How Do I Know My Students Are Actually Learning in an Online Class? [draft]

[This is a first draft of some of my preliminary thoughts]

I was asked this question during a consultation with a new online instructor. Sounds simple but I was somewhat stumped. I recall recovering in time to furnish a response. In hindsight, I want to put together a more thoughtful response.

Essentially, this concern confounds most first-time instructors of online courses. They fear that they can’t engage with their learners and will not know whether these learners are keeping up with the class. The gap in space and place, the asynchronous nature of much of the learning means that instructors struggle to know what is going on in the minds of their learners.

Unless learners are actively participating in the course. Unless there is some way to capture that participatory thinking and learning.

Unless we ask learners to keep a digital journal where they post their reflections.

Unless formative learning tasks or activities are spaced out during the course to indicate progress in learning.

Unless learners have some regular synchronous contact times with their instructors. Still, it is difficult in one hour or so to determine if all learners, particularly in a large enrollment class, are actively learning.

Basically, what we — instructors and instructional designers — want is some form of communication/message from learners to indicate that learning has taken place. Learning is often described as a positive change in thinking, behavior and attitudes.

In online learning, only when thinking is made visible can we have some inkling as to whether learning has taken place.

So, have your online learners document their thinking. Depending on the type of learning you want evidenced, let learners communicate their learning with you in multiple forms of representation.