Elearning has an unacceptably high drop-out rate, says this article. So George Siemens organised a group of online educators put themselves through a (non) course of discussion to address the problem. They created this resource or “collage” of their thoughts.
The article focusses on “preparing students for elearning”, and is organised under the following headings.
Introduction, Preparation Ecosystem, Preparing Students for Elearning, Role of the Student in Elearning, Role of the Instructor in Elearning, Role of Learning Styles, Profile of "Ideal" Online Student, Tasks to Complete Before Course Start, Support Documents for Students, Conclusion
Many of the sections contain links to useful material and checklists, for example:
Are You Ready for Online Learning? |
Becoming a Successful Online Student |
Online Self-assessment Quiz | A Learning Style Survey for College | Learning Styles and the Online Environment | Matters of Style (Lists a variety of learning style theories)
And the conclusion says:
”Successful preparation for online learning is not significantly different from classroom preparation. As with any new concept, however, it is important for an instructor to communicate how existing practices integrate with a new concept (in this case, learning online).
High dropout rates are not a function of the online learning environment - they are a function of poor course design, lack of instructor familiarity of the environment, and learner preparation. Preparing learners to learn online is perhaps the greatest skill that we can offer. In an era of "lifelong learning", skills for acquiring knowledge play a greater role in success than do knowledge concepts (as they often cycle to obsolescence).”
