By Veronica Thomas
Director of Instructional Design
Office of Digital Learning
Email: vdw2102@tc.columbia.edu
"What may be true from any perspective, is that online teaching and learning are not for everyone. In my role as an instructional designer, teacher, and coach, this truth feels really uncomfortable to voice or put in writing. I’ve discovered, nonetheless, this truth to be freeing rather than fatalistic."
In my work with individuals and organizations taking their first tentative steps into the online learning field, one of the major pitfalls I've observed across organizations and institutions is that decisions about this highly complex venture are often informed by incomplete information and individual rather than collective perspectives. I too at one time had a singular perspective of online learning, and if anyone had asked me early on in my career to define online learning, my response would have sounded highly prescriptive and conceptual coming from one who had studied online learning but not actual done it.
Over the years, I have had the benefit of many reality checks as I discovered the barriers to successful online teaching and learning are both technical and human. In this post, I share some thoughts about the challenge of developing a holistic perspective of online teaching and learning that I wish I had understood earlier on in this career.
What does online learning mean to you?
I considered how this question might be answered by someone in an administrative, instructional, support, or student role within an educational setting. From an institutional or administrative perspective, online learning may mean increased revenue streams and an expansion of course offerings for existing and potential students. From an instructional perspective, online learning may be the latest shiny object that represents additional course load but not necessarily additional compensation. On the other hand, it could also be an opportunity to expand an instructor’s teaching practice and enable them to reach more students. From an instructional designer's perspective, online learning is an iterative process of curating instructional materials and presenting them in innovative, engaging, and effective ways to achieve learning outcomes. From a student perspective, online learning may be a convenient yet often mediocre learning experience that turns out to be more work than they bargained for.To further complicate matters, each of the perspectives described above can become even more granular. For example, on an institutional or administrative level, the perspective of the president or dean about online learning may differ from the perspectives of the heads of operations, marketing, finance, or IT. Likewise, from the instructional perspective, online learning will be different for an English professor, math professor, music professor, or science professor. It may also differ depending on whether the instruction is being delivered by a faculty member, adjunct instructor doctoral student, or recent graduate.
For instructional designers and technologists, online learning will be defined and constrained by the infrastructure and resources available to them at the organizations for which they work. They will also perceive online learning differently depending on their training, technical proficiency, and whether they work in corporate, professional development, higher education, or K-12 schools. As for students, their perspectives of online learning will be influenced by their motivation, grade level, and past experiences with online courses.
What may be true from any perspective, however, is that online teaching and learning are not for everyone. In my role as an instructional designer, teacher, and coach, this truth feels really uncomfortable to voice or put in writing. I’ve discovered, nonetheless, this truth to be freeing rather than fatalistic. It is freeing in the sense that this truth compels me to maintain a healthy measure of skepticism and humility about the limits of online learning and to not view it as the answer for all that ails education, but as an option for teaching and learning for those who choose it.
Choosing to venture into online teaching and learning, demands the development of a holistic perspective of this field. While it is not feasible or necessary to become an expert administrator, teacher, designer, and technologist, it is imperative that anyone who is a stakeholder in online learning should have a fundamental understanding of its many facets in order to better facilitate decision-making around its implementation, sustainability, and growth. Below, I touch upon a few perspectives of online learning and some questions that may arise when these views are overlooked.
Online Learning from an Institutional Perspective
For a growing number of institutions, online learning has become part of their strategic growth plan. According to an article from Inside Higher Ed, “How (and Whether) to Balance Online and On-Ground Enrollment,” as enrollment of traditional students is flat or decreasing, large numbers of institutions view online courses and programs as key drivers of enrollment growth. In addition, a report published by the Babson Survey Research Group found that:- The total number of students studying on campus in the US dropped by over a million or 6.4% between 2012 and 2016.
- The number of distance education students grew by 5.6% from Fall 2015 to Fall 2016 to reach 6,359,121 who are taking at least one distance course, representing 31.6% of all students.
- Distance enrollments remain local: 52.8% of all students who took at least one distance course also took an on-campus course, and of those who took only distance courses 56.1% reside in the same state as the institution at which they are enrolled.
Online Learning from an Instructor’s Perspective
Instructors' perspectives about online learning are influenced by a number of factors including whether or not they have successfully taught an online course before or if they have seen their peers successfully teach an online course. Their views may also be shaped if the course is something they have designed themselves or if it is a pre-packaged course they are assigned to facilitate and had no hand in designing. Online instructors require clarity about what the institution expects of them when teaching an online course. How many hours should they be online each week? How are instructional hours calculated in an online course for teachers and students? What kinds of digital tools, training, technical, and design support are available at their institutions to help them be successful in teaching online?This report by Inside Higher Ed and Gallup presents findings from a 2018 Survey of Faculty Attitudes on Technology.
If, as the Inside Higher Ed report finds," a significant percentage of faculty members do not believe online courses can achieve learning outcomes that are equivalent to in-person courses at higher education institutions," and they also believe that "in-person instruction is more effective than online teaching at meeting a variety of course objectives," what does this mean as far as how these faculty are defining online learning and how their perspectives could impact online learning outcomes? Furthermore, how will administrators achieve faculty buy-in when many remain unconvinced of the merits of online teaching and learning?
Online Learning from an Instructional Designer or Instructional Technologist Perspective
The roles of instructional designers and instructional technologists are defined and constrained by the institutions at which they work, and for many instructional designers, online learning is both a science and an art. It is a science in that every instructional designer and instructional technologist should be versed in a wide variety of instructional theories and frameworks, which serve to ground their practice. It is an art in the sense that not every course or instructor is the same, and the audience for each online course will vary. In addition, instructional designers working in a higher education context face entirely different challenges than instructional designers working in a corporate or freelance context. Therefore, the suggestions an instructional designer or technologist make and the technologies they use must be guided by fully understanding the particular needs, concerns, and priorities of all the key stakeholders.Yes, an instructional designer can share a checklist of standards with online instructors, but while these standards can tell you "what" teachers should do in an online course, they never tell you "how" to do it. Those checklists also won’t help those instructors feel supported in moments when they are feeling overwhelmed by the prospect of teaching online and have to learn new approaches to the teaching strategies they have used over the years. An instructional technologist can also demo the latest and “greatest” tech tools, but if the instructor is still trying to figure out how to use a new learning management system, the prospect of having to learn yet another tool can become an incredibly daunting feat.
What happens when instructional designers in school settings become so fixated on checklists that they don't develop a personalized approach to helping different teachers overcome the hurdles that are unique to their teaching challenges? What happens when an instructional designer misses important cues from an administrative perspective about issues that are impacting decision-making around online learning?
Online Learning from a Student’s Perspective
Because online learning requires a high degree of self-motivation and time management, it can be quite challenging for many students to successfully complete an online course. How can they overcome the feelings of isolation they may experience especially in an asynchronous online course? How can they stay motivated despite the physical absence of others? How can they avoid insistent distractions in study environments that may not be conducive for learning? This report presents findings from a survey about online college students’ demands and preferences. Among the findings are:- Online college students want to part of a community.
- They are heavy users of mobile devices.
- Nearly 80% of online college students cite a career-focused reason as their primary motivation for enrolling in their program.
- Online students spend less time on course activities and work than the Department of Education guidelines mandate.