Student Barriers to Online Learning

Did you know that the single most influential factor in student learning and success is the teacher? This is true for in-person and online courses (Kennette and Redd, 2015; Kim and Thayne, 2015). And did you know that two significant challenge of online education are a real or perceived sense of isolation, and a lack of connection and presence between teacher and student (Roddy et al., 2017).

As we all continue to shelter at home, here are three tips to consider to help your students know they are not alone, and you are still there.

1. Feedback and communication

Feedback: We know it is important to provide feedback frequently and timely for the student to have a sense of how they are doing in the course and with their learning. This is especially true for online courses.  I appreciate the thought of individually responding to 60 plus students posts or assignments seem overwhelming, so consider building a bank of responses that you can cut and paste. But the key here, in an online dynamic, is to make them personal. You can do this by adding the student’s name or adding a few extra words to make it personal in some way.  At times, it will be fine for the feedback to be short, acknowledging their contribution, other times, you will need to be more detailed and informative.

Communication: Communication skills are especially crucial for online learning (Easton, 2003). There are so many ways to communicate and connect, so think outside the box of e-mail. Think about short instant texts, videos, and audio messages too. If a student is asking a question or needs clarification about something, using a recorded videoed response can be enormously helpful. For example, using something like Loom lets you share your computer screen to guide the student while they can see you in the bottom corner of the screen (check out Loom.com). You can “show” the student as you would if they came to your office, and they can see you as you explain it.  Mix up the methods by which you communicate with students, communicate more often than you would in an in-person class, make it personal, and think about periodically sending encouraging, motivating, and uplifting messages from time to time.

Communication also includes considering response time. Teacher response time for online learning is a key predictor of student satisfaction (Bollinger and Martindale, 2004). Be sure to respond to questions or requests for connection from students within a reasonable time frame, like 24 hours. It can also be helpful to let them know ahead of time what your time frame is, so they know what to expect. Just as you are not available to them all the time when on campus, it is fine to define the hours you are available (see below) or when they can expect a response from you. One approach I used that worked well was to tell my students it was their responsibility to let me know if they were in crisis or having a serious meltdown by putting something in the subject line to indicate urgency.  This way, I would work things on my end to try and connect with them as soon as I could. Yes, I defined what I meant by urgency.  Otherwise, I would respond within the established time frame.

2. Check-in with students-frequently. In the online course setting, students can forget you are there and quietly struggle or become frustrated or have challenges with the course materials, assignments, or access. When I am in the classroom, I can see all of the students and their expressions. It makes it easy to know if something is amiss immediately, but not so for online teaching. Therefore, it is vital for us to intentionally build in ways and a schedule for checking-in with students regularly. Since we won’t see them in class, or pass them in a hallway, we need to reach out to them to find out how they are doing and how they are navigating the course. This can be accomplished in several ways. Sending a brief survey to perhaps ten students and then the next week send it to a different ten students.  Think of it like a mid-course evaluation, except make it every two weeks or so. Only sending to some students helps prevent survey fatigue. Another way is to do a small focus group Zoom call. This method also allows students to engage with you “live.”  In online learning, it is essential to keep our finger on the pulse of how the students are doing.

Of course, there should still be some formal check-in with students as you would do when meeting with your advisees once a semester. So consider setting up virtual office hours. You can do this by appointment, or you can create a set time that you open a room in Zoom and make yourself available to them to “show up” if they need it. You can also schedule group office hours to be more time-efficient, but always having a space for individual meetings, as well. It is so important for students to know they can still reach you person to person (even if through video). 

3. Involve them in decision making, when possible. We know having a voice in decisions is a critical aspect of importance to adult learners. In the online setting, because of the sense of isolation is a challenge, asking their opinion in decisions related to the course, assignments, deadlines, etc., can increase their sense of belonging. Have a voice in the course can serve to increase commitment and motivation as well (Cruickshank, 2020). Since we are all on a steep learning curve, letting the students weigh in can provide valuable insight and information from the students’ perspective that can be of significant value in making decisions about the course.

I hope you realize while some or all of this may feel overwhelming and like a lot more work, it really is just a shift in the way we are doing our job. As with anything new, it does take more time in the beginning, but as we become more skilled, it will require less time.

References and Resources

Bolliger, D. U., and Martindale, T. (2004). Key factors for determining student satisfaction in online courses. Int. J. E-Learn. 6, 61–67.

Cruickshank, S. (2020). How to adapt courses for online learning: A practical guide for faculty. The HUB: Johns Hopkins University. Retrieved from https://hub.jhu.edu/2020/03/12/how-to-teach-online-courses-coronavirus-response/

Easton, S. S. (2003). Clarifying the instructor’s role in online distance learning. Commun. Educ. 52, 87–105. doi:10.1080/03634520302470

Kennette, L. N., and Redd, B. R. (2015). Instructor presence helps bridge the gap between online and on-campus learning. Coll. Q. 18.

Kim, Y., and Thayne, J. (2015). Effects of learner–instructor relationship-building strategies in online video instruction. Distance Educ. 36, 100–114. doi:10.1080/01587919.2015.1019965

Macgregor-Mendoza, P. (2013). Transition from tradition: 9 tips for successfully moving your face-to-face course online. eLearn magazine. Retrieved from https://elearnmag.acm.org/archive.cfm?aid=2509419

Roddy, C., Amiet, D.L., Chung, J., Holt, C., Shaw, L., McKenzie, S., … Mundy, M. E. (2017). Applying best practice online Learning, teaching, and support to intensive online environments: An integrative review. Front. Educ. 2:59. doi: 10.3389/feduc.2017.00059 Retrieved from https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/feduc.2017.00059/full