Makes Me Wonder

As someone who has yet to break into the field of e-learning [you need experience to get experience, it always seems], my primary experience with e-learning has always been from the role of the learner. My undergraduate degree was largely online, so I’ve been participating in e-learning for a long time. Thinking back on it, however, I never felt as though my university understood what it was like to be an online student. I never felt like my university cared as much for its online students and their learning experience. I don’t think it was my professor’s fault either, I know they cared about their courses and their students. On the contrary, it seemed as though the professors’ lacked resources and support, which didn’t make sense to me because I attended a very large public university in the middle of Ohio – they had the funding. 

There was no continuity with Canvas course structure. There was no continuity with available class resources. No continuity with types of learner engagement. Regardless of wherever the problem was truly coming from, students were always fighting to teach themselves the material, and if you were lucky, you’d get a recording of the in-class lecture that was done for the section of the course that was synchronous. It was only an audio clip too, so forget trying to feel engaged with the material. 

All of this is to say… I think the effort to support online students at other institutions can be severely lacking and disregards the part of the population that learns better this way. Attending Boise’s online program has been a culture shock in a good way – it feels as though the students do come first and that quality of learning matters. I know it can be done. So, it really makes me scratch my head and wonder hmmm… why is more effort not spend on learning and development in the very places it could serve the most? 

As I get further into this degree with ID, I think about all the places that could desperately benefit from a team of L&D professionals, and universities are top of the list. Of course, I would assume that they already do exist for universities, but it still makes me wonder why my online learning experiences were so bad at such a huge and well-funded school. Maybe the team just wasn’t large enough and was spread too thin, maybe they weren’t focused on specific departments. Or maybe, online learning is still underwhelmingly appreciated and it slips through the cracks of larger universities.