Distance learning in a nutshell

I order to function, distance learning must rather be more controlled and structured than classroom learning and that students must never feel alone. Here is a list of the things that I have come to find are key-factors to make the learning successful.

1. Keep the social presence high

​The bay far most important thing in distance learning is that the student doesn’t feel alone and overwhelmed in their studies. Research from Australia has shown that raising the social presence is the single most important thing for student results. Luckily there are several ways to work with this when building a distance course. The modern learning platforms are called MOOCs, and they are built with the social presence in mind, but even if you use an older or simpler platform, you can make it more social.

First of all, your student must get a chance to present themselves. It’s really no different from social medial where we continuously socialise. Studies have even shown that when the student was obligated to add an image along with their profile, the student results went up. However, it’s important to point out that it doesn’t necessarily have to be an image of yourself. You can use a snapshot of your dog if that makes the student feel more comfortable, but any kind of impression will reduce the sense of anonymity.
To increase the sense of presence even further, there should be a lot of group discussions in written form overtime or on a digital meeting. Group-assignment is excellent, and the student can collaborate in a Google-document to solve a problem together.

2. Structure is everything

​When constructing a distance course, the most important thing is a super clear structure that is easy to recognize and follow. Creating structure in education is always one of the teacher’s most important tasks, but it is far more important when creating distance learning material. A clear structure with clear instructions also affects the student’s confidence that the teacher really knows what he or she is doing.

One way to build structure is by using easy-to-follow long-term planning where the student can see step by step how they should move forward towards the course objectives. Another way to to it is that each assignment has the same graphic layout and the same structure. It is essential to take the time to think about which parts should always be found in every assignment. These parts could be that every assignment must have a formulated purpose, a problem description, reading references and instructions. In addition to these things, all the tasks should end with what web designers call “CTA”.