I read a comment on a newspaper article in regards to online learning, students are complaining about online learning during the pandemic. Oh, come on – really. Then there was a father complaining that his daughters were teaching themselves – has everyone lost the plot? 

So I decided to comment, he clearly has no concept of training design, delivery and assessment. They are not teaching themselves unless they write the curriculum, reference materials and academic readings. They are following a program developed on a learning management system such as Blackboard or Moodle constructed by instructional designers and subject matter experts.

Ok, so what does that mean? The young [just out off high school] students are not self motivated, they want their education served on a platter. Adult students hold down full-time jobs whilst upgrading their education. These full-time employees/part-time students are supporters of online education – they require it. They have no need for the university experience of drinking, parties and socialising. They get home, get dinner and get studying – the weekend is where they get the bulk of their work done. Campus socialising is out, this is their big chance to get ahead – no hangovers wanted.

A student has a chapter of a reference book to read, this is supplemented by articles and possibly a second reference book chapter. They need to write tutorial responses, they are referenced and to a strict word count. Based on my experiences, we were also required to interact and this demanded we write two referenced responses to a peer post; naturally, that also requires a word count that is generally half of the original post.

Then there is an assignment to write, that is the real time consuming endeavour and some units require an end of term exam, others multiple assessments. There are online quizzes and collaboration with other students. Naturally, as mature age students, we are motivated as we are already working and want to improve our chances of promotion or recruitment. This is why we are undertaking tertiary education, we are self-motivated and we want to succeed.