California Virtual Campus

Community Thread: A Student’s Perspective of Online Learning
By
Kathleen M. Patterson

I am not sure when or how it happened, but somewhere in the course of my educational pursuits, I underwent the transformation from a “university student” to “learner” who is part a “learning community.” This transformation may be directly related to the natural evolution of my educational quests. However, my perception of this change seems to be more directly related to my exposure and participation in online course offerings.

I grew to adulthood in an era that did not have the technological advances of handheld calculators, much less home computers and the Internet. Understanding these limitations, the system of education which I was indoctrinated into was confined to strictly that of a traditional f2f class environment. My exposure to distance education, at this point, was limited by technology, which provided a certain level of televised instruction, such as the Mr. Wizard series, integrated into the f2f class environment.

As a working adult with a family, when I decided to pursue a college degree in the 1990s, my “life commitments” hindered my ability to enroll in traditional f2f classes. At that point in time, my nearby community college offered hybrid courses which required fewer class attendances through integration of an online component. These offerings were based on newer technology, which as noted by Hawkins (1991) “…open[ed] up possibilities for new kinds of interactions through alternative arrangements of space, time, and resources for teachers and students.”

These earlier hybrid classes definitely relied upon the student to be self-motivated and, in my perception, were more of a highly monitored correspondence course. A student enrolled in these types of courses really didn’t get to know the instructor well and definitely did not feel any sense of community or commonality with students enrolled in the same class.

As I plowed through my undergraduate course work, I supplemented traditional f2f classes with hybrid and online course offerings. From a student’s perspective, I experienced many changes in not only the CMS that each institution utilized, but also the structure of such classes. In those first completely online classes that I participated in, the technology was utilized as a delivery system for the traditional f2f class curriculum. This included audio stream lectures of sister f2f classes and testing which was performed on campus under the watchful eye of a proctor. There was no real interaction between students and contact with the instructor was limited to the occasional e-mails and submission of assignments.

On a personal level, as with the hybrid courses, I did not find this mode of instruction satisfying. My feelings appear to be validated by Jaffee (1997) who noted that “the notion of active learning suggests that students must do more than simply receive information.”

However, somewhere along the line, academia recognized that the technology making online classes possible could be used as more than a mode of course delivery. Instructors and administrator began to acknowledge that “online instructors must recognize the need to design instruction appropriate to the medium.” (Rovai, 2001)

One key element in online instruction that began to be used more effectively was the Discussion Board forum. In those classes that utilized a Discussion Board as an interactive rather than static forum, students were given points for participation and rubrics were posted to provide students with a guide on what the instructor was looking for.

According to Winn (1992) as cited by Dennen (2005), “computer-based communication tools are shells waiting to be filled by learners…” Although I might have disputed this statement ten years ago, an amazing thing happened in my initiation into interactive Discussion Board participation. I discovered that rather than being just a vessel accepting the passive transmission of information, I was expected to actually understand lessons, read postings made by fellow classmates and participate in thoughtful discourse. This writing to learn pedagogy as described by Jaffe (1997) provides that “when we organize material for the purpose of communicating ideas to others, we often make the material clearer to ourselves.”

It was at this point that I discovered the “joy” of learning. I also began to develop a sense of community with my fellow learners and each class organization, depending upon the differing perspectives of the students enrolled, had a diverse richness of learning. My feelings appear to be supported by Rovai (2000) who noted that “the internet is a tool that can create and support an interactive and cooperative learning environment valued by constructivists,” and can “promote text-based communication for the purpose of discourse and support the construction of knowledge.”

While I still take traditional f2f classes as a supplement to my online courses, I find that I am troubled by the time constraints of the f2f class format. I also feel a greater sense of isolation because the lecture format of most f2f classes neither provides students with a forum to engage each other nor promotes a sense of community that can be found in an online class environment.

Additionally, after my indoctrination into the “joys” of the online class environment, I find that I have become more thoughtful in my approach to learning and inquisitive rather than submissively accepting of course material. My new constructivist approach to learning is not one that appears to be supported in the traditional f2f class format. My change in attitude to the f2f class environment seems to best summed up by Rovai (2000) who noted that in the online class environment “the opportunity for reflective interaction can be encouraged and supported, which is a feature not often demanded in traditional classroom setting where discussion is often spontaneous and lacks the reflection that is a characteristic of asynchronous online interactions.”

References
Dennen, V. (2005). From message posting to learning dialogues: Factors affecting learner participation in asynchronous discussion [Electronic version]. Distance Learning (26)1, 127-148.
Jaffee, D. (1997). Asynchronous learning: Technology and pedagogical strategy in a distance learning course [Electronic version]. Teaching Sociology (25)4, 262-277.
Hawkins, J. (1991). Technology-mediated communities for learning: Designs and consequences [Electronic version]. Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science 514, 159-174.
Rovai, A. (2001). Online and traditional assessments: what is the difference? [Electronic version]. Internet and Higher Education (3), 141-151.

Kathleen — Love your reflections. May I share this article with our faculty? Thanks!