Ahima Agyeman Badu, (10235002)MA Distance Education and E-Learning

(DEEL)

Learning Strategies

The use of online training is growing rapidly in workplace training as well.Businesses are adopting Internet technology for training as a way to reduce trainingcosts, provide worldwide accessibility, and improve technological capabilities(Brown, 2000). Online instruction offers greater flexibility and less “down time”

because employees can receive training on an as-needed basis.

Dr. Jennifer Bachner, Program Coordinator of the AAP Government Program asserts that, online learning isn’t much different than a classroom.

By employing a few essential strategies, any student can learn not only to succeed, but to flourish in the online learning environment as an alternate mode of delivering higher education. (Jones, 1997)

Active or Passive?

Online education has been growing rapidly in higher education and business, but the

question remains about what learning strategies learners have settled on or have adapted.

The use of the web is essential. Collaborative learning for students

Assignments are given frequently, program development,

Learning is mainly a student centered.

• Provision of targeted feedback and self-assessment tools so as to know where you’re excelling and where you need more work.

Very high student collaboration

Plan how to work through each unit.

Determine how to use the various features of the course to help you learn.

Decide when you need to seek additional support.

When starting an online course, most people neglect to plan, opting instead to jump in and begin working.

One of the characteristics that distinguish experts from novices is that experts spend far more time planning their approach to a task than they do actually completing it. Novices do the opposite: they rush through the planning stage and spend far more time overall.

Improving your planning skills as you work through the material in the course will help you to become a more strategic and thoughtful learner and will enable you to more effectively plan your approach to assignments, exams, and projects in other courses.

When starting an online course, most people neglect to plan, opting instead to jump in and begin working.

One of the characteristics that distinguish experts from novices is that experts spend far more time planning their approach to a task than they do actually completing it. Novices do the opposite: they rush through the planning stage and spend far more time overall.

Improving your planning skills as you work through the material in the course will help you to become a more strategic and thoughtful learner and will enable you to more effectively plan your approach to assignments, exams, and projects in other courses.

One would have to refers to the awareness of him/herself as a learner and their ability to regulate their own learning.

This involves five distinct skills:

Assess the task—Get a handle on what is involved in completing a task (the steps or components required for success) and any constraints (time, resources).

Evaluate your strengths and weaknesses—Evaluate your own skills and knowledge in relation to a task.

Plan an approach—Take into account your assessment of the task and your evaluation of your own strengths and weaknesses to devise an appropriate plan.

Apply strategies and monitor your performance—Continually monitor your progress as you work on a task, comparing where you are to the goal you want to achieve.

Reflect and adjust if needed—Look back on what worked and what did not work so that you can adjust your approach next time and, if necessary, start the cycle again.

If you are given an assignment, you should ask yourself, “What exactly does this assignment involve, and what have I learned in this course that is relevant to it?”

One would be exercising metacognitive skills 1 and 2 if he/she decide to assess the task and evaluating your strengths and weaknesses in relation to it.

If you think about what steps you need to take to complete the assignment and determine when it is reasonable to begin, you are exercising skill 3 by planning.

If you start in on your plan and realize that you are working more slowly than you anticipated, you are putting skill 4 to work by applying a strategy and monitoring your performance.

Finally, if you reflect on your performance in relation to your timeframe for the task and discover an equally effective but more efficient way to work, you are engaged in skill 5, reflecting and adjusting your approach as needed.

Learn By Doing

Learn by doing

Learn by doing “At one time I thought the most important thing was

talent. I think now that — the young man or the young woman must possess or teach himself, train himself, in infinite patience, which is to try and to try and to try until it comes right. He must train himself in ruthless intolerance. That is, to throw away anything that is false no matter how much he might love that page or that paragraph. The most important thing is insight, that is ... curiosity to wonder, to mull, and to muse why it is that man does what he does. And if you have that, then I don't think the talent makes much difference, whether you've got that or not.[Press conference, University of Virginia, May 20, 1957]” ― William Faulkner

Passive learning is a common way of studying that involves reading paragraph after paragraph to absorb new information.

Active learning in other words engage the learner in thinking ahead before beginning to read, actively trying to understand the material being read, and reflecting afterwards on situations in which the new information can be used.

Active Learning Passive Learning

I have observed that learning could be very effectiveness based on the kind of learning strategy one adapts. On the other hand, Ghana could also adapt the online platform provided by OLI in our educational environment not loosing sight on the essence of upgrading our skills in ICT so as to make the learning online more easier and acomodative.