The Neglected Benefits of eLearning

Researchers at California State University were surprised to find their hypothesis invalidated: students got more anxious about online learning rather than less even after being thrown to online learning months before. Furthermore, there was also a decrease in engagement as well.¹ Attempts of trying to explain this phenomenon, however, are mostly focused on the symptoms of the problems rather than the pervasive reason.

Organizations (academic or business) continued to treat online learning as if it were the same as before, just slightly further away. Jamming traditional, in-person methods into a computer screen in lieu of underutilized tools unique to platforms like CoreAchieve, despite these tools offering a more engaging and effective learning experience.

These tools, like CoreAchieve’s Learning Paths, quizzes, and flash cards, allow learners to explore concepts at their own pace, creating for a uniquely individualized learning experience. Indeed, twenty studies of medical student’s switching to online learning found that satisfaction was greater than with traditional, in-person learning. Among the reasons why, students stated things like being able to rewatch lectures and having more time that would be used commuting.²

Learners don’t just feel this way, it is confirmed with performance. It has been shown that learners with individualized instruction perform better than traditional teaching methods.³ So how does one tailor an online course for individualization?

Just like a traditional course, online courses are composed of building blocks, but they are not what is most important to individualized learning, rather, it is the connections between them. For example, with online a learner can rewatch a recorded lecture as many times as they need before they grasp it and move on; whereas, in traditional learning, the learner will be forced to move on to another lecture they are more likely to struggle on because of struggling with the one previous. The connection between the two online courses is significantly more flexible than the traditional learning.

Connection is where learning management software like CoreAchieve excels—there isn’t much variation in connection between in-person courses. Take, for example, Learning Paths which allow an instructor to define the sequence of course, which are mandatory and what are elective, and how the learner must progress through the path. Here the advantages become obvious, learners can engage with the content they want to and choose when to do it, while the instructor does not lose any control.

Software goes beyond rewatching and choosing the order, reactive quizzes can guide the learner to the correct answer. This guiding—again impossible in a traditional setting—cements the concepts in the learner’s mind. CoreAchieve’s quiz system allows for immediate explanations whenever a learner answers a question wrong. Explanations that can be populated with various types of media like text, audio, images, or video. Like Learning Paths, utilizing quizzes like this allows for the learner to form stronger impressions on the content.

Impressions don’t have to develop from Learning Paths or quizzes, however, CoreAchieve offers study methods like flash cards. These flash cards can be created an instructor or an administrator and can be assigned to a group of learners with ease. Just like quiz explanations, these flash cards can be filled with various types of media which affords for many more opportunities than their traditional counterparts.

These three features of CoreAchieve, Learning Paths, quizzes, and flash cards offer more ways for learners to boost their learning, but how does one implement them into their organization? A quick disclaimer: all these CoreAchieve features are full of different uses, this guide is only to show how to implement them for individualized learning.

Learning Paths

Learning Paths are possibly the most important for fostering individualized learning, as they allow the learner to choose their direction through a series of courses. The major goal of Learning Paths is to empathize the connections between courses. One should pair related courses together—especially if the learning path is in sequential order—because, just by existing in same path, a connection is formed even if it does not exist in the content.

To maximize connections and individualism, leverage the elective option for courses of lesser importance. This does not mean learners can skip them as CoreAchieve can require several electives to be completed before the Learning Path completion, but it does allow learners to pick the content that interest them most. Furthering this, if the courses don’t require a particular order, make it freeform and allow learners to explore the content in their own way.

One could hear the idea of electives and reasonably assume that a split exists in the knowledge between two individuals, but they cannot be told apart. Don’t fret, one of the numerous features of Learning Paths is that they can have multiple certifications on one learning path, allowing learners to be recognized by the way they completed their path.

Quizzes

The most important thing to remember when building a quiz is to include explanations rephrased from the course content; after all, if the learner did not answer correctly, then the content might not have been conducive to them. There is another trap: do not just give the answer. Instead, use CoreAchieve’s question explanations to guide the learner to the correct answer. If a learner was having trouble, now they have two resources (or even more depending on how one uses it) to determine the correct answer. If the quiz can be retaken CoreAchieve can exclude the questions that the learner knew saving necessary time and unnecessary frustration.

Explanation resources should be in a different form of media than the course itself. People seem to be able to absorb information better in other forms. If the course is mainly reading, then make the explanation a video. Sometimes all that’s needed to cement an idea is a change of form and delving deeper into CoreAchieve quizzes reveals that opportunity.

Flash Cards

Flash cards are by far the least complicated out of the three, but they are essential to learning. The power that CoreAchieve gives flash cards is two-fold: the cards can have many different types of media and can be assigned to groups of learners or included directly in a course. The former is beneficial like the quiz question explanations, where they can convey content in forms that may be easier to grasp for certain learners and the latter makes it easier for learners to access them. Flash cards outside of the CoreAchieve system inherently have barriers in between them and their target audience—the learners.

Not everyone needs flash cards, but then again, not everyone learns the same. As was displayed in the studies above, having options facilitates happier (and more efficient) learners. What an instructor could do is create a serious of cards, with a diversity of content, that enable their learners to ingest content in different ways. The diversity of content and the functionality of flash cards fosters an individualized approach with very few barriers (within three clicks).

By using these three approaches offered by CoreAchieve, an organization can ensure that their learners have an individualized, welcoming learning environment while being more efficient than traditional methods. CoreAchieve affords learners to develop themselves by utilizing connections that cannot exist in a traditional setting and, consequently, creates more adept people.

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¹Student Anxiety and Engagement with Online Instruction across Two Semesters of COVID-19 Disruptions | Journal of Microbiology & Biology Education (asm.org)

²The sudden transition to synchronized online learning during the COVID-19 pandemic in Saudi Arabia: a qualitative study exploring medical students’ perspectives

³Individualized Instruction, What the Research Tells Us