How effective is online learning?

Kristine and I attended a workshop last week and I just realized that I forgot to blog about it at the time. Hopefully I'll remember enough to write about but I suppose it will allow me a retrospective look and I'll just write about the things that were most important :)

The workshop was a Learning Lunch put on by the Center for Teaching. Titled "Changing text, changing brains: Conversations about literacy, genre and neuroscience and what this means for student writing." The group of professors and instructors present talked about the rise of online tools in teaching - specifically for reading and writing - and the general rise of internet and technologically mediated communication, and how this is changing the way students learn.

One thing they mentioned that I have heard before is the "F pattern" of reading on a webpage. This research doesn't specifically apply to academic work, it apparently is for any type of online resource. But basically it says that people are most likely to read in this pattern - look at the computer screen and imagine the vertical line of the letter F running all the way down the left side of the page. Then fill in the rest of the letter across the screen. That is the most common area that is read by people in general in an online format. This might be helpful for me when assigning students work they will read or complete online. I'll have to make sure the most important and pertinent information is in that F to be sure they are more likely to read it.

One thing I questions the professors about that I have noticed in my classes was the way students use "text speak" in their papers and whether this is a more recent change; since I have only been teaching college students this semester for the first time I have no frame of reference when I see a student leave I uncapitalized or other such things that are now common, because quick texting with no thought for grammatical correctness becomes more commonplace. Many of the teachers present were nodding in agreement as I explained what I observed about students writing in this way and many spoke up saying it was something they see an increasing problem. However, one made the valid comment that students will always make mistakes and not proofread so this is not really that different to mistakes they made in the past.

One recommendation from an English instructor was understanding that students can be a lot more distracted by all their technology these days and accepting that so we can address it. She suggests making a deal with students that they can have a two minute technology break to check their texts, Facebook or email, if they will make every effort to pay attention for the rest of class. I'm not sure how well that would work because it seems like students might be more distracted after the break thinking about what they looked at in the break. She also said a drawback is older students who don't care about the technology and don't want the break. However, that said, I think it might be worth a try to see if it is an effective strategy - she obviously likes it since she uses it in her classes. I'll have to consider if this is something I will include in my classes for next semester, I'm still not totally convinced.