Should Online Courses Be Differentiated for Various Audiences

Posted on June 16, 2009 by Barbara Macaulay

UMassOnline Barbara Macaulay This link, courtesy of EducationWeek, takes you to a very thought-provoking post by Jayson Richardson about online learning. Entitled Generational Learning, the author asks a very, very important question:

“How well are online courses differentiating based on the needs/experiences/cultures of the students?”

It probably is a question that needs to be asked of face-to-face courses as well—learning style differences are acknowledged to some extent in most learning modalities, but differences among learners based on age, culture, background, and experience are often not acknowledged in the instructional design of academic courses and probably as much as needed in online courses.

What makes this such a compelling question is the context in which the writer raises it. It is asked in relationship to the generational profiles outlined in researcher/pollster John Zogby’s recent book The Way We’ll Be: The Zogby Report on the Transformation of the American Dream. The profiles are for The Private Generation (1926-1945), The Woodstock Generation (1946-1964), The Nike Generation (1965-1978), and First Globals (1979-1990). Under each category are several bullet points intended to capture that generation’s unique nesses. I found mine and think Mr. Zogby has hit on some of the characteristics I would associate with my generation. You’ll want to find yours and see if it is an accurate representation in your view.

Of course, whether or not Mr. Zogby is right on or not, the question still holds. Here’s how the writer framed it:

I started thinking about the role of online education in meeting diverse generational needs and learning styles… a one size fits all online learning model simply does not work. Culture adds layers upon layers of complexity leading to the inevitable failure of online learning that takes this approach. Thus these generational students bring in unique sets of cultural qualities. For those of us in higher education, we need to create online courses that meet the needs of our diverse stakeholders. How I approach preparing an online course for my freshman (i.e., First Globals) should not take the same approach as I would in creating an online class for my doctoral students (i.e., The Nike Generation & The Woodstock Generation).

Comments and feedback from all generations would be welcome.