This is the last in our series looking at common misconceptions when it comes to Blended Learning. Graham Skerritt, who is currently teaching with blended learning courses at two universities, returns to debunk the myth that online learning is isolating.
Today’s myth: Learning anything online is an isolating experience
Students are usually alone when they are learning online but this does not mean that they should feel isolated. In fact, one of the key responsibilities of the teacher is to make sure that they do not!
Factors that influence students’ satisfaction
Yang and Durrington summarised the top three factors that had a negative influence on students’ satisfaction when studying online as follows: technical problems, difficulties understanding the goals of the material, and isolation. They also found that peer interaction and timely feedback from the teacher were among the most important positive factors. In another study, Curry concludes that “the attrition rate of online learners [is] brought about in large part by a sense of isolation” and, interviewing students as part of a study into the effectiveness of an online course, Rupert Wiegref quotes one student as saying: “It is a cold medium. Unlike face-to-face communication, you get no instant feedback. You don’t know how people responded to your comments; they just go out into silence. This feels isolating and unnerving. It is not warm and supportive.”
So feelings of isolation can have a negative effect on students or even cause them to drop out of the course, but learning online does not have to be an isolating experience. How can we ensure learning online feels ‘warm and supportive’?
The AAA of good communication
The ‘AAA of good communication’ by Ildikó Lázár aims to raise students’ awareness of how to communicate together online. Students were shown that it is good practice to:
- Answer: respond to people;
- Appreciate: acknowledge the value of their words;
- Ask: show interest by asking questions.
This is a great guide for teachers as well as students. Teachers need to acknowledge students’ work and respond to it (with comments and/or questions) so that students do not feel their work is just going out into a void.
3 tips for making students feel connected
Here are three tips to help make students feel connected when working in the online part of a blended programme:
1. Talk about online work in class
Make sure students know that online work is connected to classroom work. When assigning work, look at the online materials together in class so that students know what they need to do. Try to bring some online work into the classroom (e.g. research students have done, things they have written) so that students see the value of the work they are doing online.
2. Acknowledge students work
Students need to see that you are looking at their work and that you think it is important. One way to do this is to assign a grade for the work students are doing online or to comment on their work. For example, if students are writing blogs, you can leave a short comment to show that you have read it. You do not need to correct every piece of work, but it is very important to acknowledge students’ efforts.
3. Encourage interaction online
Get students used to communicating together online with an ice-breaking activity at the start of the course. Establish some guidelines for how to communicate and how much (e.g. you could require each student to make two comments per week). Also remember that, as the teacher, you need to provide a model of what is expected.
This is it for now in our Blended Learning myth busting series! In case you missed them, catch up on the all the myths here:
Myth #1:‘Digital natives’ are happy to do work online
Myth #2: The teacher’s role is less central in the blended learning model