From the few challenges that the author stated in the article regarding SDL in online learning, I believe motivation will be the most difficult to overcome. Human have a tendency to put education after luxury because education, generally speaking, is not fun as well it creates more work for them. To overcome this challenge, the learning subject must be attractive to the extent that the attractiveness can motivate the learner to work (study) prior to doing any kind of luxury activities. Yet, there are many students in one online-learning context, it is nearly impossible to satisfy all or even half of them from the same subject. Therefore, I believe that to improve learners’ motivations strategies that should avoid procrastination and create meaningful interactions are the most indispensable area to achieve.
I mostly agree with Candy’s Four Dimensional Model in the three existing perspectives on SDL that was stated in the article. Nevertheless, I think personal autonomy and self-management can be combined as one dimension under personal attribute. Personally, the way I look at the word personal autonomy has the same meaning with how Candy described self-management, “willingness and capacity to conduct one’s own education.” Instead of personal autonomy, I think time-management can be replaced as the dimension under personal attribute. It is different than learner-control as time-management includes managing all activities in a day, not only in educational settings. Yet, this is only my opinion regarding the model. I still think Candy’s Four Dimensional Model has described SDL most accurately and it is closed to what I believe.
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4 comments:
Yah, you are right "Human have a tendency to put education after luxury because education, generally speaking, is not fun as well it creates more work for them." I believe many people taking an online course is to avoid/reduce some the work load from the on site course.
I took a online course last year this time, the couese was conducted mostly in the WebCT. I personally feel that in an online course one has to be more self managed than in an on site course. This is because on site course requires scheduled regular meetings that instructors could deliver a comprehensive lecture to student, but in an online course students have to manage them self to allot some of his/her time to do the study from the first day of the class. Some times it is hard for procrastinator to set a schedule and stick on it.
Yes, I agree with you. I found that people have more interested in studying what they are familiar. Therefore, motivation has an important link with self-directed learning.
Human laziness is definately a challenge in SDL. Some students will do the bare minimun in a SDL online environmnet, which can be a shame if they are not putting forth the effort and time managment needed to learn. You are correct on this aspect. On the other hand, SDL online could be a useful tool for the advanced students who need a greater challange and can take advantage of the felxibility and the larger opportunity to explore and challenge themselves.
You have a very good point about self-management and personal autonomy being the same thing. As you are right, "time-management" is different, and not all students possess this skill, even though they have the desire to excel and work hard.
Learners have more flexible schedule in self-directed learning through online environment. However, motivation and time management would be challenges for online learning. I think students must have good control in self-directed learning process since online learning does not require face-to-face traditional on site learning. In traditional way, teachers can monitor and manage students’ learning process in class. For example, most teachers would give students 10 to 20 minutes to discuss their group assignment or individual assignment. Therefore, students would have their peers’ pressure base on their learning process. On the other hand, online learners have clear idea on when their assignment is due, nevertheless, some of them would procrastinate their work until the last minute. Those assignments which are done before one or two due days usually do not contain good quality or insight thoughts. Hence, I agree with what Song said in her article. “Online learning need to become motivated to overcome the procrastination challenge associated with online learning (Elvers, Polzella, & Graetz, 2003), and to take advantage of online communication affordances to create meaningful interaction (King, 2002)”.
You might interest in the following link which I found on Athbasca University:
http://epe.lac-bac.gc.ca/100/200/300/athabasca_univ/theory_and_practice/ch1.html
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