June 10, 2004
PUSH-ME, PULL-YOU
One of the biggest differences between online courses and traditional face-to-face (F2F) training is that, in F2F training (and to some degree in real-time online interactions) learning content is generally "pushed" to the learner, whereas in the online environment, content is "pulled" from the interface by the learner....
The instructor/facilitator designs a workshop or seminar, and learners need only attend and complete whatever activities the instructor/facilitator has organized. Classes and training events are scheduled by the trainer, and learners only need to show up on the right day and time in the right place. In lecture-based classes in particular, the learner is fairly passive in learning interactions.
In online environments, the learner has to play a more active role. While some forms of content (such as this email message) are pushed directly to the learner, the majority of learning content and interactions must generally be "pulled" from the interface by the learners.
In these instances, the class is learner-centered and learner-controlled rather than instructor-centered ... in other words, interaction with the instructor/facilitator is just *one element* of the class, instead of the center of the class.
Particularly in an asynchronous class (where there are no scheduled real-time interactions), learners are responsible for logging in to the site, checking announcements, finding and completing readings, doing assignments, and asking questions of the facilitator if they are confused.
What does this mean for course designers?
Well, first, it means that your course interface had better be well designed so you can be sure your participants are even able to access critical materials.
It also means that user motivation and self-direction are key to a successful course offering... and it's a good idea to give learners as much direction as possible and to have ways of monitoring participation.
In facilitated classes like this one, the facilitator can take this role, using a variety of strategies to encourage participation. In self-instructional courses, however, you must program ways of automatically monitoring participation and successful completion of the class (for example by using log-in registration and tracking that can report whether participants have completed particular pages of the readings and activities or passed the tests).
In very linear courses, you might want to design a program where users must pass a test in order to access the next piece of content (we'll be talking more about linear and nonlinear course design in Session 5).
In the end, however, it's all about the learner's motivation to complete the course.
Posted by jtzanis at June 10, 2004 12:36 PM
CommentsTrue, Chris... of course, in many ways, the success of group discussion tools is dependent on user motivation - which plays out in terms of level of participation. This can be really problematic if you have an unmotivated group...If the majority group members do not contribute to the discussion, the few who do may feel isolated and post less and less until discussion stops altogether.
Posted by: Joanne at June 13, 2004 02:34 PMTracking and reporting learner behavior provides valuable feedback to the instructor (i.e. most popular articles downloaded, pages completed, or number of times a quiz was taken). As well, posting the number of comments to an entry is a good way to "pull-in" the learner (i.e. maybe I should look at this, or what's everyone saying).
Posted by: Chris Davis at June 12, 2004 10:21 AM
