3. Considering the cognitive load of learners.
When teaching online, it can be hard to know how much content students can handle—and when they’re ready for more. For instance, instructors can’t rely on non-verbal cues to help them determine when students are lost or overwhelmed.
Addressing this challenge begins with the design of an online course. Often, instructors will assign too much content for students to read or watch all at once. “Students might not have the skills to sort through all of this information or use it appropriately,” says Kristen Sosulski, an associate professor at New York University’s Stern School of Business. “Research shows that chunking the material into shorter reading passages and video clips of no more than 10 minutes in length is more conducive to student learning,”
If students don’t have a lot of prior knowledge about a topic, they are more likely to struggle. Instructors can use survey tools to learn how much their students already know about a topic, says Sosulski says, and they can begin lessons with a brief introductory video that establishes some prior knowledge up front.
Karen Watts, a faculty member at Bellingham Technical College in Washington state, considers herself lucky because her online humanities course is arranged around frequent discussions. This makes it tougher for students to hide if they haven’t done the reading or don’t understand the material. But still, “having no eye contact means it’s hard to confirm information transmission,” she says. “Sometimes, students don’t read the instructions I have given—and I don’t find out until it’s too late.” To guard against this, she posts instructions and “how-to” information in multiple locations.
4. Providing support for struggling learners.
Recognizing that a number of hurdles might stand in the way of students’ success, Watts tries to anticipate some of these challenges in advance. At the outset of her class, she posts links to resources that students can turn to for support, such as food banks, suicide hotlines, and articles about issues she knows might come up. She also encourages students to share online-learning tips and strategies with each other.
“One year, I had a lot of students who were parents of small children,” she recalls. “I went to YouTube and found videos of parents talking about how they managed to juggle school and parenting. I posted those links for my students to refer to if they found themselves struggling with this issue.”
Institutions must recognize that they play a significant role in making sure online students are successful, says Sosulski. Colleges and universities should create support structures to help students when they struggle.
For instance, at the University of Memphis, all LiFE participants are assigned a “success coach” who continually checks in with them throughout their online learning experience. “This is a pretty vulnerable student population,” says Richard Irwin, dean of UofM Global, the university’s online learning division, “so we have created a high-touch environment to help them succeed.”