Learner Interactions

Nearly 100 years ago, John Dewey identified interaction as the defining component of the educational process (Dewey, 1916). Students interact with the content, their teacher, and with other students. This is true in both face-to-face classrooms and the virtual classrooms of online learning.Assignment: Read the attached article, Toward a Theory of Online Learning. Pay special attention to the attributes of Learner Centered, Knowledge Centered, Assessment Centered, and Community Centered as well as the types of student interaction. Remember to use what we learned about “Chunking” to focus on these key elements in the article.

Post a response to the Discussion Forum on Learner Interactions: How would you prioritize the three types of interaction --student-teacher interaction, student-student interaction, and student-content interaction? Explain your rationale. Be sure to respond to at least two others!

Then skim my paper, The Challenges of Working in Online Collaborative Learning Environments as Related to Learner Interaction, until you come to the section on Underachievers. Underachievers are particularly problematic in K12 environments because facilitator access to them is limited if they go “off line”.

Post a response to the Underachiever Discussion Forum: Discuss some of the obstacles that online underachievers face. Share some ways in which you could encourage an underachiever to become more involved in the online community. Be sure to respond to at least three others!

My Work:

Learner Interactions

Student-Teacher Interaction:

Students and teachers interact in both synchronous and asynchronous communication with text, audio, and video. Teachers provide opportunities for students to share their culture and their unique characteristics in the form of virtual icebreakers. Teachers, in the learner-centered model, continually monitor a student's level of comfort and competence as students progress through the course. In the Knowledge-centered model, OLL teachers guide students as they provide them with the "big picture" and design curriculum and learning that is chunked into pieces to facilitate processing as the students make meaning of the content. With the assessment-centered model, teachers provide feedback to students and gather formative information to guide instructional planning.

Student-Student Interaction:

Collaborative learning occurs during student-student interaction. In the learner-centered model, this form of interaction allows students to make gains in cognitive learning tasks and practice 21st century skills that will provide real-world applications. With the assessment-centered model, students are able to participate in project-based performances that can be constructed collaboratively. Students work together to create new knowledge in the Community-centered model. Students benefit from peer review as they interact in their virtual groups.

Student-Content Interaction:

Online students interact with content in the virtual world by reading information on line, participating in virtual labs, accessing computer-assisted tutorials, or accessing online assessments that measure their own learning. Student-content interaction opportunities are rendered nearly endless, given the resources available on the Internet.

It would be difficult to prioritize teacher-, student-, or content-student interaction, since all three interactions are critical and necessary at different times and in different learning situations. For example, as a course begins, Student-Teacher Interaction is most important. The teacher sets the tone for communication, as students are welcomed to the class. The effective online instructor will then provide opportunities for students to communicate about themselves to the class and include activities, discussions, and assessments throughout the course that are embedded as Student-Student interaction dominates. But equally important is the unlimited content available online that provides opportunities for Student-Content interaction.

Underachievers in Online Learning

1. Some of the obstacles that online underachievers face

There are different causes for online students to become underachievers. It is possible for a student to lack confidence and have a fear of failure: The student doesn't know what to do, so nothing is done. Other underachievers lack motivation, and just don't see the tasks as worthwhile. It is also possible that other underachievers simply lack the prerequisite skills--literacy skills, time management skills, computer proficiency skills-- to be proficient.

Group projects also present opportunities for students to under perform. Students looking for a way to avoid responsibility may allow their fellow group members to carry part or all of the underachiever's workload. The collaborative work group underachiever may feel uninvolved in the planning and thus disconnected from the needs of the group. Also, a group leader who perceives that a specific student is incapable of a proper contribution, may simply assign the student to a lesser role, and thus creates an underachiever.

2. Ways in which you could encourage an underachiever to become more involved in the online community

The highly competent online instructor or facilitator would be on the lookout for students who fail to participate in class. They would quickly contact the student to determine the reason for his or her underachievement. For students who lack confidence or who don't see the task as worthwhile, the instructor would provide encouragement to the student. The instructor would interact with the student to offer appreciation for their contributions and provide the student with a sense of accomplishment.

For students who don't see the tasks as worthwhile, it could be that the instructor should adjust the assignments to provide additional options for student responses. By doing this, the student is given more control of his/ her learning and will increase student satisfaction.

If an online readiness assessment had been given to students before the class began, no student should lack the prerequisite skills. If a student was enrolled in the OLL class and was underachieving because of a lack of these skills, the instructor should contact the parents for younger students and provide suggestions on how the parents could help their child. The instructor of older learners should provide resources for remediation.

Underachievers may be more helpful with group projects if they are allowed to select their own group. For students that are tempted to underachieve with group projects online, the group assessment and self-assessment tool will serve as encouragement to everyone to carry their share of the workload. Each group member should be given a specific responsibility. This would make it easier to confirm that all group members are participating.

My Scenario:

As students in our Literature Circle online class interact with the instructor, their peers, and the course content, student needs can be assessed. Building on the content by involving our community of learners under the guidance of a watchful instructor creates an effective on-line learning environment.