What you’ll learn to do: describe strategies for successful online learning

The number-one benefit of information technology is that it empowers people to do what they want to do. It lets people be creative. It lets people be productive. It lets people learn things they didn’t think they could learn before, and so in a sense it is all about potential.

—Steve Ballmer, American businessman and former CEO of the Microsoft Corporation

By the end of this section, you will be able to explore uses for technology in education and describe characteristics of online courses. You will be able to describe the basics of getting ready for online and technology-enhanced courses and explain how you can use technology to stay organized. In addition, you’ll learn about good communication practices when using technology.

Online Learning

Online vs. In-Person Classroom

If you’re reading this, you’ve decided to investigate online learning as an alternative to traditional in-person learning. But what will decision really mean for you as a student? Here we will introduce you to the world of online learning. We will show you some of the differences you will encounter when taking online courses rather than in-person courses, as well as how to be successful in online learning.

Types of Online Classes

One of the easiest mistakes when making decisions about online learning programs is to assume that all online learning is the same, or even that there are two broad categories of “online” and “blended.” In actuality, there are many different options of online learning, and they make up a spectrum of options. When selecting online courses or programs, you will encounter terms such as online, distance education, synchronous/live sessions, asynchronous, and blended/hybrid learning. Below we describe each of these terms.

Distance/Online Education

Terms such as distance learning and online learning have been used to describe learning that occurs when the instructor and students are in different geographic locations.^[1]

Synchronous/Live Sessions

Synchronous learning has become very popular, particularly during the pandemic. Synchronous means any teaching taking place where the teacher and learners participate in a class session at the same time through the use of videoconferencing tools like Zoom or Google Classroom.

Asynchronous

Unlike synchronous, simultaneously attended live sessions, asynchronous learning occurs online and consists of assignments and feedback from instructors and interaction with peers where attendees are free to participate on any schedule that suits them. Typically, learners and the teacher are popping into the class at different times. In this format, deadlines and due dates still apply. ^[2]

Blended Learning/Hybrid

Blended or hybrid learning is a combination of online and face-to-face learning and usually involves anywhere from twenty to eighty percent blending of online instruction with traditional face-to-face courses.^[3][4]

Learning Modalities at Florida SouthWestern State College

FSW offers courses in 5 different modalities: Traditional, Online, Blended, Live Online, and Live Flex. Students can review the Course delivery page of the FSW website to learn more about these options.

When registering for a course, you can use the section number to identify the course modality and ensure that you are registering for the right course. The table below outlines how course section numbers at FSW correspond with modality and campus.

How to Be a Successful Online Student

While you will use many of the same strategies required for in-person learning, there are key differences in how you learn in online courses. As mentioned earlier, online instructors’ role shifts to facilitator while online students are expected to engage in independent learning. Independent learners are expected to take a more active role in their learning. At first, this change can be difficult for students, as they may be accustomed to being passive learners. Luckily, there are several strategies that online students can implement to help them be successful independent learners.

Independent learning requires the following skills:

• Defining your learning goal for each course, and each assignment you complete.
• Identifying the steps you must take to move towards your goal. What content do you need to know? How will you learn it?
• Choosing strategies that will support your own learning.
• Reaching out for the support you need from your instructor, classmates, and university support services.

Metacognition for Online Learning

An important skill that successful online students have is metacognition. Metacognition is, put simply, thinking about one’s thinking. More precisely, it refers to the processes used to plan, monitor, and assess one’s understanding and performance. Metacognition includes a critical awareness of a) one’s thinking and learning and b) oneself as a thinker and learner.

How do you gain the skill of metacognition?

Planning involves two key tasks: deciding what you need to learn, and then deciding how you are going to learn that material.

Monitoring requires you to ask, “how am I doing at learning this?” In monitoring, you are constantly tracking what you have learned, what you don’t yet know, and whether your study strategies are helping you to learn effectively.

Evaluation involves reflection on how well you met your learning objectives after completing a unit of study, or receiving feedback (such as a test or assignment).

Time Management for Online Learning

In addition to being an independent learner and understanding how you learn best (metacognition), another important aspect of online learning is time management. In order to successfully navigate online courses, online students must learn how to manage their time. Managing one’s time includes making time for all the different priorities in one’s life, including school, work, and family responsibilities

Online learning requires effective time management skills. You may not have the structure of a weekly class to help you organize your time and prioritize your assignments. If you are in a blended course, you will be responsible for a higher number of independent self-study hours than in traditional classroom courses.

Technology for College Learning

Technology in Education

Collaboration between students and the instructor is an important aspect of any online course. Therefore, with the increase of available technological tools, online instructors have incorporated a variety of technologies into online learning spaces to create opportunities for interaction as well as to diversify learning activities for students. For example, there are online conferencing tools evolving to support synchronous sessions for online instruction. It is possible to share a view of an application, share files, have real-time chat, real-time voice communication, and real-time video during a live class session.

How Is Technology Used to Organize Online Courses?

Technology is used by educational institutions to provide students with easy access to course information, support services, and flexible online learning. Educational technology tools include learning management systems (LMS) such as Moodle or Canvas that house your online courses, as well as podcasts, video lecture capture technology, and online discussion boards. At FSW, Canvas is used for posting syllabi, submitting assignments and posting grades in all classes, not just online classes. Learning how to navigate Canvas and use all of its features is especially important for success in online classes, however, as Canvas is the primary source of information and communication with classmates and the professor in an online class.

Students who need support using specific features of Canvas can find additional help through Canvas Student Guides.

Technology for Online Assignments

Different technologies are utilized by instructors to provide students with varying ways to share their knowledge and experiences within the course and to connect with your online learning community and the instructor. These approaches are based on the community of inquiry (CoI), which prioritizes the importance of online courses, including opportunities for affective expression, open communication, and a sense of group cohesion.

Additionally, these approaches contribute to students’ development of belonging and satisfying interactions with fellow students and the instructor.^[5] You can use technology to write a discussion, record a video in VoiceThread or Flipgrid, and post a comment to a Padlet.

For example, VoiceThread is a collaborative, multimedia slide show that holds images, documents, and videos and allows people to navigate slides and leave comments in five ways—using voice (with a mic or telephone), text, audio file, or video (via a webcam). Share a VoiceThread with friends, students, and colleagues for them to record comments too.

Additional technology used in online courses includes the following:

• computer software and Internet resources that allow students to record, defend, and challenge their thinking.
• interactive whiteboards that are helpful for class discussions about ideas or web content; they facilitate whole-class display and hands-on participation.
• blogs that can serve as personal journals, where students can record, share, and reflect on field experiences and research activities. Students can also use blogs as a pre-established environment for critically responding to assigned readings.
• wikis that can help students coordinate, compile, synthesize, and present individual or group projects or research, as well as build and share group resources and knowledge. Wikis can also help students provide peer review, feedback, and critiques.
• discussion boards that can help students establish a sense of community with their class and engage in ongoing threaded conversations on assigned readings and topics highlighting diverse points of view.
• Packback facilitates online, student-driven discussion and uses Artificial Intelligence to provide instantaneous feedback to help students improve their writing.
• Zoom is a video conferencing tool that provides instructors and students a way to meet online synchronously via a personal PC/laptop or cell phone with or without using video.

Communicating with Technology

Asynchronous and Synchronous Communication

Let’s begin with a few definitions. First, let’s talk about the two types of communication that can be used in an online class:

• Asynchronous communication is when you, your classmates, and your instructor participate in online discussions at different times, rather than in real-time. When you send your instructor a question via email, participate in an online discussion forum, or post to a blog for your class, you are communicating asynchronously.
• Synchronous communication happens in real-time, like having a class discussion in an in-person classroom or talking to a teacher after class. But you can communicate synchronously in an online environment too, through the use of tools like online chat; Internet voice or video calling systems like Skype or Google Hang-outs; or through the use of web-based video conferencing software like WebEx, Zoom, or Big Blue Button.

Learning Is Social

We know that learning is a social experience. It’s not all about what a student can read in a textbook. Nor is it all about information that an instructor can impart through a lecture. Based on the community of inquiry (CoI), students gain knowledge from the course content and from interacting with the instructor and other students.

There are many different ways students communicate with the instructor and other students in an online course, including verbally during live sessions, via text in discussions, or even audio messages as responses to course assignments. Furthermore, some online courses include group assignments that require students to collaborate using Google Docs or meet using video conferencing. Given the amount of interaction in online courses, good communication skills are essential in any online course. In order to successfully communicate in online courses, students need to be familiar with netiquette guidelines.

Based on the definitions provided, synchronous and asynchronous communication requires attention to varying netiquette guidelines.

Netiquette Guidelines for Email and IM

Online students should be aware that text-based messages (asynchronous) such as email, chat, instant messages, and discussion boards can be misinterpreted due to the lack of visual cues and in-person interaction. Professor Evan Abbey offers some strategies to utilize when communicating in a text-based exchange. While his advice is geared toward teachers, it still applies to students.

• Grammar and punctuation should be consistent with the rules of English. For example, capitalize the first letter of a sentence, use correct spelling, use punctuation marks, etc.
• Do not capitalize all letters when writing, as all capitalized letters mean you are shouting.
• Refrain from using abbreviations or use them sparingly because your reader may not be able to decipher what they mean. (For example, TIA—Thanks in Advance)
• Due to the chat nature of IM, the environment has its own language. You will learn that language over time, but please remember that your educational IMs should remain just as professional as your business emails.
• Email creates an electronic trail, so don’t send anything electronically that could come back to haunt you or damage your academic trajectory.^[6]

Here are some guidelines to follow that are specific to students:

• Always follow the format given by your professor/s in writing the subject line. This format gives them a headstart of what to expect in your letter.
• Include your course, year, and section and your issue/concern/suggestion in the subject line. Your Instructor may teach multiple courses and will have many students, so the more specific you are, the better and easier it will be for your professor.
• When you write, be sure to be brief, concise, and direct while being detailed. Don’t make the reader scroll through your entire message just to get a grasp of your concern.
• Allow at least 24 hours for your professors or staff to respond to your emails, and realize that many professors and most staff do not respond to emails on the weekends.

Synchronous Communication

Videoconferencing

Video conferencing software applications like Zoom, Collaborate, or WebEx are designed to support larger groups than Skype. They can provide a virtual experience that closely replicates an on-campus classroom. Many videoconferencing applications include useful features like the ability to share desktops, the ability to share files, online chat windows, and break-out rooms for small group work so your computer can truly become a window into a live classroom where students and instructors can interact and collaborate at the same time.

At FSW, your Canvas courses may allow you to use a tool called Big Blue Button for videoconferencing with classmates. Some professors may create a link to Big Blue Button from the Course Navigation Menu, or if your professor utilizes Canvas Group Collaboration Features, the Big Blue Button link could be found within your Group homepage. Here is more information on how to use Big Blue Button as a student.

Getting Tech-Ready

Getting Tech-Ready

If you are thinking about taking an online course or another kind of course with technology enhancements, you already know that it will require some basic technological skills. While you don’t necessarily need to be a computer scientist to take a class that involves a lot of online work, you should have a solid understanding of the basic technical skills needed to succeed. Understanding what these skills are upfront will make it much easier for you to be a tech-ready student.

What Will I Need?

Students now are taking their online courses using a range of devices, from desktop and laptop computers to smartphones and tablets. You may choose to do your schoolwork on one or more of these gadgets. It’s really about finding out which form of hardware best suits both your needs as a student and the requirements of the course. If you’re going to buy a computer, select something reliable, and more importantly, make sure that you have access to a fast Internet connection such as a broadband connection.

If your computer isn’t particularly reliable, or if you don’t have a computer or other internet-capable device, don’t worry. There are plenty of places where you can find computer access, and oftentimes for free: for instance, your local library or a computer lab on campus. FSW has computer laps and laptop kiosks, where students can check out a laptop for a few hours, on each campus. This link provides the computer lab and laptop kiosk locations on each campus. Just make sure that the device you choose to work on is dependable and that the space you choose to work in is conducive to your study habits. Slow computers and poor internet connections can significantly increase the time it takes for you to access and complete course assignments and the last thing you want to deal with all semester is Internet, hardware, or accessibility issues. FSW’s students in need of equipment such as laptops, webcams or

Operating Systems

There are some basics that your device will need to be equipped with in order to interact with your school’s course management system properly. For instance, you’ll want to make sure that you have an up-to-date operating system. Your computer’s operating system is the software that manages the programs and functions of your computer.

Hardware

Your individual course may also have its own hardware requirements. Check with your instructor or take a look at your syllabus to see if there is anything else you might need for your course. Some of these common hardware requirements might include

• a printer,
• a headset,
• speakers, or
• a web cam.

FSW students who do not have access to a reliable computer or webcam to complete their assignments can check out a laptop computer or webcam for the entire semester through the Office of Information Technology’s webpage. Click the “Student Technology Check-Out” link under “Popular Student Services” to fill out a request form.

Web Browser Requirements

Another factor that you’ll want to keep an eye out for is whether your course or learning management system (LMS) requires a particular browser for viewing internet content. Some content does not display properly or particular functions may not perform adequately in certain browsers; however, if you view the same content or page in a different browser, it will look and work perfectly. So make sure that if your instructor asks you to use a particular browser when completing a certain task, you follow their instructions. It is always a good idea to have several browsers installed on your machine when possible. That way you have a few options to choose from if you run into any problems. Here are some popular browsers:

• Apple’s Safari
• Google Chrome
• Mozilla Firefox
• Microsoft Edge

Most of FSW’s websites are compatible with Google Chrome. That is the recommended browser for most courses and programs at FSW, unless your professor tells you otherwise.

Plug-Ins

In addition to having a browser to view online content, sometimes your course will require you to install one or more of the following plugins so that you can view other media that the browser alone may not be able to handle: like animations, sound clips, PDFs, or any number of other things. Some common plug-ins you may need to install could include the following:

• Java
• Adobe Reader
• Windows Media Player
• Quicktime
• Microsoft Silverlight

These are free applications you can download from the Internet, and your instructor will let you know when you need a particular plug-in in order to view something.

Email Account

You will also definitely need an email account if you don’t already have one. Lots of schools provide free email accounts for registered students and some insist that you use this account for any school-related emails. At FSW, each student will receive a “Bucs” email account that will end with “@bucs.fsw.edu.” Your Bucs email account should be used for college-wide communications, such as emails to and from advisors and the registrar. You should check your Bucs email regularly to receive important communications from the college.

Additionally, Canvas has a messaging system that is intended for course-specific communications between students and professors, as well as student-to-student. Most professors prefer students email them with course-related questions via Canvas messaging, since this system labels student messages by the course name and section number.

Your instructor will probably state in their syllabus what the preferred means of communication will be for the term; if not, just ask your professor. Generally, students should avoid emailing professors or other college staff using their personal email addresses.

Technical Difficulties

Now it’s time to talk technical difficulties. Here’s the bad news: during the course of your studies, you’re bound to have an issue with your computer hardware or software.

The good news is that most technical problems are relatively easy to solve. Most of the issues you might encounter when taking a course online don’t require a complicated fix from tech support. In fact, you should be able to solve most problems yourself, and some may be so simple that they seem borderline ridiculous.

Some of these troubleshooting suggestions we’re about to give you are really, really obvious, but you’d be surprised at how often these obvious solutions are overlooked. Try some of these quick fixes if you experience common hardware issues.

Is it plugged in?

Check your computer cables and connections to make sure a cable or connection has not loosened or become unplugged. Sometimes things shift around without you noticing, and it’s an easy place to start.

Is there power?

If your computer is plugged into a surge protector make sure that the surge protector is turned on. It’s often a good idea to reset the surge protector by turning it off and on, just in case this is the source of your problem.

Using a portable

If you are using a laptop, Netbook, notebook, or tablet, it is a good idea to check your battery status often while you work. You can generally move your mouse over the battery icon shown on your screen and it will tell you just how much battery life is left. If the device will not turn on at all, try plugging it in and charge it for a few minutes before trying again. Some devices have a battery indicator on the outside of the device as well, usually near or on the battery itself.

No picture?

If your computer monitor is blank, make sure it is plugged in, connected to the computer, and turned on. Next, check the brightness control, generally located on the monitor or keyboard.

No sound?

If you have no sound on your computer, check the volume control for your computer to see if it is turned up high enough. Some applications have their own volume controls as well. Make sure you check both places to resolve any sound issues. If you’re using speakers, make sure they are plugged in, turned on, and properly connected to the audio port. It can be helpful to test your system’s sound by plugging headphones into the audio port on your computer to see if you can hear anything that way. If trying one of these easy fixes does not solve your issue, save your work and try restarting your computer. Surprisingly, this troubleshooting technique often works best!

Getting Help

One last way to find a solution is to simply conduct an Internet search for your issue. With billions of computer and Internet users around the world, chances are that someone has had the same problem you’re having, and that someone else has posted a solution. The Internet is full of these kinds of resources, from companies’ official troubleshooting pages to community help forums. You’ll often be able to pretty easily find the solution you’re looking for. Here is some important advice: when attempting to solve a technical problem on your computer, keep track of any messages your computer displays, and the steps you’ve taken in your attempt to fix it. If the problem is really complicated, you might need to explain to tech support everything you’ve done to try to fix it on your own. If none of these strategies work, however, don’t hesitate to contact your school’s tech support team. Write down their phone number, and call if you need some assistance. Remember, they’re here to support you and your studies. They’ll do their best to help you quickly find a solution to any issues they can.

For help with FSW technologies, students should submit a help ticket through FSW’s Office of Information Technology.

If you are having trouble with Canvas, you may also find a solution through Canvas Student Guides or by initiating a Chat with Canvas Support.

Organizing with Technology

Understanding Organizing with Technology

Organizing with technology is important for online learners because the class format is quite different from a face-to-face course on campus. In a face-to-face course, for instance, you’ll typically meet with your instructor and the other students in your class at least once a week and receive frequent reminders about when assignments are due.

In an online environment, though, it’s up to you to remind yourself. Luckily, there are a lot of tools available to help you get started. But first, it’s important to get organized.