. Solid, secure and simple architectures need to be developed to facilitate the free intercourse of knowledge for synthesis and futuristic pursuits.

9.       Managing the assessment of the quality of learning

When the system or the organizational structure addresses a heterogeneous clientele, the infrastructural inadequacies, technological imbalances, geo-cultural designs and previous knowledge structures will impact the learning both in terms of quality and quantity. The pace of learning, the depth of learning, the perceptions of learning and the environment of learning being different and unique to each learner, it has an impact on the quality of learning. Hence it becomes imperative to assess the quality of learning periodically so that the identity, equity and opportunity for the learner in a cohort is not only sustained but secured. The tools for such an assessment of quality of learning are not too many and even if some do exist, they are designed to a context rather than to meet the needs of the universe of learners. assessment of the quality of learning

10.    Managing the learning Curve

Learning curve of any learner needs to be steady, progressive, growth oriented and enabling both success and excellence. However, roadblocks do exist for each learner to meet all these contingent needs. In the absence of standardized, credible and valid indicators. Comparison of learning curve of one learner with the cohort may not give a true picture. Standardization and moderation of the scores to substantiate the real status of learning or the position of the learner in the curve may be an arduous task. A lot of research and evidence-based assessment practices need to be put in place to support the online learners to be more sensitive to their learning curve and consequent needs that arise.