Effective Online Learning: Staying Connected

Online learning continues to be a growing environment in which higher education students are engaging in instruction and learning through web-based, virtual classrooms. However, there are some online courses that don’t quite hit the mark. Ineffective online courses, while convenient, usually lack the interaction and connectedness of a face-to-face course. This can make those students feel disconnected, which could then lead to students not completing or failing a course. It’s important to keep them socially and cognitively connected so that they end courses feeling successful.

Stavredes (2011) stresses the instructor being actively present in the online learning environment as an important factor in student success. Not only instructor presence is important, but Stavredes says the variety and frequency of interactions in the course affects the students’ success. If an instructor is timely in responding to emails and messages from students, it will increase the student’s feeling of presence in the course. If the instructor holds weekly web conferencing (virtual “office hours”) and interact with students, they can feel more socially and cognitively connected. Sitting idly by watching the course, and students, go by is simply not an effective way of helping students succeed.

Another way of increasing student cognitive presence is if the instructor encourages student to student interaction. This can be done through collaborative assignments like group projects, discussions, blogs, and wikis. There are also various Web 2.0 tools that can help with this. One of them is Trello, which allows for different virtual “boards” where students can discuss, build and trade ideas, compile resources (articles, YouTube videos, etc.), or informally interact. Students can also use Trello as a concept map which, as Hsu and Ching (2011, as cited in Hsu, et al., 2014) found, supports students’ “active and focused student interaction, communication, and their achievement of intended learning objectives” (p. 751).

Above all, it is important for the instructor to be actively involved in the course, facilitating interaction between students while also interacting themselves. This interaction will help those students remain connected and help them succeed. While the presence will not be the same as a face-to-face course, it can assure them that they are not alone and part of a community of learners, wherever they are.

References

Hsu, Y.-C., Ching, Y.H., and Grabowski, B.L. (2014). Web 2.0 applications and practices for learning through collaboration. Handbook on Educational Communications and Technology. 747-758. Http://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-3185-5_60

Stavredes, T. (2011). Effective Online Teaching: Foundations and Strategies for Student Success. Jossey-Bass.