Students have set out the eight things they say will help them to learn effectively online.
In a survey carried out by not-for-profit education technology company Jisc with more than 5,000 learners across 10 colleges in England, students highlighted the importance of getting the basics like WiFi right.
While colleges and other further education providers will welcome the majority of students back on campus from today, it is expected a blend of face-to-face and remote delivery will be used across many courses going forward.
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The 8 things students said organisations could do to improve the quality of learning were:
- Get the basics right - including wifi (on campus and elsewhere), reliable hardware and software, clear navigation to learning content, timetabling and session scheduling, audio and lighting.
- Make learning sessions more interactive (eg, quizzes, games, tests, small group tasks, Q&A sessions).
- Record lessons and make them available soon after delivery to aid personal learning preferences, revision and catch up.
- Train and support lecturers to use online tools effectively in a pedagogically sound and inclusive way.
- Think about the pace of delivery (too fast or too slow) and consider shorter bursts with regular breaks.
- Create opportunities to talk to/ask questions of lecturers and fellow learners and give timely individual and group support.
- Improve communication - reminders of when sessions were going to start, when assignments were due, an accessible list of frequently asked questions (FAQs).
- Offer timely feedback on formative and summative assessment activities.
The research also found two-thirds of students (68 per cent) rated the quality of online and digital learning as either being “best imaginable”, “excellent” or “good”, with just 7 per cent said it was “poor”, “awful” or “worst imaginable”.
And when it came to the quality of online learning materials, over half (58 per cent) said they were well designed, 41 per cent said they were engaging and motivating, and 52 per cent said they were at the right level and pace.
Learners also rated the support they’d received for online learning: 71 per cent said it was either “best imaginable”, “excellent” or “good”.
Online learning: what are the barriers?
When it came to the negative aspect of online learning, learners said they were:
- online learning can be difficult and hard,
- not having access to appropriate technologies (laptops, printers),
- technical issues - connectivity, wifi, bandwidth,
- learning experience and design - lectures can be unengaging making it hard to concentrate, particularly when long and not interactive,
- study environment - not all learners like learning from home,
- and wellbeing and mental health. They said long sessions are tiring and can cause loss of concentration, screen fatigue, sore eyes and headaches. Some cited mental health issues from being online.
