Instant, Easy Learning!

"I'm really frustrated," a student came up and announced to me at the end of a Statistics class last week.

"What is frustrating you?  How can I help?" I responded sympathetically... at least I tried.

"I'm not getting it,  I've spent hours on this class, and I still don't understand," she pined.

"Not getting what?"  I figured if we could isolate the specific concept she was struggling with, then maybe we could explore it and help get some clarity.  But that's not the direction she was going.

"Everything.  This whole class.  I should be able to get this, but I don't."

"Well, this is probably a new way of thinking for you," I reassured the student.  "It takes some time.  You're smart, and I'm sure most of this will fall into place for you.  We're just laying the groundwork now.  We'll go over these ideas again, do a lot examples and practice scenarios.  It's a bit like learning a foreign language--if you hang it there, it will come!  Maybe you shouldn't be quite so hard on yourself."

"But this should be easy!  I should be getting this quicker!"  The tone indicated that the student was expecting mastering by the end of the end of the fifth week of the course, even though the student didn't add the class until the end of the third week, and was still 'catching up.'

Not coincidentally, this is the same student I wrote about last week, who had finished two 3-credit online classes in two weeks.  I began wondering if there was a connection between the student's experience in those courses, and their current frustration in mine.

This is not an isolated complaint.  I've heard this in many different forms, particularly in classes with a strong critical thinking emphasis, and classes where students are exposed to new concepts which they haven't yet thought much about.  Maybe I'm overstating the case (althought I doubt that I am), but it seems like the prevalent attitude among many students is that learning, even in college, should be "quick" and "easy."  That putting more than a minimal amount of effort into a course precipitates more than a small degree of exasperation.

I think this is a change I've observed, perhaps over the past decade or so, in college students.  (Looking back, I expected college to be challenging!  And I wasn't disappointed!) Perhaps it is a societal trend.  With lots of "information" at our fingertips, maybe we've mistaken "access to information" for "acquisition of knowledge and/or skills"?  Maybe because so much comes "instantly" to us--from instant breakfast and instant coffee to instant communication--that we also expect "instant education."

On another level, I wonder if WE--as educators--are responsible for fostering this "instant, easy learning" phenomena?  Have we emphasized "efficiency" so much that we have lost sight of what is "effective" and long-lasting?  Have we set up systems that prime our students with the idea that education is meant to be fast and relatively free of effort?  Does their perception of  our emphasis on "completion" undermine the priority for learning?

"Patience, persistence and perspiration make an unbeatable combination for success."
Napolean Hill, author and advisor to Presidents Woodrow Wilson and Franklin D. Roosevelt
1883-1970

To Learn or Not to Learn? Is that the question?

The Wednesday of the third week of school a student shows up in my office.  Below is the actual conversation:

STUDENT:  I'd like to get in to your _________ class.  [The blank is to protect the innocent and/or the guilty).

ME:  Wow.  It's a bit far into the course.  We've already covered quite a bit, and it might be difficult for you to catch up.  Why do you want in now?

STUDENT:  Well, I signed up for two online courses, and now I'm done.  So I need to add more credits.

ME:  What courses did you complete so quickly?

STUDENT:  _____________  and _______________.  [Again, blanks to protect...  Both the courses would be considered solid, transferrable academic courses.]

ME:  Ok.  Could I ask how you were able to complete them so quickly?  [At this point, I'm trying to hold back my shock... it must have worked.]

STUDENT:  You could take the tests as many times as you wanted.  They were automatically graded.  I just kept taking the tests until I got the grade I wanted, then I moved on to the next one.

ME:  So how much did you really learn?

STUDENT:  My high school speech teacher said if you remembered something for 48 hours then you "learned" it.  I think I learned most of it.

ME:  [Several moments of silent, but disguised, disbelief.]  Well, I guess.  Let's at least get you the syllabus and the first few assignments.  If you can't catch up, there is no shame is dropping the course, right?

STUDENT:  Yeah.

The student is struggling in my course.  They are dedicated, but probably won't be inducted into the Mensa Society anytime soon.  But how they are doing in my course isn't what is gnawing at me.

At the rate the student completed those online courses, they would be able to obtain their entire Associates Degree in just over one semester; their full Bachelors degree in a year and half a summer--in about 1/4 of the time a full-speed ahead undergraduate could complete their studies.  This entire scenario raises some serious questions for me:

• How much learning took place as this student completed a 3 credit claas in a week?
• Could a student (this student also has a family with a young child, and commutes quite a distance) even complete the required reading (and really READ it) in a week?
• What were the quality of these online courses?
• Is setting up an online course for such "rapid completion" really doing our students any favors?  [Sure, they can check of the "required course" box and move on, but is that really the goal of higher education?]
• Is this typical of the design of our online courses?  How effective is this for students' LEARNING?
• Are students taking more online courses because they are "easier" and "less challenging" than face to face courses?
• Is convenience King?  [I know, that's snarky and facetious, but I do wonder!]
• Is anyone monitoring the quality of the online courses at Yavapai College?
• Is anyone else alarmed?