Activity 3.1 – Learning Online

Read:

Palloff, R.M. & Pratt, K. (2001) ‘Working with the Virtual Student’ in Lessons from the Cyberspace Classroom: The Realities of Online Teaching, Jossey-Bass, San Francisco, pp.107-124

Watkins, R. (2005) “Preparing Learners for online success”, Learning Circuits http://www.learningcircuits.org/2005/sep2005/watkins.htm

What are both articles suggesting about online learners? Both articles were slightly varied in their approach to the subject of online learners. Palloff & Pratt based their article around what it takes to be a successful learner and how to encourage a learning environment that leads to successful learning. On the other hand, Watkins was more concerned about the issue of learner readiness, gauging this and preparing learners for online success. Nevertheless, both articles suggest that to be succesful online learners, students need to develop their study skills and learning strategies to adapt to the online environment which is based on collaborative and reflective learning. Students also need to take responsibility for their learning process.

Palloff & Pratt identify successful online learners as those who are “active, creative and engaged in the learning process” (p.107). “The successful online student tends to enjoy learning for learning’s sake. He or she becomes energized by the ability to be set free to explore a topic with peers. Successful online students demonstrate good thinking skills, an ability to work and do some amount of research independently and an ability to work with a minimal amount of structure” (p.109)

Watkins identifies that “learners have been informally developing updated study skills and learning strategies in a relatively adhoc manner” (para.2). “Two essential skills for success in e-learning are adapting old skills and habits from the traditional classroom for use in e-learning and developing and applying new e-learning skills and habits for e-learning” (para.6)

LEARNING STYLES

After completing the questionnaire available through http://www.vark-learn.com, my learning preference was classed as multimodal. What this meant was that I have multiple preferences which is the same as the majority of the population. My scores were:

• Visual: 7
• Aural: 9
• Read/Write: 8
• Kinesthetic: 7

What do you already know about your preferred learning styles? As a multimodal learner I am given the choice of multiple modes to use in different learning environments. This is helpful in the sense that I can, as the website says, “match or align their mode to the significant others around [me]“. From the helpsheets provided by the website, I looked specifically at my top two preferences (Aural and Read/Write) and was able to gather the following key points about these learning styles …

To maximise my intake of information, study/revision process and my performance in any assessment some things I can do include:

What influence will your preferred learning styles have on your e-learning experiences? I think the advantage of being a multimodal learner is that I could easily adapt to the online learning environment. However seeing as though my greatest preference is aural learning I would probably struggle seeing as though most e-learning activity would probably not incorporate the aural aspect as what I find is that most e-learning activity is reading/writing based or visual based. But then again, with the emergence of new technologies and methods, such as podcasting, learning can be enhanced for aural learners. Also thinking about online courses, kinesthetic learning is also catered to as in these courses, learners need to take charge of their own learning and learn by doing the activities themselves.

So in summary, my e-learning experiences will probably be enhanced by the fact that I am a multimodal learner as I can approach these experiences with a range of learning strategies. Furthermore as evident in my blog I am a highly reading/writing oriented learner as my blogs are quite lengthy, I am also very concerned with the visual appeal of my blog and in the future I’d like to incorporate aural aspects to the blog so as to make the most of my multimodal learning preferences.