[Lou McGill]

What kinds of feelings have you had when participating in different kinds of online learning?

Here we are looking to explore the following:
Tell us how you feel about working independently online, without direct contact with other people.
Do you feel confident as an online learner?
What makes you feel engaged as an online learner?
Do you prefer to feel: safe, challenged, independent, supported…?
Think about a time when you have really enjoyed learning online. What have you been doing? Why was it enjoyable?
Think about a time when you have been anxious, stressed or frustrated with learning online. What have you been doing? What made it difficult?
What do you miss from more conventional learning situations when you are learning online?
Are there things about learning online that you prefer to conventional learning?
What makes you look forward to going online to learn? What makes you not look forward to it?
(If you are studying a formal online course) which parts of your online course have you enjoyed the most? Which parts of your online course have made you feel that you were learning the most?

• This topic was modified 7 years, 9 months ago by helenbeetham.

[dkernohan]

Lou – could you unpack this a little – what kinds of situation do you mean?

[Lou McGill]

Hi David

I have now added in our sub-questions for this thread. Hopefully they will give some prompts for considering the broader question.

So we are interested in teasing out differences in say formal or informal learning or for personal enhancement or accreditation.

Lou

[Peter Cowan]

It varies a lot.
What I really like is the ability to research using online libraries and other sources. I sometimes feel that teaching good search techniques is a skill that is sometimes overlooked. It is one of those generic skills that underpins online learning in my view. Obviously this is always going to be dependent on the range of sources available and, of course, on how reliable those sources are. And yes, researching topics for end of course dissertations has been very much my high point in online study.
Where I have problems – online tutorials can be useful (when the technology doesn’t let you down) but I still find I can get far more across and engage more in a face to face tutorial. The other downside is when the module refers you to a paper which is online – older modules still have course books and readers with the relevant secondary / primary source material. Online It is variable access. Not helped by my personal preference for long, text dense material (as is common for BA / MA study) which is also not always easy to guarantee.

[hector]

I like to get useful feedback when I’m learning. It does make me feel that I’m doing well if I can test my knowledge. It’s similar to playing online games – I like to aim for the next level and get some kind of reward. It keeps me motivated.