Ready, Set, Go! Success Strategies for Online Learning

Ready, Set, Go!
Success Strategies for Online Learning
By Margaret Martinez
CEO, The Training Place
mmartinez@trainingplace.com

Dr. Martinez is a respected consultant on adult learning methodologies and strategies, and is considered an expert in the area of learning orientation research, which is the study of how people learn differently and most effectively. For more information, consult her web site at: http://www.trainingplace.com. http://www.trainingplace.com/source/research/index.html

Ready, Set, Go!
Success Strategies for Online Learning

Introduction

Over the years, learners in the classroom have too often been taught to be dependent on the instructor. However, it is no longer enough for a learner to rely on instructors and traditional classroom skills for today's online learning requirements. Successful online learners are taking responsibility and managing their own learning. They are honing new strategies that can enable them to become more self-directed, self-assessed, independent, and self-motivated. These key strategies are not always taught in the classroom. Learning how to acquire them includes understanding individual learning differences and discovering how you can learn best.

The first purpose is to discuss individual learning differences and highlight the impact of self-managing emotions and intentions for more successful learning. Using this information, the second purpose is to show individuals how to change their role as a learner and practice successful online learning strategies-for more self-motivated, self-directed, independent learning.

How and Why You Learn Differently

Many individual difference theories and models exist today to address how individuals learn differently. One seldom-recognized learning model considers the dominant impact of emotions and intentions on how humans learn online. Good instructors in the classroom intuitively considered these human factors (e.g., gratification, satisfaction, and rewards) in the classroom. Online or for distance education these factors are too often overlooked.

By considering the impact of emotions and intentions, learners can better understand how and why they learn differently. For example, some learners are happiest learning in collaborative, facilitated environments with learning tasks accomplished in a structured or linear fashion. Other learners thrive in competitive environments that focus on specific details, tasks, and projects. Some learners are passionate about exploring new challenges and taking risks, and enjoy using learning to achieve long-term personal goals. Finally, some learners are formally or situationally resistant to any kind of learning that appears to have little value or benefit.

Few online learning models consider these important distinctions. Translating this kind of psychological information into learning strategies helps individuals create and manage learning situations that work best for them. Using this information they can practice using learning strategies (i.e., increasing self-motivation, self-direction, and learning autonomy) for greater online learning success.

Learning Orientation Research Foundations

Recent advances in the neurosciences have revealed the extraordinary complexities of learning and brain activity dynamically interacting with internal and external influences. Similarly, the learning orientation research (based on this brain research) creates a whole-person theoretical foundation to understand the complex psychological sources influencing learning. It considers the dominant impact of emotions and intentions on brain activity to explain how individuals respond differently in various learning situations.

In comparison, conventional primarily cognitive models have typically emphasized how people think or process information as the dominant influence on learning. Primarily cognitive learning models are solutions (e.g., learning styles or learning modalities) that often subjugate or overlook the influence of emotions and intentions. Traditionally, they have relied on instructor intervention in the classroom to manage emotions, intentions, and social issues, in addition to the cognitive aspects. Table 1 highlights significant differences between learning orientations and a typical cognitive model that describes learning styles.

Learning Orientations	Learning Styles
Considers how individuals learn differently, using a comprehensive set of influences and sources for individual learning differences, including affective, conative, social, and cognitive factors.	Considers how individuals learn differently, by focusing primarily on cognitive ability, preferences, and differences in how learners prefer to think or process information.
Considers emotions and intentions as a dominant influence on learning (i.e., key influences that may develop, guide, or manage how we use cognitive ability).	Considers cognitive ability and preferences as the dominant influence on learning.
Considers how learners generally relate and respond to key internal and external influences in their environment.	Considers how learners use cognitive ability to process content, often regardless of the environment.
Provides measures to assess online learning ability.	Estimates cognitive preferences.

Table 1. Describing Key Differences between Learning Orientations and Learning Styles.

Four Learning Orientations

The learning orientation research describes four distinct learner types, called learning orientations. Learning orientations generally describe how learners want and intend to approach learn. The four types are transforming, performing, conforming, and resistant learning orientations. The learning orientations model provides specific scales for measuring common learner attributes. This model adds other higher-order psychological factors (affective, conative, and social) to the traditional, primary cognitive understanding about learning. Most learners will typically identify themselves as one or sometimes a combination of the following learning orientations. Note: Since this is a chapter about successful online learning, the resistant learning orientation is not included.

Transforming Learners are likely successful online learners with sophisticated online learning skills (i.e., highly self-motivated, self-directed, self-assessed, and independent). They use self-directed, strategic planning, and holistic thinking to apply great effort to achieve long-term goals. These learners are generally risk takers, innovators, and passionate, highly committed learners. They most often:

• Place great importance on self-managed learning, committed effort, independence, and long-term vision.
• Use personal strengths, ability, persistence, challenging strategies, high-standards, learning efficacy, and positive expectations to manage learning successfully.
• Lose motivation and may become frustrated or resistant in environments or conditions that interfere with their aggressive learning patterns and challenging goals.

To be more successful, these learners should focus more on details to ensure task and project completion and practical application of theories and concepts.

Performing Learners are skilled online learners who are typically self-directed in areas that they value, otherwise they rely to a greater degree on external support (instructors, coaching, fast tracks) to set goals for them. Similarly, these learners are self-motivated generally in learning situations that interest them; otherwise they seek extrinsic rewards (external sources for motivation) for accomplishing objectives. Typically, these learners are short-term, project-oriented thinkers who systematically and capably achieve average to above standard learning goals and tasks. They may:

• Minimize or streamline learning effort by meeting (clearly acknowledged) only the stated objectives, getting the grade, and avoiding exploratory steps or effort beyond the requirements of the situation and learning task. These learners lose motivation or may even get angry if too much effort is required and the rewards are not enough to compensate the perceived effort.
• Prefer interactive (hands-on), competitive or team environments
• Take less control and responsibility for their learning and often rely on others (external resources) for coaching, motivation, goal setting, schedules, and direction.

To be more successful, these learners should acquire more long-term, holistic thinking skills to find reasons to self-motivate and self-direct more challenging efforts.

Conforming Learners are less successful online learners because they depend largely on the quality of and support from the environment and social relationships. They prefer to rely on explicit guidance and simple steps provided by an instructor. Complex online learning environments will frustrate them. These learners are concerned with safety, security, and acceptance. Conforming learners generally:

• Are less skilled learners
• React strongly to external influences
• Depend on supportive, structured environments
• Have less desire to control or manage their learning or initiate change in their jobs or environment
• Take fewer risks
• Have difficulty learning in open learning environments, which focus on high learner control, discovery or exploratory learning, complex

To be more successful, these learners should acquire more independent thinking, risk-taking skills that enable them to trust themselves and take greater responsibility for their own learning.

Online Learning Environments

The first step in improving your online learning ability is to consider the learning environment that works best for you-with or without an instructor or facilitator. While sophisticated learning technology is available, much still needs to be understood about the impact of online learning environments (technically, psychologically, and pedagogically).

Years ago in 1957, Lee Cronbach challenged the educational field to find "for each individual the treatment [solution or environment] which he can most easily adapt." Cronbach suggested that consideration of the treatments and individual together would determine the best payoff because we "can expect some attributes of person to have strong interactions with treatment variables."

In the eighties, Carl Bereiter and Marlene Scardamalia, from the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, suggested "learners in supportive environments have high levels of self efficacy and self-motivation and use learning as a primary transformative force." Today's challenge is for you, the online learner, to identify which elements in an online learning environments best support your interests, values, and expectations and match your successful learning attributes for strong interactions. More importantly, which elements will help you improve online learning ability (over time). One way to accomplish this challenge is to use learning orientations to estimate your online learning ability and identify areas for improvement.

Personalized (Mass-Customized) Learning Environments

Learning orientations suggest that a closely matched learning environment will have a positive impact on learning. Use Table 2 to identify which type of environment may help you succeed and best match how you prefer to learn. Keep in mind that you will want to consider learning in an environment that matches your preferences today but also will help you improve online learning ability over time.

Learning Orientations	Mass Customized Environments
Transforming Learners	For transforming learners, seek environments that are sophisticated, discovery-oriented, and mentoring environments. Seek loosely structured, flexible environments that promote challenging goals, holistic planning strategies, complex concepts and problem solving, and self-managed learning. Use environments that allow you to be assertive, challenged by exploration, and able to control, self-direct, and self-assess learning and progress to achieve objectives and related higher standard, long-term goals.
Performing Learners	For performing learners, seek semi-structured, interactive (hands on) environments that stimulate personal values, encourage teamwork, and provide details, tasks, processes, and project completion. Seek task oriented, energizing, competitive environments that provide coaching, practice, and feedback to encourage self-motivation, problem solving, self-monitoring, and task sequencing-while minimizing the need for exploration, extra effort, and difficult standards.
Conforming Learners	For conforming learners, seek safe, low-learner controlled, structured environments that help learners achieve comfortable, low-risk learning goals in a linear fashion. Use environments that are simple, scaffolded, non-risk environments that use explicit, careful guidance and collaborative learning tools that help you learn comfortably in an easy, step-wise fashion.

Table 2. Descriptions for Mass Customized Learning Environments.

Strategies for Instructional Solutions

The second step in improving online learning ability is to consider the presentation of instruction and interaction that works best for you. This step uses the learning orientation framework. It highlights three factors that can strongly influence how we can improve learning: self-motivation, self-direction, and learning autonomy. To identify your best online learning strategies, review the strategies in Table 3 and consider how they can enhance your current online learning ability. These strategies also describe potential strengths and weaknesses and enable learners to consider how to:

Learning Strategies		Transforming Learners	Performing Learners	Conforming Learners
		Self-Motivation
User Interface		Achieve in an open learning interface that can stimulate exploration, discovery, problem solving, and complex, high-capacity processing.	Achieve in a competitive, simulated (hands-on) learning interface that focuses on external values and keen interest for medium stimulation and processing capacity.	Achieve in a consistent and simple interface for minimal stimulation and processing capacity.
Interaction		Achieve with occasional mentoring and stimulating interaction for achieving long-term goals (MENTORING). (Note: Continually seek and use resources that help you achieve best effort).	Achieve with consistent coaching and interaction for achieving short-term goals (COACHING). (Note: Continually seek coaching to raise standards and call forth best effort).	Achieve with continual, explicit guidance and reinforcement for achieving short-term goals (GUIDING). (Note: Continually seek guidance to take greater risks and calling forth best effort).
Feedback		Achieve with inferential, discovery feedback.	Achieve with concise, team-building, sometimes competitive feedback.	Prefer explicit, conforming, trust-building feedback.
Rewards and Recognition		Be inspired by added personal value increased by self-directed, instrinsically competitive standards, newly acquired knowledge to accomplish challenging, long-term goals, praise and recognition by mentors, and continual opportunity for innovation and improvement.	Be inspired by added personal value increased by external influences, immediate praise and recognition of expertise and accomplishment by higher ups and peers, competitive or team reward structures, and continuing opportunity for striving, increasing expertise, and project completion. To improve, look for ways to increase self-motivation.	Be inspired by added personal value increased by stability, conformance, acceptance, and immediate praise and recognition by peers for incremental achievement of guided accomplishments. Look forward to guided opportunities to apply and reinforce newly acquired expertise. To improve, look for ways to increase self-motivation.
Information Need		Seek holistic, theoretical information to solve long-term problems, discover new challenges, and achieve personal goals. Enhance information gathering with increasing specification and practical application.	Seek practical, specific information to solve short-term problems, complete projects, and demonstrate expertise. Enhance information gathering with increasing holistic or conceptual information (coached/rewarded by others).	Receive simple, guided information to solve short-term problems, complete assignments, and show accomplishment. Enhance information gathering with increasing levels of problem solving (supported by others).
Content Structuring		Achieve with freedom to construct own content structure and opportunities for new knowledge and innovation.	Achieve with freedom to accomplish tasks and projects well with minimal effort.	Achieve with freedom to rely on help from others to guide content structure, progress, and outcomes.
Collaboration & Peer Interaction		Achieve in a high-standard, complex environment with sophisticated goals and challenging accomplishments. (Note: May be frustrated by too much focus on detail, short-term goals, and lack of long-term accomplishment).	Achieve in a competitive team, interactive environment that supports intrinsic and extrinsic values focused on project completion and increased expertise. (Note: May easily be frustrated by extra time and effort required for slow peer interaction, long-term goals, or unmet needs).	Achieve in a guided participative environment with direction and answers provided by the instructor. Rely on a "sense of community" and combined achievement. (Note: May be frustrated or left behind by fast pace, complex processes, and high-level standards and achievement).
		Learning Autonomy
Independent Learning		Assume learning responsibility, self-select goals, self-manage learning, progress and outcomes-independent of the instructor. (Note: Avoid frustration if placed in restricted environments with limited learner control).	Assume all learning responsibility in areas of keen interest. (Note: Try not to relinquish learning control and extend less effort for topics of less interest or in restrictive environments. Consider long-term implications and benefits).	Learn to trust yourself to make decision about learning and rely less on guidance from others. Use structured environments to acquire self-directed learning skills. (Note: Try not to relinquish all responsibility for learning to accomplish assigned learning goals).
Relationship to Instructors or Facilitators		Work with mentors as an added resource to explore and expand knowledge-building opportunities and attainment of long-term personal goals.	Use coaching from instructors or facilitators and interaction with peers as an added resource to enhance expertise, accomplishment, and project completion.	Use coaching and guidance from instructors or facilitators and careful interaction with peers as an added resource to increase achievement of low-risk goals.
		Self-Direction
Goal-Setting and Standards		Set and achieve personal short- and long-term, challenging goals. Maximize discovery and effort to attain personal, long-term goals and increasingly difficult standards, beyond those set by others.	Set and achieve short-term, project-oriented goals that meet average-to-high standards. Situationally minimize or maximize efforts and standards to reach assigned or negotiated standards. Consider long-term goals and consequences.	Follow and achieve simple, task-oriented goals. Take incrementally difficult steps and risks and increase effort (over time) in supportive environments with safe, manageable standards.
Task Sequencing		Sequence tasks according to performance needs, personal learning requirements, holistic information expectations, and varying levels of expertise. Use hypertext or multiple-levels to allow precise access to content and problem solving to accomplish objectives. (Note: Consider influences on intrinsic values and benefits).	Sequence tasks according to interactive performance needs, detailed information needs, and increasing levels of expertise, and effort. Use semi-linear, logical branching (accessed by subtopic). (Note: Consider influences on external values and benefits (e.g., using competition, adventure, or creativity) to guide task sequencing.	Sequence tasks according to manageable steps, low-risk performance requirements, and less complex, safety-based information needs. Use linear representations to provide simple, selective access to increasing levels of expertise. (Note: Consider influences on stability and conformance to guide accomplishments).
Knowledge Building		Commit great effort to discover, elaborate, and build new knowledge and meaning. Consider practical application of new knowledge and innovation.	Increase effort to assimilate and apply relevant, valued knowledge and meaning. Develop interest in exploring related issues and discovering long-term consequences.	Accept and reproduce knowledge to meet external requirements. Develop trust in assimilating and experimenting with application of new knowledge.
Problem Solving		Learn using complex, whole (holistic)-to-part, problem-solving opportunities that lead to new content. Alternatively, consider part to whole solutions and practical applications.	Learn with competitive part-to-whole problem solving for specific projects and tasks. Develop trust in conceptual ability and long-term thinking. Alternatively, consider whole (holistic) to part opportunities.	Learn with scaffolded support for simple problem solving opportunities that reconfirm achievement and acceptance. Work with guide to improve problem solving ability and develop trust in own learning and problem solving ability.
Practice		Achieve using one good example and one bad example. Take time to consider practical application and apply knowledge towards project completion.	Achieve using a few good and bad examples. Take time to consider conceptual knowledge and long-term implications.	Achieve using multiple good and bad examples. Take time to consider related, increasingly difficult problems and achievement accomplished through increased effort.
Progress Monitoring		Self-assess and review achievements based on challenging standards and long-term personal goals.	Self-assess, seek assessment from others, and review achievements based on short-term goals and negotiated standards. Improve self-assessment skills.	Accept assessment and review from others and consider accomplishments based on short-term goals and standards aligned with stability and conformance. Improve self-assessment skills.
Questioning		Ask probing, in-depth questions to expand knowledge. To improve, seek opportunities to apply new knowledge and consider practical details.	Ask pivotal questions to solve problems and complete projects. To improve, seek opportunities to understand related concepts and long-term consequences.	Ask functional questions to accomplish assignments. To improve, seek opportunities to understand related concepts and long-term consequences.

Table 3. Description of Instructional Strategies Supporting Different Learning Orientations.

Summary

After reading this chapter, the author hopes that online learners will expand their understanding about their own successful learning strategies by considering (a) the influence of a comprehensive set of key psychological factors (conative, affective, social, and cognitive) that influence their learning differently, (b) the often overlooked dominant impact of emotions and intentions on learning, (c) critical human and learning relationships between environments, key psychological sources that influence learning, accomplishment, and online learning ability, and (d) how design and presentation strategies for learning environments and instruction can individually influence how you want and intend to learn.

By Margaret Martinez
CEO, The Training Place
mmartinez@trainingplace.com

References

Bereiter, C., & Scardamalia, M. (1993), Surpassing ourselves: Inquiry into the nature and implications of expertise (Chicago: Open Court).

Cronbach, L. (1957), "The Two Disciplines of Scientific Psychology," American Psychologist, (12), 671-684.

Copyright © 1996-2003 Margaret Martinez
The following is reprinted with permission of the author. The views and information presented are those of the author, not necessarily AudioCourses.