The world of online learning
For the last several decades, much of the learning industry has primarily focused on applying sol-id instructional design principles when creating learning content. However, more recently, there’s been a shift towards designing for the total user experience, rather than just the content alone[3].
As in the classroom learning, how you approach your online education very much depends on the desired learning outcome of your online course, the nature of your audience, and much more. There are different types of the online learning. A lot of thought goes into planning an online course; how it is organized, what type of content is presented, and particularly accessibility issues for students with special needs. We will mention here some of the most common types of online learning approaches.
[3] Heggart, K., Dickson-Deane, C. What should learning designers learn?. J Comput High Educ 34, 281–296 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12528-021-09286-y
Synchronous events take place in real time. Synchronous communication between two people requires them to both be present at a given time. Examples of synchronous learning are chat and instant messaging (Viber, WhatsApp and similar apps), video and audio conference, live webcasting, application sharing, whiteboard, polling, and virtual classrooms.
Asynchronous events are time-independent. A self-paced course is an example of asynchronous learning because online learning takes place at any time. E-mail or discussion forums are examples of asynchronous communication tools. In such cases, students ideally complete the course at their own pace, by using different learning platforms. Examples of asynchronous learning are au-dio/video, e-mail, discussion forum, wiki/blog, webcasting/conferencing, simulations, fame-based learning. Nowadays this is the most common method which uses wiki, blog and any reading ma-terial like ppt, pdf files to offer the initial knowledge to the learners.
Blended/hybrid learning approach
This combines both the synchronous and the asynchronous ways of learning. Some training, like soft-skills, have to have a face-to-face component in order to be truly impactful. A blended ap-proach works best where the classroom is utilized to conduct exercises and interactions.
Mobile Learning
The easy availability and affordability of mobile devices has created the space for mobile-enabled learning or mobile learning. Simply converting online classes to mobile compatible modules is not enough. The capabilities of the mobile device, including disk space, internet connectivity, and the screen size has to be taken into consideration, but smart phones are getting smarter and can be used very efficiently. But many learning apps can be used on the mobile phones and this should help greatly, if used as an aspect of blended/hybrid learning.
Social Learning
The impact of social media is very strong and it can be utilized for online learning as well. More and more education institutions are realizing the true power of social learning and including so-cial media into their plans. Students collaborate and network on social platforms to discuss prob-lems, queries, and experiences. We’re social animals and lack of social interaction is one of the biggest challenges with self-paced online learning. Consider building an online community for your students as a way to facilitate meaningful connections between you and your students. Learning communities complement online courses perfectly, because they enable social learning, peer-to-peer support, and student-to-instructor support.
