Misunderstanding / Misconception of Online Learning

A response to the Misunderstood Activity
created by Angie Covey (@acovey)

Number of views: 254


Misunderstanding / Misconception of Online Learning

I have found that there is a real misunderstanding of online learning.  I see students start a course that is fully online, and they feel this will be a breeze.  They feel they can start whenever they want as long as it is within the semester, sometimes only put little to no effort into the course, and feel they will be able to pass.  They feel that online learning will be easier than the regular face-to-face classroom. I feel this misconception about online learning is problematic for a few reasons off the top of my head. Yes, an online class can be a more flexible learning method,  but with the online classroom, students must be very self-motivated, dedicated, have some degree of technical skills, be able to read and absorb subject matter without having a faculty member “present”, as well as have the ability to communicate and express your thoughts clearly in a written matter. I have spoken to many students after they have completed their first online course and they have told me, wow… that more difficult than I thought it would be, but once I got the hang of it, and understood the LMS I very much like it.

An analogy I could use is when a child sees others riding a bike.  They would like “ok I can do that, that looks easy”, but as soon as they hop on that bike, they find that it is not as easy as they first thought. It takes practice, dedication, and motivation to learn. But once they get the hang of it, they hop on without even thinking about it.

Example for "Misunderstanding / Misconception of Online Learning":
https://bank.ecampusontario.ca/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/RidingABike.jpg

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *