E-learning Study Skills: Caffeine for E-learning Study Skills: Caffeine for tired college survival coursestired college survival courses

Ryan WatkinsGeorge Washington UniversityAuthor: E-learning Companion: A student’s guide to online success

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For Most Students…

≠

e-Learning SuccessClassroom Success

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For many students…

A+PASS

Drop Out

D-Incomplete

the transition can lead to frustration and disappointment.

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Learning to e-Learn

Most learners will develop valuable study habits for success in the college classroom.

But will they work online?

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The answer is YES and NO

e-Learning requires…

(a) the adaptation of old study habits,

(b) the adoption of new study skills,

(c) the development of technical skills, and

(d) the integration of all three into effective e-learning strategies.

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Without these skills…opportunities to learn will be lost!

Isolation

Anxiety

Drop Outs

Disappointment

Low performance Incompletes

Stress

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And opportunities for futuree-learning will be lost!

Lost time

Bad press

for e-learning

Irritation

Frustration

Lower enrollments

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What is Learning to e-Learn?

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Learners today are generally skilled at…• Sending emails• Shopping online• Downloading music• Playing online video games• Socializing

Technical Skills

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E-Learning Study Skills

However, learners are NOT very skilled at…• Communicating effectively online• Staying organized• Comprehending online readings and discussions• Applying critical thinking skills online• Transferring study skills to online courses• Taking notes while reading online• Synthesizing information from multiple websites• Evaluating online resources• Learning from e-learning course components!

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Where are we?

You

Your students

Technology Skills

Such as Facebook, text messaging,

online file sharing, etc.

1 10

1 10

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Where are we?

You

Your students

e-LearningStudy Skills

Such as note taking, critical thinking,

building relationships, communicating, etc.

1 10

101

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Never the Less

E-learning is becoming a part of the college experience…• 56% of colleges (over 2,320 institutions) offer e-learning courses;

• 127,400 different e-learning courses are offered each year; and

• Over 3 million course enrollments.

E-learning includes…• Online colleges (for example, Strayer, Capella, Phoenix);

• Completely online courses and degree programs at traditional colleges;

• Single online courses (for example, Psychology 101);

• Online summer school programs;

• Hybrid-courses (some campus sessions, some online sessions); and

• E-learning activities (campus courses that use some online components – such as submitting assignments online, posting a syllabus in BlackBoard, or online discussion boards).

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Path to Online Success

• Readiness for e-learning.• Updated study skills.• Active learning strategies.• Online communication skills.• Time management techniques. • Virtual teamwork skills.• Proper e-learning environment.• Evaluation of online resources.

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Readiness is Essential to Success

Take Aways Knowing their strengths and weaknesses is important. Not all e-learning courses will be a good match for their skills and

habits.

Activity Ideas Have students take notes while watching a short video on

www.fora.tv. Afterwards discuss what strategies worked and did not work.

Give out a sample syllabus for an e-learning course. After students analyze the syllabus, discuss what are the technical and study skills necessary to be successful in the class.

Have students complete the E-learning Readiness Self-Assessment in the E-learning Companion (or online at the Cengage website)

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Time to Update Their Study Skills

Take Aways Study skills from high school won’t likely be enough.

– For example, the note taking techniques used for high school lectures or readings will have to updated for new online articles, podcasts, or streaming video presentations.

The new classroom requires some new study skills.

Activity Ideas Have student submit a group paper with MS Word’s Track

Changes and Comments features being used. Have the class read and take notes on an article for 5 minutes, half

reading online and half reading paper copies; discuss the differences in note taking strategies.

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Try Something New!

Have you tried Google Calendar yet?– Calendar.google.com– Supports multiple color-coded calendars.– Calendars can be shared with either viewing-only

or editing privileges.– Reminders can be sent to you via text message.– Integrates with Gmail and other Google tools

(such as Google Sites).

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Try Something New!

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Learning is not a passive activity… and neither is e-learning

Take Aways All learning requires active participation. E-learners can be active learners by…

– taking notes while reading online.– participating in all chat or discussion board conversations.– managing their study habits.– creating online study groups.

Activity Ideas Use an online discussion board to discuss time management

strategies. Later, in class discuss the benefits and risks of discussion boards, and how to gain more from the experience.

Use an online “ice breaker” at the start of the semester to get students talking online (for example, 3 websites about myself).

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Try Something New!

Have you tried Google Docs yet?– docs.google.com– Online file sharing of documents, spreadsheets, and

presentations.– Files can be shared and edited online by multiple people.– Files can be saves in numerous formats (including Word, PDF,

Excel, etc.).– Files can also be published as websites -- which is a great way

that students can submit team projects.– Microsoft offers Office Live, which is a file sharing alternative.

Check-out, check-out system rather than real-time editing. Requires MS Office on your computer.

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Try Something New!

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Online Communications!

Take Aways Email, text message, chat, video conference, and other

technologies all change how we communicate. Learn and practice successful strategies for communicating

with all of these technologies.

Activity Ideas Hand out a sample email that violates rules of professional

communications (e.g., slang, jokes, text message abbreviations, misspelled words) and ask students to highlight the problems.

Email communication skills handout and activity is available at: http://sites.google.com/site/elearningstudyskills/

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Try Something New!

Have you tried Zotero yet?– www.zotero.org– Similar to EndNotes, but free.– Captures and records reference information from

books, articles, websites, and other online resources.– Works seamlessly with most online library catalogs.– Requires students to use the Mozilla Firefox browser.

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Try Something New!

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Time Management

Take Aways Successful e-learners are generally more independent

learners, although new technologies are making this less of a necessity.

Balance your commitments (work, e-learning, personal, etc.).

Activity Ideas For one week have students use Google Calendar track when

when they study. After the week, have them “publish” the calendar as a website that they can share it with you.

Have students create a personal iGoogle page, and then add the Listy To Do gadget to the page. For each course they are taking, they should then create a To Do tab in iGoogle with their upcoming assignments and activities.

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Try Something New!

Have you tried iGoogle yet?– www.google.com/ig– Customize and organize information on your

Homepage– Gives you many tools to add to your Homepage

Calendar Gmail Yahoo mail To-do list News feeds Hundreds of other options

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Try Something New!

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Try Something New!

Have you tried del.icio.us yet?– del.icio.us or delicious.com– Social bookmarking site.– Groups of students can save and share bookmarks of

interesting websites together.– You can create one for the class, and then everyone

can share their favorites together in one list.– Uses “tags” rather than folders to organize bookmarks

(much more effective and flexible).

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Try Something New!

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Virtual Teams

Take Aways Frequent participation and carrying their weight is essential to

team success. Virtual (online) teams are used in many e-learning courses

and require a new set of skills for most students.

Activity Ideas Have student teams identify 5 roles for online team members

(e.g., note taker, question asker, nay sayer, idea generator, organizer).

Have student teams of 3 to 5 members create a short presentation on effective team strategies using the slideshow creator in Google Docs.

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Try Something New!

Have you tried Doodle yet?– www.doodle.com– Quick and easy surveys.– Great for scheduling study groups or team

meetings.

– Also check out www.ClickBooks.com.

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Try Something New!

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Evaluating Online Resources

Activity Ideas Identify a wikipedia topic and page, then ask students to

track down at least one “original source” study that verifies the information on in wikipedia.

Web resource evaluation handout is available at: http://sites.google.com/site/elearningstudyskills/

Take Aways All websites and online resources should not

equal. Have standard criteria for evaluating online

resources (e.g., source reliability, information quality, & information usefulness).

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Try Something New!

Have you tried Face Book yet?– www.facebook.com– Social networking.– Your students are already there, so take the

information to them rather than having them come to you looking for information.

– Create a group in Facebook to “push” information to your students.

– Group for those interested in E-learning Study Skills:http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=73295761809

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Try Something New!

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Online Study Environment

Take Away Task interruptions impact on both time and memory. Both your physical (e.g., chair, lighting, noise) study environment

and your online (e.g., font size, text messaging turned off, file organization) study environment are critical. Make sure that you are ready to learn when you e-learn!

Activity Ideas Have students develop a file naming strategy for their course notes,

assignments, and files.– For example, 2009-4-3_HIS100_Assign_1_Notes.doc.

For one day, ask students to track how many times they are interrupted from their reading or studying by emails, text messages, or phone calls. Have students report back the number of times they were interrupted during the next class session.

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Try Something New!

Have you tried CMAP yet?– cmap.ihmc.us– Mind-mapping or concept mapping software.– Maps can be shared with other contributors.– It is free and easy to use.– Files can also be attached to “nodes”.

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Try Something New!

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Ten Tips for Your e-Learners

1. Know your short-cut keys.– CRTL + X– ALT + Tab

2. Exploit the right-click.

3. Download plug-ins and add-ons.

4. Know which search engines to use.

5. Use acronyms and emoticons only when appropriate.

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Ten Tips for Your e-Learners

6. Set a schedule for your e-learning.

7. Use technology to help manage your time.

8. Organize your files and keep a “clean” computer.

9. Watch out for distractions from your studies (e.g., emails, text messages, phone calls, facebook)

10. Have fun and stay involved!

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Try Something New!

Have you tried You Send It yet?– www.yousendit.com– Free service for emailing large

files.– Great for large presentations or

reports.– Great for files with lots of images

or sounds.– Free for files up to 100mb.

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Try Something New!

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Ten Tips for e-Instructors

1. Focus on learner performance by clearly defining what e-learners will know and be able to do at the end of the course.

2. Don’t be afraid to learn from your students.3. Use online “ice breakers” to engage your

students (even if your class meets on-campus).4. Model the online behaviors you want from

learners (e.g., etiquette, response time on emails, professional writing).

5. Use the resources of your college (tech support, librarians, colleagues, etc.).

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Ten Tips for e-Instructors

6. Intersperse online activities throughout any course (on-campus, online, or hybrid).

7. Provide clear and specific guidelines for participation.

8. Do not try to do everything (e.g., Second Life, blogs, wikis, twitter, facebook).

9. Make time for individual feedback.10. Get involved in class discussions.

Bonus: Don’t assume that your students know how to e-learn.

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Additional information

Ryan Watkins is a professor of educational technology at George Washington University. In addition to the E-learning Companion, he is the

author of seven books, including 75 E-learning Activities.

Please visit: www.ryanrwatkins.com

Additional copies of slideshow and handouts are available for download at:http://sites.google.com/site/elearningstudyskills/