Understanding the Online learner and his expectations

The panorama of emphatic number of professors and students tumbling into academic virtual space for the first time may end up concluding that this time of uncertainty and emergency clouded by COVID 19 could alter the landscape of online education for good. The resistance to online education has no choice but to fade away as a practical matter.

This article explores ways in which we could equip our faculty with an understanding of the students in the new reality as an online learner and his expectations towards the course.

What the students expect of an online course:

A Warm Welcome and an easy onset to the course.

A good experience of an online course starts when the course expectations is set straight. Students expect to know what level of outcome is required of them, in what format and in how much time. A clarity of the level of commitment they are getting into would help them burden off and strategize at the onset of the course.

What am I going to learn? What is the teaching style of the instructor? How can I get most out of the course are common questions that boggle with the mind of the students. Welcoming students with an empathetic and a friendly introduction by the instructor clearing out most of the above questions would help for a great start. The teacher could add in the course a fleet of options to help students like “a guide on the best way to use the course”; a capsule pre-requisite course for beginners/flashback to basic concepts video for students who are new; resources to get through the course, may let the student feel supported and comforted.

Highly supportive and energetic teacher.

All a student ever wants is the teacher being approachable, energetic and empathetic. Having said so, of course coupled with a talent to teach students according to how they would learn best. Whats more important in an online learning experience for a student is the faculty engagement with the students and his ability to guide them from the glitches they face while attempting the course work.

Convenience and Relate-ability

A huge success factor of online courses is the convenience to fetch the classroom from anywhere at any time. It’s most likely for a student to contribute to discussion threads from his mobile phone at the time he is bored. The course platform also matters for students to actively participate in it. If the platform is not mobile-friendly or looks boring, lacks interesting interactive options and feels jaded in the colorful times of Snapcat and Instagram, a student is most likely to be averted from the course.

Robust assignments and their practical applicability

Students expect meaningful assignments that challenge their brain and let their creative juices flow to help them reap a new shade of their capabilities or learn a new skill. The importance of providing students with a stack of tasks that can be extended to their real world and fit in it seamlessly so that it adds to their skill set make the course addictive enough to look forward to. Hand-on tasks are a best way for students can retain the learning for a life time.

Catering to different learning styles

Each of us have a way in which we learn best. In a classroom, each student comes with his own kind of personality and preferred learning style. Some easily understand through watching videos, some by making mind maps and webbing information, some by making checklists, and some by discussing concepts with fellow mates. As much as a faculty may try, it still remains a challenging task to create a course that caters to each student’s learning style. Thus, what looks like the best practice is to develop a plan that incorporates various methods of teaching to address the majority of students in the class. Using a mélange of resources like videos, audios, checklists, test quizzes, chats, student polls, discussion forums, mind maps, presentations, interviews, demos, model building exercises, journaling, webcasts, case studies, simulations etc. could help a faculty create a holistic course plan for all students to engage. Also, providing options to choose from a list of tasks that addresses the visual, auditory, tactile, reader and writer avatar of the online learner (under the same assignment) may empower student to choose the best way of expressing his understanding of the concept.

Uncomplicated Lessons and Fair and Timely review

Clear, step by step instructions to make student understand concepts is what suits most of the students. The right pace of the lesson clearly a proven performance booster. A preference of multimedia (videos, audios, images, mind maps etc.) instead of a lengthy text and shorter, bit-sized lesson plans are a good idea for making the course easier to follow through. Providing clear and specific learning outcome rubrics is an extremely handy tool for the students.

Quality

Attributes like clear and concise instructions, language nuances, consistent light and sound quality, professional videos and quality resources add up to make the course an exciting experience to live for the student and faculty both.

Timely Feedback and Student transformation graph.

When the course expects students to submit assignments and tasks on time, it automatically qualifies to shoulder the responsibility of delivering timely feedback and constructive counselling sessions to them. For some students feedback is the priority and a requisite to do a better job in the following assignment while for some an end certification acts as the final destination. Some students may expect to see a transformation graph at the end of the course explaining what they have garnered at the offset and the key takeaways that he can utilize in his future.

Faculty across the globe is scrambling to ensure best online experience is created for and passed on to the learner in such emergent and desperate times. The above pointers could prove to help in creating so. On a lighter note, let’s not forget that social distancing can be a boon as history is witness that isolation breeds creativity. After all, Newton, discovered calculus while “social distancing” during the Great Plague of London. Who knows what magic brews in that room with a laptop and a brain wafer.