Adult Online Learning

Online learning is becoming increasingly popular with over 67% of universities and colleges in the United States offering adult online learning courses. Adult online learning can be intimidating since it’s often the first time the adult is learning in an online environment so in addition to the content, they also are learning online learning. I completed a Master’s degree in Adult Education online and have compiled the following tips to assist in adult online learning.

Navigating the Online Discussion Board

The online discussion board is a commonly used tool in adult online learning to facilitate the discussion that you would get in a traditional classroom. It is one of the first components of learning online learning. The online discussion board can be difficult to navigate though since the instructor is only periodically monitoring the discussion, i.e. if someone writes a really long post, the instructor is not there to cut them off, same if someone goes off topic. If you haven’t logged on for a couple of days, it can be daunting to see all the new discussion posts waiting for you which can take hours to wade through. Complicating matters is that in many adult online learning environments, participation in the online discussion board counts towards your final grades.

The first step is to relax and take a deep breath and skim through the posts. It will appear that many people seem to have a lot of extra time to write frequent and wordy posts in the online discussion board. This is a frequent complaint about online learning and likely one that won’t go away. People enrolled in adult online learning courses are coming from a variety of lifestyles and some people have significantly more time on their hands than others. Once you’ve skimmed the posts, comment on the ones that are of interest to you, or that you can elaborate on or disagree with. Some of the best learning occurs when people disagree in a respectful manner but there is a tendency for people to be very polite and not disagree with postings in an online discussion board, at least at the start of the course.

In learning online learning, it is important to note that participation counts as you actually posting a comment in the online discussion board, not how much time you spend reading through it, so make your time count wisely. If you spent three hours reading through discussion posts but not commenting, you are likely to not gain any participation marks, since you have done nothing to show that you understand the concepts being discussed nor have you enriched the discussion in anyway. The only way that other students know you are present is if you comment. Note instructors can usually see how many hours you’ve spent online, but most only count the actual comments you make towards participation points. Quality of comments is also very important when learning online learning. It is far better to thoughtfully take the time to comment on a couple of posts or start a new online discussion thread than it is to provide meaningless comments on more postings. For example, if you respond “I agree” to a posting, you are not likely to receive many participation points. The instructor is looking for you to expand on what has already been said and knowing what the instructor is looking for is important when learning online learning.

Another important thing to remember in adult online learning is that once you post something in the online discussion board it stays there until the course is removed so while it is OK to disagree with other students, and something that most instructors encourage, always remember to do it in a respectful manner since it will be permanent.

Collaborative Online Learning

Collaborative online learning can be one of the biggest challenges about online learning since it involves group work which can be very difficult to coordinate in an adult online learning environment since everyone can have radically different schedules and availability. To make collaborative online learning easier, start as early as possible, and don’t be afraid to take the lead. Frequently everyone is waiting for someone else to take the lead and then there’s a rush at the end to get the project finished. Also, delegate the tasks as early as possible and set up a schedule for the entire project that works for everyone and stick to it. Be up front about your schedule and present solutions. If you have a really busy week at work coming up and don’t have much time to devote to the collaborative online learning activity that week share that with your team and tell them what you will do instead, i.e. you will email your outline the week before, provide feedback to your team members on such and such a date, compile the different team member’s work, etc. Communication is key since your team members have no way of knowing if you are having a busy week and may take your absence as disinterest in the collaborative online learning project or even worse come to the conclusion that you are not doing your part. It is extremely frustrating to have no response from group members so try and touch base every day or two, even if it’s just briefly so that they know you are there even if you don’t have much time to work on it. For example, if someone sends you their work to review but you don’t have time to review it for a few days, acknowledging that you’ve received it but won’t have a chance to review it until such and such a date will be received more favourably than no reply at all.

Reading Materials

The quantity of reading materials can also be overwhelming in adult online learning environments with sometimes up to a thousand pages a week. The quicker you learn this critical component of learning online learning, the better since reading can be incredibly time consuming. The key to success is to skim read and go over the key points in more detail once you’ve finished skimming an article. Highlighting key concepts is also a time saver since you’re able to go back and find the key concepts more easily. In order to know what key concepts the instructor is looking for it can be useful to read your upcoming assignment(s) first which may help you determine what the instructor is looking for from the readings and make it quicker for you to identify the key points. If you are aiming for good marks another trick is to reference all the reading materials in papers you write including the optional ones. This does not mean that you’ve thoroughly read them all, which in fact is not normally necessary of optional readings, but does show that you’ve read them or at least looked at them. I found that I consistently got higher marks on papers where I did this than when I didn’t, so I now use this trick for every paper that I write.

Time Management

Time management is key to learning online learning and succeeding in an adult online learning environment. It is important to set up a schedule, just like a regular class and stick to it, since chances are most days after work you are not going to feel like doing it, but do it anyway. It’s also important to be realistic, you will need free time if you are to succeed in an adult online learning course so don’t forget to schedule in activities and family and friends. For me, it worked well to spend fifteen minutes checking the online discussion board at lunch every day. That way I was on top of it and didn’t spend several hours at the end of the week trying to catch up, which caused me to panic and took valuable time away from keeping on top of the readings or doing assignments. Another component of learning online learning for me was to spend more hours studying on Saturday and totally take Sunday off, than it was to spend a few hours studying on both Saturday and Sunday. I was much more effective and felt more relaxed when I structured my time this way and was then able to go hiking one day a week, something that I love doing. Finding out how you can work most effectively is a critical part of learning online learning.

I wish you all the success in your adult online learning environment and invite you to share your success tips below.