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Effective design and instruction of distance courses can provide additional support for students who are at risk of failure due to the fact that they never developed effective learning strategies in traditional face-to-face environments.

The problems can be compounded in online and/or hybrid courses, where more self-regulation is required and where social or group behaviors are not automatic sources of support, reinforcement, and cognition-building.

Such problems, however, present an opportunity for online and hybrid course developers to create courses that guide students in the mastery of effective learning strategies, and equip them with an array of tactics for successfully negotiating not only the particular course, but also learning in general. The design can function as non-obtrusive virtual coaching, with strategies and approaches that can be emulated by others and applied to other learning situations and settings.

In 1996, H. Tait and N. J. Entwistle published the results of a study that explored the connection between ineffective study habits and academic success, and it suggested that poor study habits and learning strategies place a student at risk. While this may seem self-evident, the study revealed very useful connections between behavioral, cognitive, and emotional strategies.

The authors, Tait and Entwistle, concluded that the most effective learning strategies were ones that reinforced each other in a seamless, integrative manner. These insights are very useful for designers, instructors, and administrators who can develop and guide courses in ways that can naturally incorporate the acquisition of learning strategies.

In fact, a well-designed online or hybrid course can (and probably should) teach learning strategies as well as the course content. Needless to say, achieving learning outcomes requires one to have at least some facility with multiple learning strategies, particularly when learning styles differ.

Further, external factors such as lack of access and confusion can create anxiety, frustration, or confusion and can act as barriers to persistence.

Cognitive Learning Strategies

1—Rehearsal

These are procedures used by the student to repeat to himself or herself the course content. In a traditional setting, students often copy notes, or recopy the content. Studies have suggested that this is not particularly effective at achieving deep learning, but it does help students in classification and identification of content.

In an online environment, “rehearsal” is an automatic, and can be built into navigation tools, and reinforced by using color, typography, and design. Learning activities can also ask students to type categories and to rehearse knowledge. This approach is most effective when it requires students to make connections or to classify and organize content.

2—Organization

These are procedures that help students identify key topics and issues, and to build cognitive structures that allow classification, grouping, and inter-relation. It requires synthesis, evaluation, and higher-level activities which can lead to deeper learning.

In an online environment, if students are required to engage in an instructional activity that requires both rehearsal and organization, they are more able to be flexible in their thinking and to use the information in more than one setting or context.

3—Elaboration

This procedure is deeply constructivist in its epistemological underpinnings, which is to say that it requires students to not only repeat, restate, classify, organize, it requires the learner to make connections between disparate chunks of information. It may also require making connections between course content and the learner’s own knowledge or experience.

An online course can require students to write essays, or provide brief analyses that require the learner to engage in elaboration. To be most effective, a set of procedures or “guiding questions” can provide the scaffolding needed.

Modeling elaboration by providing examples of “situated learning” — learning that places the content within a certain context and asks the student to transform it — can lead to the acquisition of effective learning strategies.

Behavioral Learning Strategies

1—Interpersonal help-seeking

In a classroom setting or traditional face-to-face environment, in-class group work or study groups outside the class provide an easy way to seek help.

In an online class, attempts to provide this are multiple, but of highly variable efficacy. The ubiquitous “FAQ” page is useful, but only if there is a good search tool and the student knows what he or she should be asking. A live “help desk” is useful, but usually not class-specific enough to be of much use. Synchronous chat rooms can be helpful, as are opportunities to communicate through internet telephony, such as Skype. Discussion boards can be effective in seeking help, although they tend to be public and postings can be subject to misinterpretation.

2—Interaction / social reinforcement

Interactivity in a face-to-face setting is often most effective when a facilitator moderates discussions and models the behavior that is deemed desirable.

In the online environment, chat and discussion areas can be very effective, particularly if there are multimedia aspects — video and audio — that are easily accessed.

Blogs, collaborative projects and games can be ways of modeling positive interaction, and one can “reality check” one’s ideas and/or thoughts. One of the most effective methods of achieving social reinforcement in an online environment is to ask students to post a project or paper in order to allow others to see what they are doing and to comment.

3—Seeking help from written material

This strategy involves procedures for obtaining information from books, digital resources, and other items. Key strategies involve teaching how to narrow a search, how to recognize the correct information once it has been retrieved, and how to apply it in an appropriate manner.

The online environment offers many opportunities to coach students on how to retrieve and use information. This can range from the use of a virtual library, or the use of learning objects.

In fact, this is one of the best places for learning objects. Small, highly granular objects — interactive maps, online dictionaries, diagrams, guides and flowcharts — can be quite helpful. They can also link with cognitive strategies that involve making connections, organizing, and repeating.

4—Practical application

These procedures ask individuals to try things in the real world. Effective learning strategies can be modeled and transferred by using simulations, games, and virtual worlds.

Self-Regulation Strategies

1—Time management

This is a learning strategy / self-regulation technique that is very difficult to teach and implement in the online environment due to the fact that there are huge distractors lying at one’s fingertips.

Timed deadlines, and disabling/disabling access to Instant Messanger, chat, internet telephony, internet, and games may help.

2—Emotional control (anxiety and concentration)

Effective learning strategies in this area include procedures for minimizing and reducing anxiety, lack of concentration, and frustration.

Because of the nature of technology, the online environment can, at times, create anxiety and frustration, particularly when there are technical difficulties and access is interrupted. Poor design and navigation can create anxiety, while good design, navigation, support, and instructional activities can help the learner gain an enhanced sense of self-efficacy and self concept.

3—Motivation

Part of the face-to-face instructional environment includes procedures to motivate individuals who are not interested in the material, or who do not like the instructional environment.

Good instructional design can be very effective in motivating students, or teaching them how to motivate themselves by adding interest, making connections and points of reference to their lives, establishing relevance, and instilling a sense of the usefulness and even urgency in mastering the topic.

4—Comprehension monitoring

In the traditional environment, these refer to procedures that assess the degree to which learning objectives have been attained, and they help the instructor identify where gaps in learning exist.

In the online environment, the successful student has methods of testing, tracking, and checking his or her comprehension of the content and mastery of learning objectives. This often takes the form of e-mailing the instructor to obtain feedback. However, it can also be automated, and students can take online quizzes and/or engage in activities that help them assess whether or not they are on track.

Conclusions

At the risk of seeming to simply parrot the same old thing all the time, what this study reveals is the importance of planning.

Planning an online course so that it helps guide students in the acquisition of effective learning strategies is a multi-pronged endeavor.

It requires a thorough understanding of a) the students, their abilities, backgrounds, language, contexts, beliefs, core values, and reasons for taking the course; b) the technological environment, which includes access, hardware, variability of access, complexity of interface, etc.; c) the kinds of learning objectives that the course of study will generally involve; d) the instructors, their backgrounds and technical ability, their understanding of effective mentoring, and their willingness to adapt to ever-changing technological requirements.

Useful Resources

Ackerman, P. L., Sternberg, R. J., and Glaser, R. (Eds.) (1989). Learning and individual differences. New York : Freeman.

Caverly, D. C., and Orlando, V. P. (1991). Textbook Study Strategies. In R. F. Flippo and D. C. Caverly (Eds.), Teaching reading and study strategies at the college level. (pp. 86-155). Newark , DE : International Reading Association.

Driskell, J. E., Copper, C., and Moran, A. (1994). Does mental practice enhance performance? Journal of Applied Psychology, 78, 805-814.

Schmeck, R. R. (Ed.) (1988). Learning strategies and learning styles. New York : Plenum Press.

Tait, H. and Entwistle, N. J. (1996). “Identifying students at risk through ineefcitve study strategies”, Higher Education 31, 97-116.

Weinstein, C. E., & Mayer, R. E. (1986). The teaching of learning strategies. In M. C. Wittock (Ed.), Handbook of research on teaching (3 rd ed. Pp 315-327). New York , Macmillan.