It has been almost a year since I began my time at ASU, and learning about the field of instructional design has been both enlightening and humbling. What have I seen during my time in this space? What are my thoughts? Hopefully, this post will let me organize them.
At first, I entered this program with the intent of learning the mechanics of instructional design. Indeed, I have learned quite a lot. Principles of visual consistency, reducing cognitive load, how to identify and approach instructional deficiencies and craft effective solutions. I’ve also made, consumed, and analyzed my share of instructional programs; particularly the ones in an online context; particularly the ones that I have experienced since the world was rocked by the Coronavirus. What I saw has taken me some time to understand fully.
As the world recovered from the shock of the pandemic, the field of online and blended learning changed with it. In the purely online sphere, synchronous classes were most common. Classes would meet at the scheduled time of day and participate in lectures with something close to a normal learning environment. As time went on classes started moving toward an asynchronous format, students would not interact face-to-face and the instructor would focus on a mix of recorded lectures, required reading, and online forum discussions. These two are the most common formats in any school or secondary education system, at least for those classes which remain now that the virus has subsided. There is a third type I’m familiar with, an impersonal class which does not include the presence of other students or an instructor, instead relying entirely on premade material, prepared assignments, and automatic grading.
Synchronous, asynchronous, and impersonal; every type of online learning I’ve seen has different advantages and weaknesses. The most significant limitation of online learning environments is that a student without access to the internet cannot participate in the learning. That said, for learners with access to the internet, online learning is a useful tool. Synchronous and Asynchronous classes allow people from various times and places to participate in a shared class experience. Asynchronous is particularly impactful in this regard as it removes some of the barriers that are created by varying schedules and different time zones. Impersonal classes allow for an even greater degree of personal freedom as they can be taken almost entirely at the learner’s preferred pace. As a method for improving efficiency in organizational and academic environments, online learning is remarkable. Any of the methods above offer the ability to incorporate a much larger number of learners than a typical in-person course.
However, all the online courses stated above suffer from a problem, they compromise the learner’s ability to communicate with the teacher. Even with the synchronous teacher, a level of non-verbal communication is lost. With an impersonal course, communication is obliterated altogether. The greatest teachers I’ve had handled two responsibilities well. They offered their expertise in a way that was easy to access, and they facilitated the learner’s experience by presenting the information in a personally meaningful way. This reason is why the concept of blended learning was more exciting for me to study. Most blended learning environments follow a similar format to the synchronous online format. Additionally, they offer opportunities to consult with teachers in-person to clear any confusion with the course’s content or to facilitate additional learning opportunities. This ability to facilitate high-fidelity communication between learner and student is the primary difference between blended and online learning, as well as the greatest reason I favor blended learning when possible.
That said, I noticed that both blended and online had some incredible benefits. The primary one is to increase the availability of content. If the learner is self-motivated and actively searches out the content of these courses, it will be much easier at this point in time than it has ever been before. In academic environments, this technology enables a much larger number of students to achieve meaningful learning outcomes. This trend of increased popularity for online learning has only been increased by the Coronavirus.
Another benefit of online learning is that it grants access to more comprehensive information than was offered in person. The internet, as an inherently growing collection of information, can offer any variety of current information, examples, and principles to a student. Many of the tools used to facilitate online courses also make it easier to reference and present this information between learners and teachers. This allows teachers to more effectively present opportunities to apply the principles and methods they are teaching and makes it easier for learners to develop their own understanding of the content by finding their own applications of it.
As the technology that drives online and blended learning advances, I believe we will see developments focused on 3 areas.
- Improving the fidelity of communication between learners and teachers.
- Improving the accessibility of relevant examples.
- Improving assessment fidelity to gather more data on learning outcomes.
This world of distance learning is big and still growing. Learning designers are reaping the benefits of new technologies and a fast-growing industry. I believe we will see some impressive shifts very soon.