Online Learning Characteristics

Submitted By coxford92510
Words: 1384
Pages: 6

Online Learning: Characteristic of Successful Online Learners
Crystal Oxford
Liberty University Online

Abstract
Online learning consists of many different things. When you are trying to be successful with online learning, you must be task focused, determined, motivated, and have good time management. When looking at any online learner, there are many different variables to how they learn and how successful they will be. As well as the many variables, there are different approaches to online learning that contribute to becoming successful. When looking at online learning, everyone has their own personal reason as to why they chose to learn online. Studies have been done to show how people excel or fail in online learning. While not every student is the same, there are many similarities to those who become successful online learners. Every student learns in their own way but becoming successful is partially based on the student’s environment and online classroom. Keywords: online learning, success, online classroom.

What is online learning? Is that even a real degree? Yes, with today’s society and restrictions online learning is a vital resource to obtaining a degree. Most people may not have the ability or time to attend campus schooling. Online learning allows anyone to have access to a higher education through their computer. Great idea, don’t you think? Some students choose online learning because they have young children and when it comes to time there isn’t a whole lot to spare. So rather than take time away from family, go to a campus and be gone for hours on end, they choose to go to school online. But in making this decision, they also have to accept that it is vital to be extremely motivated and focus on getting everything done in a timely manner. When learning online, students must have a few characteristics in order to be a successful online learner. Some of these are: self-driven, motivated, attention to detail, and good time management. There are different types of learning styles as well that go along with being a successful or non-successful online learner. They are as follows; self-driven, task focused, and procrastinator as stated in (Duffy, del Valle 2009).
In the article that I chose, Online learning: Learner characteristics and their approaches to managing learning by Rodrigo del Valle & Thomas M. Duffy, it speaks about studies that were done with students who were online learners. The studies that were performed ranged from learning approaches to the variables that were included in the success of students. The studies show that there are different learning approaches and characteristics of online learners. All of these students had variables that were used to assess how they study. Variables make a huge difference in the results. The variables that were used in this study were course duration, total sessions, average inter-session interval, proportion of time on learning resources, proportion of learning resources accessed, exploration, and proportion of time in messenger. (Duffy, del Valle 2009) These variables helped them figure out the learning styles and the different characteristics of online learners. The different approaches are self-driven (mastery), task focused, and procrastinator. Self-driven learners are the students who spend a lot of time studying, reviewing course materials, and who have a very high commitment level to getting their work done and getting it done well. They make up 59.3% of the students who were included in this study. (Duffy, del Valle 2009) Task focused learners are students who did not spend very much time online working on their course work; they only spent the minimal amount of time needed to get their work done for their classes. They make up only 22% of the students in the study. (Duffy, 2009) The procrastinator approach is students who showed little effort in their work and spent very little time doing