Making the Online Experience Meaningful for College Students

Meaningful.

As an educator and instructional designer, this word intrigues me because it is so relative. What is meaningful to one student may not be meaningful to another.

So, how do online faculty create meaningful learning experiences for students whose aim or intended outcome can be multifarious?

In The Essentials of Instructional Design, Connecting Fundamental Principles with Process and Practice, Abbie Brown and Timothy Green explore the idea of learners who fit into two categories—captive audience or willing volunteers.

The crew in the captive audience are those learners who have been mandated to receive the instruction while the willing volunteers are those who participate due to their motivation (intrinsic or extrinsic) and desire to learn. Brown and Green propose that the effectiveness of instruction can be greatly enhanced when the motivation and obligation of learners are understood.

This idea arouses so many questions as I observe the distance learning landscape. In many instances, it seems that the “convenience” of the learning experience pervades the marketing messages of many institutions rather than the meaningfulness of the learning experience.

Is convenience what makes a distance learning experience meaningful or are there other factors?

In today’s recording, I share my take on this question and include a personal example based on my experience with my new Peloton bike that arrived yesterday. Listen to the three factors that contribute to a meaningful learning experience online according to at least 44 studies and share your reaction in the comment section below.

Do you agree or disagree with the current research?

What makes a distance learning experience meaningful for you?