LTD 504 Your Perspective on Digital Learning

 

          

When thinking about my digital learning experience it is all with myself as the learner. I have completed all of my undergraduate and graduate course work as a digital learner. This format just works better for me than a traditional learning environment. I tend to lose focus quickly in the classroom if it isn’t paced well. Digital learning provides me with the opportunity to work at my pace and to organize my schedule so that I can complete tasks at my optimal time.

I have had both good and bad experiences with digital learning, my worst by far was a statistics class that was required for my undergraduate degree. This was primarily because there wasn’t a lot of support or even direction within the module. Making it very difficult to grasp the concepts that we were supposed to be learning. While I passed the class, I feel like I didn’t gain anything from it. Most of my time was spent searching how to input the formulas correctly rather than actually building an understanding of the content itself.

After being in the Learning Design and Technology program, I feel like there were many things that could have been done to make this statistics class be more effective. Better instructor involvement and more in depth instructional materials would have gone a long way towards supporting learner understanding of the course content. Having visual content alongside the written content would have helped cement the information into long term memory. Both of these would have also provided a better connection to the course for the learners.

One of the things I have learned so far in my current program is that it is essential to make and build a connection with the target audience for the learning to be effective. We have to understand the different learning styles and build learning modules not only with the content requirements in mind but also the target audience for the information provided to be effective and retainable.

My best experience was my Instructional Methods for Young Children class during my graduate degree. I feel like this class was so informative and the instructional team was super supportive. They were quick to respond if there were questions or problems. I really feel like I took away a lot of new skills and information from this specific course. Not only did I gain new knowledge on ways to build a lesson plan that is effective for the age range that I interact with, but I also gained a better understanding of curriculum guidelines and state standards. Both are an integral part of being an effective teacher regardless of the age range.

I really feel that the content that was integrated into each learning module of this course was informative both visually and written. Not only were there reading materials that were required, but also videos and images. The incorporation of multimedia learning tools supported a better understanding and also allowed for prior knowledge to be scaffolded into the current learning. Supporting both short and long term memory building. I know that for me it helped support my learning and retainment of the information that was being provided.

While the majority of my e-learning experience comes from the position of a learner, there are a few things that I have come to understand from both the designer and learner perspective. One thing that stands out to me is that elearning needs to utilize multimedia options. Having strictly read only content does not support the overall learning and retainment of the learners utilizing the module. In order to grab and maintain the attention of the user you need to include visual and audio options. Using all of these media options supports the attention and information retainment of the learner, even if they may not be the target audience.

I find that learning appears different for each individual and their experiences with the same materials may not look the same. It is important to ensure that the learning being created is able to reach the broadest audience possible. This can include many areas that may seem irrelevant to someone just looking in, but are in reality very important.

Audio materials must be clear and loud enough to be heard across many user platforms. The same is true for visual media. They should be loadable across a variety of platforms and user tools. Visually elearning materials should be consistent and easy to read. They should also be aligned appropriately. This supports the learning of the user and can be used to draw the eye and ensure that the eye is drawn where you need it to be.

There are many more parts that are important aspects of learning that are important for an elearning to be successful. This post has the ability to go one forever with information. Instead I will wrap up here. I as an individual prefer to use elearning rather than a traditional learning model. It just works better for me both as a learning platform but also as an overall experience. I tend to be a last minute learner, I know this isn’t the most effective way to learn, but it is what works best for me. Knowing and understanding that there are different types of learners has been made very clear by taking elearning courses. You can see who does their tasks at the beginning, middle, or end of each module. Providing the understanding that all learning should be accessible to those who learn differently.