Meeting Students Where They Are

As an increasing number of students choose to purse education online and at a distance, and as more courses and program curricula are redesigned for the virtual classroom, instructional technologists, designers, student service specialists and teachers must face numerous questions about how to optimize the online educational experience for student learning. Advances in information and computer technologies (ICT) have led to the development of countless web and multimedia tools and services that instructors can use to facilitate learning in an online course. Yet, online faculty may feel overwhelmed by the sheer number of options, ever pressured to integrate the newest and latest tech, and uncertain when it comes to determining which tools will be most manageable and effective to use (Robertson, Shew, Gao, & Gallup, 2006).

Multimedia can help increase student engagement 
and learning, but using it effectively can be daunting.

Image by Stuart Miles (freedigitalphotos.net)

In a previous entry, I alluded to a seminar taught by the expert and talented members of the DELTA Instructional Technology Support and Development Team at NC State on the use of multimedia to increase student engagement and learning. Classmate Katie McIntyre has written an insightful blog post reflecting on the content covered in the recording (note: you must sign in with an NCSU Unity ID to view). Using Dr. Robertson's advice to “meet students where they’re at” as a jumping off point (i.e., employing a variety of multimedia tools with which students are likely to have some experience using), Katie highlights two key considerations regarding the selection and integration of multimedia applications and assets in an online course: To what extent do we really know what our online students' prior knowledge, comfort level and device compatibility with multimedia technology is? And how do we find the right balance between using tools we have used with success in the past and "experimenting with the next best thing?" (para. 1).

Katie affirms the value of using multimedia, "particularly because it allows us to deliver content in a variety of ways, addressing different modes of learning" (para. 1). While the research community is still divided on how much attention we ought to pay to students' learning styles when designing instruction (see Moore, 2009; Santos, 2006), I agree with her point. We do have considerable evidence that delivering information using multiple sensory modalities can, when combined effectively, enhance comprehension and retention (Mayer, 2005; Moreno & Mayer, 2002).

Online learners are not a homogenous population. 
Image by ddpavumba (freedigitalphotos.net)

Her discussion extends beyond modes/styles of learning to learner characteristics more broadly, considering students' prior experience with technology as well as student demographics and affective needs, all of which Tait (2000) argues are essential considerations in effectively supporting students in open and distance learning. I find Katie's student-centric approach to multimedia in distance education refreshing and share her concerns about how the assumptions we might make about the technologies with which our students are and are not familiar leads us to "run the risk of losing learners to frustration with technology before the content is even delivered" (para. 2).

We must be intentional in our efforts to meet 
students where they are, without assuming
that we know precisely where that is! 
Image by ddpavumba (freedigitalphotos.net)

Whether in a face-to-face, online or blended course environment, the most central ingredient of a successful course or program design is, unsurprisingly, the students themselves. It also follows that we must know and understand the students we teach in order to best meet their needs and facilitate an authentic and engaging experience. As Katie points out, students in a distance education class  may come from substantially different backgrounds, and, given the ongoing growth of online education, we ought to anticipate continued (if not increased) diversity in the characteristics of online learners. How then are we to meet students where they are if we're not sure where that is? In other words, how are we to design instruction for learners in a variety of different places, both physically and in terms of their existing, knowledge, skills, and experience?

Katie offers us some excellent approaches, including (a) providing links within the course site to resource tutorials for technologies, and (b) maintaining "an open dialogue" for students to communicate about how they feel about the tools. (This could potentially take the form of an online forum where students can discuss the issues they are having with a tool and both seek and provide help to one another). She also asserts the need for instructors to (c) "allow ample time for students to experiment with or learn a new tool" (para 3).

Another useful and rather obvious but underutilized strategy is to simply ask students about themselves! This can be accomplished quite effectively using something as simple as a short (perhaps anonymous) online survey that you email to the students signed up to take your course in advance of the start of classes. Ask about their experience using various types of technology, particular tools, and overall comfort level. You might even wish to present them with some options, then ask about what they like, what they don't and why. Invite them to share whether they have any physical or cognitive limitations that would make interacting with or understanding certain types of multimedia difficult for them (and provide them with the contact information for your institution's Disability Services Office). Also relevant are questions about their ICT hardware--what device they will be using most often to connect to the course (e.g., an Android phone? Windows laptop PC? Macintosh desktop PC?), what version of the operating system they are running, how much memory/RAM their computer has...be sure to give them instructions for finding this information)--and software (e.g., what browser(s) they have installed on their computer and which one they normally use to navigate the internet). Their answers need not necessarily alter your course plan, but it will at the very least give you a better indication of where your students are starting from.

Something else to consider is (I highly recommend it) is to email registered students a few weeks before the first day of class with a letter containing information about what they can expect from the course, what will be expected of them, and what technology they will be using and what the technical requirements are for running them (e.g., do they need to use, or avoid using, a certain browser). Be sure to provide links to tutorials for getting started with these applications and links to your school's information technology support services for help using tools supported by your institution. This way, more students will be able to hit the ground running when the course officially opens. 

Thanks Katie, for raising these issues important issues and for prompting us to reflect on what it really means to "meet students where they're at"! I wholeheartedly agree with you that "both of these questions or concerns will lead me to be more intentional as an instructor in the online environment."   

References

Moore, C. (2009, September 21). Learning styles: Worth our time? [Blog post]. Available online at http://blog.cathy-moore.com/2010/09/learning-styles-worth-our-time/

Moreno, R. & Mayer, R. E. (2002). Verbal redundancy in multimedia learning: When reading helps listening. (1), 156-163. doi: 10.1037/0022-0663.94.1.156

Robertson, A., Shew, D., Gao, H., & Gallup, C. (2006). Diary of a Distance Education Course: Addressing Learning Needs with Multimedia. In World Conference on Educational Multimedia, Hypermedia and Telecommunications (pp. 2609-2614).

Santo, S. (2006). Relationships between learning styles and online learning: Myth or reality? Performance Improvement Quarterly, 19(3), 73-88.