Attending to the Bumps in Online Learning

Sam Spiegel, Vice President for Online Education, Colorado School of Mines

Universities are putting significant funds and effort toward growing their online learning portfolio for both credit-bearing (degree seeking) and non-credit (continuing education) offerings. One challenge faced with online learning is the human-technology interface and beliefs. There are numerous misunderstandings about online learning that reside with both instructors and students. These misunderstandings lead to beliefs that can act as bumps in the learning for students. We need to identify and address the core issues that lead to these beliefs as online learning will continue to grow in higher education.

Students

Online students bring the same misconceptions about learning as face-to-face (F2F); as well as beliefs about technology and learning online. A few common misconceptions that lead to bumps in the human-technology interface:

● Learning only takes a few minutes- not much time. 

● Learning requires time. While you can get a quick “tip” or develop awareness through watching a short video, this will not lead to mastery of skills or knowledge. There is some new research suggesting some revisions to the number, however it is still accepted that achieving mastery requires significant time (i.e., 10,000 hours).

● Online learning is the same as remote learning.

● Online learning requires courses to be fully designed, meet a set of established standards for online course design, comply with federal regulations (e.g., ADA, Copyright), and should be designed to fully engage the learner. Remote courses predominately use live streaming lectures that turn the learner to a passive observer.

● Online courses allow greater support in development and teaching. For example, we have a team of media developers, online learning experience for designers, required ongoing faculty education, and embedded coaching for the instructor.

● Listening is a good way to gain information, but the real learning comes when you use that information and have multiple opportunities to practice the skills and application of information with guiding feedback.

● Learning is not passive. Extensive research shows that active learning and active teaching leads to higher levels of learning.

● Online courses should engage the learner utilizing a variety of approaches such that the learner interacts with the content, other students, and the instructor in ways that focus the mental and physical activities on targeted learning outcomes.

 “Online courses should engage the learner utilizing a variety of approaches such that the learner interacts with the content, other students, and the instructor in ways that focus the mental and physical activities on targeted learning outcomes.”

● Videos and lectures are efficient ways to deliver information and show demonstrations but are not sufficient on their own to directly lead to the intended learning. If the course only provides information, then the learner is left on their own to learn the competencies, skills, and application of information.

● Learning doesn’t require much effort, just listening.

● Online courses are a series of videos with multiple choice quizzes.

Instructors

Online instructors often begin with limited understanding of what is possible from the online learning technology. Additionally, many instructors in higher education are used to a teaching pattern where the first time they teach a course they are building it as they are teaching it. In later iterations of teaching the course, often their preparation time is predominately short before teaching. These two factors drive incorrect perspectives such as: 

● Building a course online requires much more time than doing it F2F.

● Research shows that well-designed courses require significant time (typically more than 200 hours for a 3-credit hour course) to develop.

● We use a structured and collaborative build process that requires about 140 hours of instructor time to build a rich and engaging online course in Science, Technology, Engineering & Mathematics (STEM) fields.

● It is worth noting that teaching a well-designed online course requires about the same amount of time for teaching/facilitating as a F2F course.

● Teaching online doesn’t allow the instructor to interact with the students and they don’t get to know the students.

● Well-designed online courses have significant instructor-student interactions. The depth of interaction can be driven by the course design.

● Some instructors also note that they feel that online students don’t want to get to know the instructor. This is also incorrect. Studies show similar levels of student interest in wanting to get to know the instructor.

● The cognitive load and rigor of a course is based on the design and facilitation, not modality.

● Students who cheat are noted in all modalities. Most students comply with academic integrity guidelines.

● Utilizing authentic assessments significantly reduces cheating points.

● Self-study courses (where there is no active facilitation by a human), require a different design and fall into “correspondence” courses that often require additional accreditation. Most online credit-bearing courses are not designed to be self-study, so they require active facilitation.

● Many instructors need to rethink the activities for an online course when converting from a F2F version.

● Online courses are easier for students and students tend to “cheat” more online.

● Online courses are easier for instructors since all the “lecture” materials are pre-recorded, so they don’t have to do anything to run (teach) the courses.

Addressing these and the other misconceptions will require cultural shifts, new approaches, and consistent attention. We, and many other universities, have been making some progress in reducing the bumps. An approach that has been gaining positive results at our campus, we call it, Engineering Learning. This framework moves faculty toward focusing on creating learning opportunities (engineering learning), rather than focusing on “coverage” of topics. It gives a structured framework for faculty to thoughtfully design instruction.

Other institutions are focusing on better educating and supporting students so that they become strong online learners. For instance, one institution offers all online courses as self-study and facilitated. The only difference between the two formats is that in the facilitated courses the instructor serves as help for students to manage their time and course materials more efficiently. The content, activities and assessments are the same.

There will be a continual push to expand online learning. To do this successfully, we must pay more attention to the human-technology interface and beliefs. This will require new ways of thinking about and approaching online teaching and learning.

Cognitive