How might universities keep their students active in a learning process for their whole lives?
First of all, the notion of a 'degree' might need to shift. The great idea behind a 'degree' is the sense of accomplishment that it brings when one finishes it, but this might only happen once every two, three, four years or in the case of online students, even more. And then, after a degree, the student might want to keep studying but might feel that signing up for another long period of time is too much of a big commitment.
The analogous example of 'DOOM' the videogame might help us understand a possible model. Make small levels with many gates, make a feast every time that I open a new level, let me fail and make it feel like part of the game and not a remorse sentiment or loss of money, let me go back & forth between the levels as I open more of them. Here's more detail of what I mean:
1.The smaller levels might help the whole feeling of adherence kick into the students. And the best part is that there can be hundreds of levels and you might be able to decide where to go next based on your interests. What are your short term interests? What are your long time goals?
2.Give merit in bite sizes, it's more of a boyscout badge system than a degree. How many badges can you collect? Which do you want people to see? Help them celebrate these little accomplishments. It does not need to be a school party but merely a nudge of acceptance.
3.Failing is part of the learning process, especially in such a new environment. If anything goes wrong the student is to blame and it feels like a big responsibility because, well, the student is paying for it. What if you had three tries to pass the class? What if the deadlines for assignments were based on something other than the teacher's schedule? How can we reduce the guilt of failing? It is merely my theory but this might be one of the biggest issues for students leaving an online program. The student is there because she wants to learn. Don't make her feel bad!
4.Going back and forth between different levels. Ahh, what a nice compilation of what I have learned. Imagine that you have all of your notes easily accessible and organized as a resourse for you to refresh your memory at any time, anywhere. A just-in-time education system that grows as you unlock levels. What a blessing it would be.
No comments:
Post a Comment