Article #2 talked about adult motivation. It essentially discussed how adult motivation is primarily intrinsic, so there is little that the designer and developer can do to motivate the adult learner. The best that they can do is design well and hope for the best. (Forgive me for the ultra short summary). The author brought up one issue that I have been unable to get out of my head. The online classroom has a 30% completion rated while the traditional classroom has an 85% completion rate. Why is there such a difference in completion rates?!? In the whole article, I don't think that question was answered. The closest thing to an answer was this: Completion rates is not an issue for the traditional classroom, so why should it be an issue for the online classroom.
Ok. So I would like to give my opinion on why there is such a big difference between the two.
No matter how great a program is designed, the fact remains that it's up to the user to use it to its highest potential and remain focused [during class]. In a traditional classroom, a student has to deal with the fact that the instructor is in front of them and will see them if they start fooling around. Also, there are other students around who will also be affected by his/her disruptive behavior. And there is no substitute for the "glare" of an annoyed instructor or classmate.
The online classroom is totally different. There is a lack of accountability and an absence of the "glares". It's easier to get distracted and easier to not get caught when you're slacking off. And unless you have an great online instructor who is constantly asking for feedback using green check marks, smiley faces and the occasional applause, you could be off checking your email, chatting on IM, or cooking a baked potato with none the wiser! All the responsibility to pay attention and do what you're supposed to rests on the student.
So if it's easier to lose focus in an online classroom, it only makes sense that it would also be easier to drop out of the class altogether! There's no one to say to your face, where were you last class? There's no "empty seat" for everyone to notice. And if you did get an email about your absence, you can just delete it (totally different from walking away from a conversation). This, in my opinion, is why there is a higher completion rate in the traditional classroom vs the online classroom. An online class/program will only be an effective tool in the hands of a dedicated & responsible user. Whereas in a traditional class/program a user can almost be "peer-pressured" into acting dedicated & responsible.
What do you think? I welcome your feedback.
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2 comments:
To be honest I am a little surprised by your review of the article. I thought that it presented a lot of great ideas about how to motivate adult learners in both environments. Some of these including allowing adults to have a say in how their learning process will occur. I do agree that sometimes there are those learners just don't want to learn. All you can do in their case is to supply the motivation, encourage them and hope they do come around.
Thanks for the comment Kabrene. I agree with you that there are great examples of how to motivate adult learners. But I want to make it clear that the issue that I am discussing is not the motivation of adult learners. I was talking about why is the completion rates for traditional classrooms 85% while the completion rate for online classroom is 30%?
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