PRINCIPLES OF ONLINE LEARNING: A COLLABORATION

We asked a mix of education professionals to create a list of Principles of Online Learning during several synchronous sessions. These dozen or so educators work with students in all grades, K-12, and college students up through graduate school. A couple of them supervise other educators within a regional education agency or as director of a virtual school. Their experience with online learning ranged from nearly none to several years as students/teachers or both.

We have combined and grouped their listing as follows:

Principles of Online Learning

• Standards-based, equal to face-to-face instruction, with defined learning outcomes
• Assigned reading/viewing materials which match learning goals
• In-course instructional communications are clear
• Student-centered, relevant to learning needs, adaptive to differentiated learning styles
• Uses technology appropriate to the learner and accessible to all students
• Interactive in nature with collaborative processing of information/ideas
• Student-to-student engagement which gives opportunity for fun, belonging
• Taps into 21st Century Skills
• Assessment plan is well-defined, built-in, and accurate

Their ideas came quickly, and one idea triggered the next as the lists took shape. The differences in their experience, their educational roles, the age of students they work with didn’t enter the discussion.

These are professionals from across several states unlikely to ever meet each other face-to-face.

This collaborative effort shows us that online learning is as much about processing ideas through interactive engagement as it is about exposure to what one needs to learn.

Helping our students find their online learning “voices,” then giving them the opportunity to process ideas together, leads toward the kind of collaboration which is a shared-learning experience—for students and teachers.