Discipline for Online Learning
From ElateWiki
General surveys for students who are considering online learning often mention the need for self-regulation and discipline. These surveys suggest that students need strong study skills because of the nature of e-learning, which is perceived as having less instructor presence and possibly even less learner support. (Others would argue that the support is just different.)
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Week Zero
Many online courses are made available for a week to 10-days prior to the formal opening of the class. This is a critical period during which learners may acclimate to the online learning / course management system (L/CMS) and other technologies. This may offer insights on the course’s organizational structure. Many faculty members will also begin interacting with students early, and that is a good time to get questions answered and to start off on the right foot with the instructor and fellow learners.
Having Course Textbooks and Required Resources Early
Online learners have a much better opportunity to purchase required textbooks and required resources early. Given the federal requirement for universities and colleges to post the International Standard Book Numbers (ISBN) numbers for required texts early on, students can go online shopping and pursue the lowest prices for these resources.
Students who purchase their books weeks into the semester or quarter will be at a severe disadvantage in terms of learning, meeting deadlines, interacting with peers, and earning the optimal points. Yet, it’s not uncommon for some students to wait until a fifth or a third of the way into the term to start trying to purchase course materials.
Tech Savvy
Because online learning happens over an online platform or multiple platforms, online learners need some basic tech savvy to protect their computer systems and their functioning on the Internet and the WWW. They need to be able to conceptualize the various dependencies of their computer systems—to understand what their computer needs to function and how they need to connect to the Internet. They need to be able to protect their electronic identities. They need to keep their computer systems free from malware and viruses. They need to know how to recover from system crashes. They also need to build their work in word-processing programs that are less prone to crash than online course sites, and they need to know how to save their work in protected memory devices or in the “cloud.”
Foremost, they need to know when to contact the helpdesk—which for many online learning networks is available 24/7. Students who freeze up at the first sign of trouble and lack the resilience to recover from technology disasters will not do well. Sometimes, just an email to the instructor explaining the challenge—an electronic blackout from a storm, the cracking of a laptop monitor due to clumsiness, a mysterious and permanent system crash, or an unforeseen life event—is sufficient for an accommodation.
Students also need back-up plans in case of technology failures. A backup plan could involve redundancies in the protecting of work. It could also mean going to a friend or family’s house or the local library to connect if there is a problem with the student’s own computer system.
Academic Integrity
Online learners cannot let down their guard about academic integrity when they’re taking online courses. Those who take online courses are still under universities’ honor clauses and academic integrity policies.
The basic understandings of academic honesty apply. This means that there should be no plagiarism, no submitting of others’ work as one’s own, no usage of prior work from a different course for a current course, not taking others’ writing without permission and / or citations, not using books or references for closed-book exams, not letting others do one’s work, not doing others’ work for them, and so on.
Students need to protect the privacy of their peers in online classrooms. They should not misuse information that they learned in an online classroom.
The importance of using freshly original work is especially important if a work will be used outside the classroom for electronic portfolios, gallery shows, publications, and apprenticeship work. Students have to be fully accountable with both academic and professional standards.
This assumes that learners are familiar with professional citation methods for all papers, too, so they may give credit where it’s due in their papers and projects.
Communications with the Instructor
Online learners are generally advised to keep their instructors apprised of their situation if anything anomalous occurs—such as an illness or a road trip or some learning challenges. Instructors need to be able to understand what challenges a student is dealing with in order to set up mitigations and to offer supporting information and practices.
Students also often will not double back to read the comments made by the instructor on their exams and papers. That is a critical learning tool that students sometimes ignore to their own detriment.
Calendaring
Most online courses are time-based, which means that there are some determined deadlines. It helps to maintain a study schedule with sufficient time to complete the lead-up work for cumulative projects.
Reading Directions and Information Synthesis
Many online courses are very text-heavy, which means that there will be a fair amount of reading. This may be challenging for some students, who need to read all directions carefully. If sample student work is posted, that may offer deeper insights about what the faculty member expects of learners.
Learners will need to synthesize the learning from the lectures, the textbooks, the articles, the assignments, and the videos—in order to learn deeply. They will need to apply their combined learning into their projects and analyses. If this is done consciously, they will find greater value in the work.
Follow-through
An important challenge for online learners is to maintain self-control. If a student promises to deliver a particular work, he or she should do so on deadline and at the quality required. The work should be original, thorough, and well considered.
Students may have to take some initiative to do additional learning to understand concepts. Many novice students expect to just receive all their learning through the formal channels of a course. Sometimes, informal channels may be informative and helpful; of course, sometimes, informal channels may lead to “negative learning,” so students have to be careful to use trustworthy channels of information and to vet the information.
Constructive Interactivity
Much online learning involves peer reviews, student intercommunications, group work, and group projects. Interactivity is important. People need to interact well with each other—respectfully, civilly, and substantively.
Some learners who work ahead need to pace better with their peers and to give feedback in a way that is useful and supportive.
Decision-making
Students need to take risks in their choices of research, field trips, and other student-decided assignment topics. They need to make learning choices that make sense for their own interests and talents as well as their projected career tracks. This decision-making may be enhanced through discussions with the faculty member as well as professional advisors and counselors at the university or college.