Garrison, D. Randy, and Martha Cleveland-Innes. "Facilitating Cognitive Presence in Online Learning: Interaction Is Not Enough." American Journal of Distance Education 19.3 (2005): 133-148. Academic Search Complete. EBSCO. Web. 26 May 2010.
The authors of this article conducted a survey on the importance of student interaction in online learning. They argued that, “a community of inquiry is more than a social community and more than the magnitude of interaction among participants. It is an interaction of cognitive, social, and teaching presence. To prove their theory, they conducted a survey using four DE classes and found that “structure and leadership were crucial for online learners to take a deep and meaningful approach to learning” (133).
The different approaches to learning, they explain, are deep, surface, and achievement. Deep learners are active learners who are in the class to soak up as much information as they can, and they “embrace the material in the search of meaning” (137). Surface learners are in class to get the assignments done and hopefully get a passing grade, but they “put forth the least amount of effort toward realizing the minimum required outcomes” (137). Achievement learners are those who just, “focus on the activities that will result in the highest marks,” but it doesn’t appear that they care if they learn anything or not (137).
According to the authors, these learning approaches can change if the student gets more involved in the learning (self-motivated) and is motivated by peer support/pressure and teacher involvement.
Although the authors take into consideration that students exhibit different approaches to learning, they fail to consider that learning styles play a part in student success as well. For example, reading the instructions for the assignments may be a problem, or students may need an example of a task before they can grasp a concept. Other students may lack typing skills and thus take longer to complete projects or have limited access to technology. These factors were not discussed.
On the other hand, this was an interesting study that I think all online teachers will appreciate. Getting students engaged in conversations advances learning, but the design of the class and the involvement of the instructor are key.
Although this article focuses on asynchronous assignments for the purpose of the study, these principles also apply to synchronous and on-site assignments. Designers of online classes should take this study of student learning approaches (and learning styles) into consideration when designing online classes.
Regards,
Nancy Warren
Nancy Warren
1 comment:
Thanks for this posting, Nancy. We do need to remember that people learn differently, and we might have the tendency in distance courses to assume a homogenous audience, which causes us to leave some out. But I also found the point about DE's ability to better engage students and make them more active learners helpful to. So maybe what this all comes down to is the need for creative, interactive learning environments that will encourage all types of learners to participate and build on their knowledge and skills--something we could also keep in mind for our f2f classes as well.
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