{"id":4697,"date":"2019-06-10T08:00:24","date_gmt":"2019-06-10T13:00:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/braindevs.net\/blog\/blog\/?p=4697"},"modified":"2019-06-11T14:15:07","modified_gmt":"2019-06-11T19:15:07","slug":"overcoming-potential-perils-of-online-learning","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/overcoming-potential-perils-of-online-learning\/","title":{"rendered":"Overcoming Potential Perils of Online Learning"},"content":{"rendered":"

Online learning offers many tempting — almost irresistable — possibilities. Almost anyone<\/em> can study almost anything<\/em> from almost anywhere<\/em>.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

What’s not to love?<\/p>\n

A tough-minded response to that optimistic question might be:<\/p>\n

“Yes, anyone can study <\/strong>anything,\u00a0but will they learn<\/strong> it?”<\/p>\n

More precisely: “will they learn it roughly as well as they do in person<\/strong>?”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

If the answer to that question is “no,” then it doesn’t really matter that they undertook all that study.<\/p>\n

Rachael Blasiman and her team wanted to know if common at-home distractions<\/em> interfere with online learning<\/a>.<\/p>\n

So: can I learn online while…<\/p>\n

…watching a nature documentary?<\/p>\n

…texting a friend?<\/p>\n

…folding laundry?<\/p>\n

…playing a video game?<\/p>\n

…watching\u00a0The Princess Bride<\/em>?<\/p>\n

Helpful Study, Helpful Answers<\/h2>\n

To answer this important and practical question, Blasiman’s team first had students watch an online lecture undistracted. They took a test on that lecture, to see how much they typically learn online with undivided attention.<\/p>\n

Team Blasiman then had students watch 2 more online lectures, each one with a distractor present.<\/p>\n

Some students had a casual conversation while watching. Others played a simple video game. And, yes, others watched a fencing scene from\u00a0Princess Bride<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Did these distractions influence their ability to learn?<\/p>\n

On average, these distractions lowered test scores by 25%<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

That is: undistracted students averaged an 87% on post-video quizzes. Distracted students averaged a 62%.<\/p>\n

Conversation and\u00a0The Princess Bride<\/em> were most distracting (they lowered scores by ~30%). The nature video was least distracting — but still lowered scores by 15%.<\/p>\n

In case you’re wondering: men and women were equally muddled by these distractions.<\/p>\n

Teaching Implications<\/h2>\n

In this case, knowledge may well help us win the battle.<\/p>\n

Blasiman & Co. sensibly recommend that teachers\u00a0share this study<\/strong> with their students, to emphasize the importance of working in a distraction-free environment.<\/p>\n

And, they encourage students to make concrete plans to create — and to work in — those environments.<\/p>\n

(This post, on “implementation intentions<\/a>,” offers highly effective ways to encourage students to do so.)<\/p>\n

I also think it’s helpful to think about this study in reverse. The BAD news is that distractions clearly hinder learning.<\/p>\n

The GOOD news: in a distraction-free environment, students can indeed start to learn a good deal of information<\/em>.<\/p>\n

(Researchers didn’t measure how much they remembered a week or a month later, so we don’t know for sure. But: we’ve got confidence they had some initial success in encoding information.)<\/p>\n

In other words: online classes might not be a panacea. But, under the right conditions, they might indeed benefit students who would not otherwise have an opportunity to learn.<\/p>\n

\n

I’ve just learned that both of Dr. Blasiman’s co-authors on this study were undergraduates at the time they did the work. That’s quite unusual in research world, and very admirable! [6-11-19]\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Typical at-home distractions can indeed interfere with online learning. Happily, researchers have suggestions on how best to mitigate these problems.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":4703,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[31,15,29],"class_list":["post-4697","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lb-blog","tag-attention","tag-classroom-advice","tag-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4697","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/18"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4697"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4697\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4730,"href":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4697\/revisions\/4730"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4703"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4697"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4697"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.learningandthebrain.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4697"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}