The Rockies (photo by V.A. McMillan)
After the better part of
four solid years of online learning, I thought it was about time I shared what
worked for me, what didn’t. and what could be improved if you were designing an
online delivered learning program. As always, these are my thoughts, opinions,
and suggests; and the outcomes for others in a similar situation may differ.
One of the motivators for
this post was something I read late last night regarding changes to education
delivery during the response to COVID-19. The writer seemed to imply that post
secondary education delivery outside the normal on campus classroom setting was
somehow an inferior education product. Therefore, I accept the challenge, and
will proceed to share how an alternate learning model can, not only be
successful, but be very fulfilling for the adult (mature) learner.
First, I want to
acknowledge that the writer’s position is not wrong for some learners. Some
folks thrive in an environment with person-to-person contact. In fact, they can
become energized and achieve great things when a collective synergy is created.
And to those learners, I suggest you stop reading here. You know what learning
environment works for you, and I suggest pursuing that model. On the other
hand, if the classroom learning environment has been a challenging and less successful
delivery model for you and you are curious to discover a different way to be
enlightened…please, read on.
As I stated in the
introduction, I have been a full-time student for the last four years. I chose
to utilize an online degree program from a reputable school in the field of
emergency management. I was not forced into an online program part way through
my degree by the COVID-19 outbreak and response. Just so we are clear, I sought
this form of education delivery intentionally. The reason for this was recent positive
past experiences taking some shorter duration online learning courses from the
Alberta Emergency Management Agency. I found the delivery of learning materials
on an online platform worked for me. But not all online programs are created
equal.
For the purpose of our
discussion today, we will divide online program delivery into three basic
categories: 1) Individual self-directed studies, 2) Synchronous instructor led
classes, and 3) Asynchronous instructor guided classes. The first category is a
solo effort by the student which can be graded or evaluated by an instructor or
some form of automated method, usually true/false or multiple-choice tests and
quizzes. An example would be Incident Command System (ICS) level 100. ICS-100
can be an in-person course or taken online. The online version would be a
self-directed study type program. The second category is basically a
decentralized virtual classroom whereby the instructor presents their lessons
via an online video sharing platform. These platforms could be D2L (https://www.d2l.com/) or Blackboard (https://www.blackboard.com/en-mea/teaching-learning/learning-management)
which create a secure interface to connect students with their instructor. As
these are “live feed” delivery or streaming video links, the students must be
in attendance when the instructor is giving their lesson to be able to benefit
from the delivery. Finally, the third category – Asynchronous, is the method of
online lesson delivery that is not dependent on the schedule of students or
instructors meshing at a specific time on a specific date. Usually, learning
materials will have weekly reading assignments, a weekly class discussion
forum, and a mix of papers and/or group projects to engage students in applying
what they learnt from the weekly requirements into larger, more involved assignments.
As students and instructors are not required to be at the same place at the
same time for effective information exchange, asynchronous program delivery is
favourable to employees who work shift work and are taking educational
upgrades. Like synchronous delivery, asynchronous delivery would use a platform
like D2L or Blackboard to connect students and instructors to learning
materials and assignment submissions.
Before continuing with a
more in-depth discussion of the components identified in the next paragraph, I
just want to briefly sketch out the semester system I learned under while at
the Justice Institute of British Columbia (JIBC). We used either a fourteen- or
fifteen-week semester. Fifteen-week semesters included a reading week, when in
theory no assignments were assigned nor due. In reality, students were usually given
extra readings to enjoy during this week or occasionally used the time to catch
up on essays, reports, group projects, or research papers. Rarely, was this a
holiday away from studies. There were three semesters a year – Winter (Jan-Apr),
Spring-Summer (May-Aug), and Autumn (Sep-Dec). Three or more courses per semester
attained full-time student status, which was good to know when seeking student loans.
Also, my experience was gained using the Blackboard online learning platform.
Not a perfect platform by any means, but it operated well most days. It did not
crash often. System updates and maintenance were usually scheduled in the gaps
between semesters. And of course, users of the system had to become
acclimatized to the idiosyncrasies of the platform before becoming a proficient
user.
Successful online asynchronous
program delivery is achieved when course content, lesson plans, assignment timelines,
student and instructor expectations are clearly identified at the start of the
course. This can be achieved using a course syllabus, which contains all critical course information and methods to contact the instructor. In addition,
a secure online platform to facilitate interaction between students and the
instructor is required. This platform must be stable and have enough operating
bandwidth to accommodate the expected class size (volume of online traffic).
Furthermore, the learning materials must be divided into weekly learning
objectives. These weekly objectives will include required textbook(s), or
article(s) readings, weekly discussion forum questions or topics, and possibly video(s)
watching. If the instructor is providing articles for students to read, these
articles should be in PDF, as that format is widely available for reading on
multiple devices – desktop computers, laptops, tablets, or smartphones. Additionally,
there will be other assignments throughout the semester to fortify student
comprehension of the course materials. These could include quizzes, tests,
short essays, long essays or research papers, group projects, and/or presentations.
Let’s delve into these
components a bit deeper, shall we…
Syllabus
is the guiding course document that the student refers to when planning out
their semester. It should include:
· ALL
assignment dues dates
· Methods
of communication between student & instructor, and the rules
· Expectation
of both the student and the instructor (acceptable and not acceptable)
· Details
of major assignments, research projects, or group projects
· Grading
matrix or rubrics can be included in the syllabus or issued as separate
documents. However, the grading standard should be available to the student
· General
guidelines of discussion forum etiquette and minimum discussion forum participation
criteria
· Reference
list of course textbooks and required reading articles or videos, using proper citation
format used by the school or institution (i.e., APA 7)
The syllabus should
contain all the need-to-know information, maybe some good-to-know tips, but no
nice-to-know filler information.
Quizzes & Tests
should be employed to fortify or reinforce learning materials in an appropriate
way at the correct year of study. In first- and second-year course, having up
to 15% of your semester grade determined by quizzes and/or tests would be
acceptable. Third year, maybe up to 10% of the semester grade, and no more than
5% of the final grade for fourth year courses. Now, all quizzes and tests are
not the same. And online learning has some peculiar requirements for these types
of student’s knowledge evaluation. There are two types of quizzes/tests – one of which that is reviewed and graded by the instructor (superior type) and those that are
designed to be marked by a machine (inferior type). Yes, I have an opinion on
which is the best type to employ.
True/false or multiple
guess type, machine graded quizzes and test must be designed and written to a
very high quality to be of any use. If the questions are ambiguous or the answers
are likewise unclear the student is disadvantaged and unfairly assessed.
Furthermore, all quizzes and tests used must be designed as open book exams.
Instructors skilled in education delivery understand how to write these types
of evaluations that truly challenge the student. Having an open book is only an
advantage to the students who have done their readings, reviews, and taken notes
of where information came from. Those students who have failed to study or read
the material will not be able to fake a high score, just because it was an open
book exam. Of course, with T/F or multiple guess there is a possibility of
random success. Thus, the reason I do not see value in these types of exams in
the higher-level learning. One does not want to have their grade determined by
random luck.
The far superior method
of quizzing and testing is for the instructor to devise open ended questions,
short essay questions, or applied problem-solving using skills taught in class
or synthesized with real world experience. These exams are much more work for
the instructor to create and grade, however they generally do a better job of evaluating
the student’s level of comprehension of the course materials. The other benefit
for the student is that partial marks may be awarded if the student has grasped
partial understanding of the concept. This identifies where the student needs
to apply more resources to grasp the concepts that did not score well on the
exam.
Finally, any testing that
is based on memorization and regurgitation of the textbook to achieve the best
grades should be discouraged in post secondary learning environments, with a
few exceptions. Where the information is the matter of life or death; memorization
or practice repetition until competent, should be the proper course of action.
For example, anyone studying medicine should be well skilled in the ABCD’s of
care – airway, breathing, circulation, and deadly bleeding. This goes from
those in standard first aid through nursing through to doctors. These skills
save lives and that is important to know and practice. The Chi Square method of
whatever in statistics…can be looked up and referenced before being calculated,
who would bother to memorize that??? Like a soldier on the battlefield, he or
she must know how to operate, maintain, and repair their personal weapon and
section weapons systems. These skills need to be trained and drilled until they
cannot be forgotten. Failure of the soldier in their individual combat skills
means their buddy will die on the battlefield. Therefore, these battlefield skills
must be memorized or trained to perfection to keep unnecessary loss of life to
the minimum. Project management, business continuity management, research, and
similar topics do NOT require memorization. Instructors who resort to machine
marked exams, that are not authorized as open book, are NOT accurately evaluating
the abilities of the learner. They are only evaluating the student’s capacity to
memorize and regurgitate course materials on cue. This does not evaluate the student’s
ability to process information, compare and contrast options, come to a
supportable decision in a timely fashion. In plain language, the instructor is
failing to prepare the student for the environment the student will eventually
have to operate in.
Essays & Research
Papers are the quintessential writing format of post
secondary education. All students must become accustomed to writing these types
of papers. In the academic world a scholarly paper presents facts and supported
opinions in an objective manner to persuade the reader to accept the writer’s
position or to challenge the reader to write and share a rebuttal paper
contesting the findings of the other writer. The process starts with a topic,
maybe of the student’s choice or not, and then the student conducts research to
find supporting evidence for a position and conflicting arguments and presents
both in their paper which is fully cited and referenced. Where these types of
papers can run afoul is when the instructor does not trust the students to
conduct effective research and micromanages the paper writing process. In
effect, the student writes the instructor’s paper, using the instructor’s
sources. Thankfully, these types of instructors are not the norm…at least in my
experience during the last four years.
Now depending on the
available window of time to craft an essay or research paper will directly
impact the expected length of the paper. One week and an essay would be in the
750 to 1000 words in length. One-month 1500 words. Six weeks 2000 words. Capstone
research project 5000 to 7000 words. There must be some balance between time
invested researching and giving the student enough space to share what they
have learned.
Presentations offer
an interesting divergence from writing a paper to share what the student has
learned from their research. Presentation almost always implies a project that
is visually appealing. This can be a video, or PowerPoint, or poster, or
infographics, or interactive show & tell. Because not all learners thrive
in the written world, having alternate means of expression helps all learners
experience things inside and outside their comfort zone. And being outside your
comfort zone is where real learning takes place, right?!?
Group Projects
which seem like a great idea in year one & two, begin to lose their appeal
in years three & four when you become fully aware that your grades in a
course no longer can be determined by your efforts and engagement alone. While
I will say there is a lot of merit in practicing to work in group environments to
conduct research and collaborate to develop a shared output product – report or
presentation; there can occasionally be too much emphasis or too much weight
placed on a group project. In project management it is absolutely imperative to
be able to work together to achieve success with your project. In other
courses, while the concept of a group project may be fun, if the group does not
bond rapidly there is the potential of a negative experience and outcome. While
this negative experience can be a good learning tool to aid in future project
work success, too many of these in a short time frame and the student may lose
commitment to future group projects. Conducting group project in a virtual
environment also adds challenges, as does operating asynchronously. In this environment
having some method of sharing a multiple author editable document that all
members can modify at their convenience helps bridge the need for synchronizing
schedules.
Now those who do benefit
greatly from asynchronous program delivery are those who are working and going
to school. An asynchronous delivery means that whenever the student is
available to study, the course materials are available. Further, as long as
discussion posts are posted on time and assignments are submitted on time the
student can be anywhere in the world with a solid Wi-Fi connection and still
attend class. Meaning learning opportunities when the online learning program
delivery is asynchronous, is nearly limitless. Students are not boxed in, and
neither are course instructors. I see no issues with students or instructors
learning online whether from home, the office, or halfway around the world.
Certainly, online
learning is not for everyone. I recognize that fact. However, for those who
prefer written communication to spoken communication or video communication,
online learning can be a Godsend. I for one, find online learning to be my
preferred method of learning. Not to brag, but in the recent 38-courses I took I
achieved 25 A+ course grades. I have never done that well in school. I was not
an idiot or weak learner, but I never achieved that level of academic success.
When I attended traditional in person, classroom format learning in a one-year
college certificate program in the early 1990’s my top grades were in the B+ to
A- range. I do not recall achieving any A+’s. Now, it could have been the subject
material, my personal maturity at the time, or my commitment and dedication to
my studies??? Access to personal computing devices and online research was not
as available in 1993/94 as it is now. So, maybe access to the proper learning
tools has contributed to my success or maybe I just really enjoyed the subject
material and had more life experiences to draw upon; and these contributed to
my achievements. Not sure. What I am sure of, if students enjoy the subject
material, their instructors, and the learning environment…there is no limits to
their success!!!
Until next time…get a
good learning experience!
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