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One of us (Lisa) was just in Montreal where many restaurants have mandatory coat checks because of the weather. Montreal's main attraction was a conference, CHI 2006, which had assigned student volunteers the task of blogging conference sessions. Mandatory coat checks and blogging arguably benefit the coat owner/writer, as well as others, but both are usually self-motivated, not mandated, activities. These policies left us thinking about when, why, and how to oblige student participation in online course activities and how this may impact learning.
In an online course, participation may take the form of a blog, discussion forum, or other medium. Such participation may be entirely optional, encouraged, or required. Instructors sometimes mandate a style of participation—such as to have students post their thoughts and then iteratively read and comment on other students' responses—or even offer illuminating examples of both thoughtful and less compelling "me too" posts.
While online instructors can mandate certain behaviors, they can't force students to learn. We all operate under the assumption that a carefully crafted assignment increases the likelihood of learning. And given the online world's lack of traditional communication channels, many instructors require student participation in hopes of increasing accountability and engagement. But does any of this help an unmotivated student learn?
A helpful framework for thinking about this problem is the deep vs. surface learning distinction. As learners, we are always deciding whether to adopt a deep or superficial approach to completing assignments. As instructors, we naturally prefer, hope, and even imagine that our students will always adopt a deep learning strategy, sucking the marrow from the toughest assignments. Yet, as current or former students, we know we often fall short of this ideal, choosing instead to cram for the test or skim the readings, spending as little time and effort as we can to achieve the grade we hope to receive. This distinction applies equally well to corporate e-learning, where an employee may just do the minimum necessary to achieve a certification or check off the compliance item, then quickly shed any concepts or skills picked up along the way. Faced with busy, efficiency-oriented students, we must accept that a student's choice of a deep or surface-learning strategy is beyond our control. Yet, we can be glad that the student's choice is often open to our influence. An online instructor can increase the likelihood that students will choose a deep learning strategy through these approaches:
Authors
Lisa Neal is Editor-in-Chief of eLearn Magazine and an e-learning consultant.
Mark Notess is a system development manager and usability specialist for the Digital Library Program at Indiana University.
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