Di’s E-learning Experience

After two weeks we were back in class today and moving onto our third and final module of the course which involves doing a short online course and reflecting on the experience. 

Our reading today was

Lessons from Cyberspace reading
Palloff, Rena & Pratt, Keith, 2001, Working with the Virtual Student in Lessons from Cyberspace, Jossey-Bass.

http://drr.lib.uts.edu.au/file/17282/013966_palloffworking.pdf

I must say I found this a very good article and very relevant to the issues we have been discussing in this course.  The article discusses the attributes of a successful learner in the e-learning environment and addresses the different styles of learners.

However the section I found most interesting was on ways to recognise signs when a student is struggling  and experiencing difficulties with the online course.

Some of these signs were: a change in their level of on-line participation, difficulty in actually getting started, gap in technical skills, outbursts of frustration or anger at the course.  In general,  it was agreed that the best the response to these signs was that the facilitator needed to address them quickly before the problems escalated and the online experience became a negative one.

We also discussed what were the appropriate actions for a instructor when they came across a student displays disruptive behaviour on-line.  Some members of the class had experienced this to a level when this behaviour had escalated in a very short time to a very serious issue. It was felt that it was much easier to deal with this behaviour in a face to face situation as you had the advantage of observing other signs of frustration such as body language etc. 

 Some suggestions to help avoid this situation were to make sure there was some face to face time with the students, set some ground rules at the commencement of the online course, to encourage a supportive class environment where students provide support and feedback and to make sure the instructor keep the lines of communication open.

In summary it was pointed out that online learning is just one form of education and should be used with other styles of learning to form a balanced program.
 

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