Three myths about distance education
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Can the format, which has been characterized by low student and teacher engagement since the pandemic, be an effective alternative?
I will try to give an answer based on our almost five years of experience teaching students exclusively online and refute the most common statements about distance education.
Myth No. 1. Distance education is of lower quality than face-to-face education
We started teaching people programming offline. We had a group that came to the office full time for lectures for four months. Over time, we realized that this format is very limiting in scaling. Then they tried remote control for the first time – and immediately faced the fact that the number of active students decreased with each subsequent class.
We found that the reason for the failure is not in the format, but in the approaches to it and the organization. Instead of duplicating offline training online, we started developing new digital educational products, and from the beginning of 2019, we transferred all processes to our own LMS (Learning management system) platform.
So, perhaps the most important realization that everyone should come to is that distance learning is no worse than face-to-face learning. It is different and needs different approaches.
What works
Flipped classroom model. According to this model, students independently process the pre-recorded material at a pace convenient for them, form questions and bring them up for joint discussion during online meetings.
The main idea is to move away from a passive-declarative style of teaching towards interaction through inquiry and discussion. In this way, students develop relevant skills: searching and processing information, formulating questions, giving and receiving feedback.
Microlearning. For people who are used to consuming content quickly and a lot, it is almost physically impossible to stay focused on a large amount of content for long. This is where bite-sized content comes to the rescue – material presented in small pieces in an interesting and light form that is easy to digest.
This is the first contact that reveals the basic concepts. Further, you can offer additional sources for study, which the student will consider already with an understanding of the context.
Myth No. 2. It is impossible to maintain attention at a distance
When you get online, you start competing for a student’s attention with everything on his device. Therefore, it makes sense to analyze what techniques other digital products use to retain and return users. Most likely, something from this will be rethought and implemented in the educational process.
What works
Gamification. Thinking about how to motivate students, we formulated a hypothesis: if we add a certain gamified functionality that encourages users to return to the platform more often, they will stop taking long breaks in their studies and will learn the material better. For example, rewards give a sense of satisfaction from an intermediate result. A leaderboard adds a competitive element.
Understanding the purpose. A comprehensive answer to the question “why do I need this?” makes a great contribution to the motivation to learn. Therefore, the educational program and process should be built taking into account the needs and requirements of the market, which students will soon become a part of – emphasize soft skills, give real cases, include communication with practitioners. If this is a theory, then it is worth explaining in which specific situations it will be necessary.
Myth No. 3. Socialization is completely lost at a distance
There is a common but mistaken perception that distance learning, due to its asynchrony, completely excludes the factor of interaction with others. It is as if the student is left alone with material and questions with no one to discuss and emotions with no one to share. In fact, this format also involves group discussions and live communication.
What works
Group tasks. Students learn to work in teams, communicate, share areas of responsibility. Zoom even has a convenient function for this – breakout rooms. During the call, participants can be divided into groups and given a topic to discuss or a task to complete (such as an interactive quiz). After the allotted time, they automatically return to the joint call and present the result.
Interpersonal communication. At first glance, it is easier to build a network offline because you have more points of interaction. But they can be played remotely. For example, random coffee is a cool alternative to informal meetings. There are special platforms for random formation of pairs, but Google forms can also help.
Conclusions
- Educating people, especially online, is an operationally complex process. This is often forgotten, focusing attention purely on the content. Because of this, a negative experience is formed. The good news is that setting up processes is possible, but not easy. Fortunately, there is also someone to learn from, both in Ukraine and abroad.
- Distance learning gives the best result when there is interest and involvement of all parties. When the goal is to master a specific skill, profession, and obtain a level of education, this is the priority and responsibility of all participants in the process.
- The remote format should be rethought and developed as a separate product so that the transition from offline to online is smooth and efficient if necessary.
Kateryna Druchuk, head of the flexible training format at the online academy of IT professions Mate academy, especially for UP. Life
Publications in the “View” section are not editorial articles and reflect exclusively the author’s point of view.
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