Learning to be an Online Learner
The pandemic has restricted student learning to the confounds of of a home screen in most households. While we may be limited on where we learn during this health crisis, there are several ways in which we learn. We may be auditory, visual, or tactile learners (Pennsylvania General Assembly, PHEAA, 2020).
Visual learners do best with seeing information. Auditory learners prefer listening to oral directions and verbal participation. Tactile learners excel with hands-on activities. In order to learn what strategy will work best for your child, it is important to learn one’s learning style. Learning styles are not the same as abilities (Kamińska, 2014). They are ways in which we prefer to learn (Kamińska, 2014) . With the pandemic being far from preferable, learning how to engage your online learner is particularly important to support your child.
While we are capable of learning through various means, having your child take this quiz will allow you accommodate the far from ideal home learning environment to best compliment strengths (PHEAA, 2020). After all, you likely did not sign up to teach your child (or children!) from your home while juggling the demands of the other aspects of your life- working remotely, care taking for family inside and outside of home, and housekeeping. Moreover, your child did not sign up for virtual learning and are now compelled to be self-directed virtual scholars.
Step One: Take the Quiz Yourself to Help:
1. Identify your own learning “super power” so can help your child with creative learning solutions at home
2. Know how long the quiz will take for your child to complete
3. Assist your child by answering questions about the self-assessment
Step Two: Take the Quiz Before Your Child
Collaborating and offering encouragement rather than nagging, criticizing, or directing your child when to study and how to learn will allow you to creatively problem solve. In turn, your child will have a model on how to resolve conflict in the future. One of the first ways to model flexibility is by taking the quiz yourself in order to learn about various learning styles so that you can foster growth in your own online learner at home!
Click here to take the quiz yourself.
Step Three: Have your Child Take the Quiz
You may have more than one “super power” when it comes to learning and so may your child! Find out what your strengths are and view the tailored learning and study strategies that are provided in this blog after you take the quiz.
Step Four: Help Your Child to Make Creative Solutions
In a traditional classroom setting where students and teachers meet face to face (those were the good ‘old days, right?!), most learning takes place through the use of a white/chalkboard to see what is being taught while teachers speak to students who are expected to listen to instructions. However, there is more to learning than paying attention to a board and listening to instruction. Let’s take a closer look at how your child can master their learning strengths as an online learner.
Now it’s your student’s turn to take the quiz by clicking here.
What are your child’s quiz results? Are they more visual, auditory, or tactile in their learning style?
Engaging Your Tactile “Super Power”:
Even in this traditional learning environment, students whose learning “super power” is tactile, viewing and listening to their teachers is far from complementary to their learning style. These students learn best when they are putting puzzles together, drawing diagrams, moving their body and/or acting out stories or elements of a lecture. These students want to be out of their seat, playing with something in their hands, tapping or touching objects while they learn, and probably want to do anything but sit still while listening to what is being written on a board in front of them. If students are allowed to squeeze or touch an object while taking an exam, this may help them concentrate and focus on the task at hand.
1. Allowing your child to squeeze something (i.e.Play-Doh, clay, or a D.I.Y. stress ball made by filling a balloon with cornstarch or flour will do!) during the next Zoom lecture. This can be done under one’s work space with no one even seeing what they’re doing on the other side of the screen.
2. Encourage your student to make a graphic design of a stage model for a Biology, Chemistry, or Algebra project.
3. Your child can engage in hands on with learning by creating a collage of Spanish vocabulary words. Cut out letters to spell out the new set of conjugations from this week’s Spanish grammar lesson.
4. Tactile learners can take the final in the same format that they learned the material- use that D.I.Y. stress ball, Play-Doh, or clay.
5. If possible, encourage tactile learners to walk and learn! Taking the E-book on the next family walk to listen while loving. Many E-books have an audio feature that reads text to students.
6. Allow your child to take plenty of movement breaks in between Zoom lectures or study sessions.
Engaging Your Visual “Super Power”:
Visual learners have the advantage of learning by seeing what is written on the classroom board or illustrated through graphs, charts, and drawings in their textbooks. They do best when teachers show them how things are spelled, what they look like, and encourage students to write or draw as they view and listen to classroom lectures. Their “super power” involves visualizing in their mind what the correct answer is when it comes to taking tests. They may remember what their teacher wrote on the write board, graphs from their textbook, or drawings that outlined class lectures in their notes during an exam.
1. Visual learners greatly benefit from writing down instructions throughout Zoom lectures. It’s important to keep a
notebook handy just as you did during face to face lectures.
2. Encourage your student to preview chapter readings by first skimming titles and subtitles, charts, graphs, and all pictures.
3. Visualize what words teachers or classmates are saying during class.
4. Doodling fun and effective for visual learners. Drawing symbols can help review notes quickly and efficiently. It can
help encode the information quicker, saving time when studying notes.
5. Dust off old flashcards or cut out scraps of paper into squares to make your own. Use them to organize key terms and concepts for classes that are most difficult for you. Draw on flashcards that are color-coordinated.
6. Visual learners may particularly love watching a YouTube video full of imagery to help reinforce lecture and lass
readings. This can be done while eating breakfast before lecture or an exam.
Engage Your Auditory “Super Power”:
Auditory learners do best when directions and lecture are spoken to them, they are encouraged to actively participate by asking questions and speaking their mind during class, and have opportunities to verbally discuss questions and feedback with peers during peer breakout groups in class. They also may really exceed at oral presentations and thrive in telling you about their book report or other class projects. If books come with a digital audio recording, auditory learners may even remember the exact words spoken in that recording while taking an exam. Talk about a super power!
1. Most smart phones and many laptops have a record feature for the auditory learner. This is a great way for students to
practice reciting material from class themselves, listen to it on their phone/computer, and review lecture material at
later times to truly master material. Test questions can be read aloud and later listened to on one’s phone during a
family walk.
2. Encourage your child to read instructions out loud. This is particularly important now that learning is online. Instruction may be given through email or a Learning Management Software (i.e. Canvas, Blackboard, Google Classroom) where students do not have the ability to store the spoken words of their teachers into memory as they do during face
to face lectures
3. Help auditory learners prepare for an exam by asking them test questions out loud while you cook dinner.
4. Listening to YouTube videos are free ways to learn and listen to concepts from class that were difficult to understand
the first time around.
5. Using headphones during online learning to cancel out any background noise that is particularly distracting for those
with strengths in auditory learning.
6. Many E-books have an audio feature that reads text to students, which can be music to the auditory learners’ powerful ears.
Though these times have put a strain on learning, it can be empowering to identify your child’s strengths to help compensate for the vast limitations that social distancing has created. Virtually (pun intended) all students are learning online and many are doing it for the first time in their lives. Moreover, many teachers are providing online instruction with limited or no training prior to the COVID-19 outbreak. Despite many parts of learning being out of your child’s control, learning how to learn online can offer flexibility through creative strategies.
Encouraging students to use creative alternatives can enhance cognitive flexibility, allowing them to increase problem solving skills for future conflicts that arise in life beyond academic learning.
About the Author:
Dr. Tracy Ballardo is a licensed psychologist. She is a therapist and college instructor. She provides college-level instruction to high school students in a dual-enrollment program and traditional undergraduate Psychology students. Dr. Ballardo is certified to provide online instruction using a Learning Management Software and is currently teaching several undergraduate Psychology courses virtually in light of social distancing. She also treats school-aged children, high school students, college students, and young adults overcome struggles related to social anxiety, depression, academic stress, trauma, and life transitions in order to experience success in school and other areas of life. She has provided therapy and clinical outreach in a number of settings including high schools, colleges, community mental health agencies, hospital and residential treatment, and private practice.
References:
Kamińska, P. M. (2014). Learning Styles and Second Language
Education. Cambridge Scholars Publishing.
Pennsylvania Higher Education Assistance Agency (PHEAA)
(2020). What’s Your Learning Style? Retrieved from:
http://www.educationplanner.org/students/self-
assessments/index.shtml
About PHEAA:
Created in 1963 by the Pennsylvania General Assembly, PHEAA has evolved into one of the nation's leading student aid organizations. Today, PHEAA is a national provider of student financial aid services, serving millions of students and thousands of schools through its loan guaranty, loan servicing, financial aid processing, outreach, and other student aid programs. As a public corporation and instrumentality of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, PHEAA devotes its energy, resources, and imagination to developing innovative ways to ease the financial burden of higher education for students, families, schools, and taxpayers.
