Learning without Limits: The Experience of Students Engag-ing as Online Learners on a Master Program in London UK
| Main Author: | David Fincham |
|---|---|
| Format: | Article |
| Terbitan: |
, 2018
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| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: |
https://zenodo.org/record/1490758 |
Daftar Isi:
- At the beginning of the twenty-first century developments in information and communication technology (ICT) have had significant repercussions for educational practice and for models of pedagogy. The application of ICT has contributed to increasing levels of participation in Higher Education. In 2010, two students were recruited to a Master Degree program at St Mary’s University, London, as online learners. Within four years, numbers had grown exponentially with more than fifty students having started the course as online learners. Online learning implies that through asynchronous participation, learners are not required to be together in the same place and at the same time but can access course materials and communicate with tutors and other learners flexibly at their own time and convenience through a virtual learning environment (VLE). In this way, learners, at any level of study, through online engagement with course content and instruction, are able to participate with colleagues in a range of teaching methods and learning opportunities. This paper explores the personal reflections of learners who successfully completed the course through online learning. There is a paucity of literature on the experiences of learners in their engagement with online learning so it was interesting to consider their perspectives. Adopting a phenomenological approach, it was possible to conduct a small-scale enquiry to explore the views of students who had graduated from the course and to evaluate their individual experiences of studying in this way. It was therefore possible to interpret the benefits and limitations of studying as an online learner. The intention was to examine the experiences and perceptions of individuals from their unique personal viewpoints in order to assess the extent to which online learning supported, challenged and informed conventional practice.