Converting Traditional Learning to Online Environments

Learning Paradigm

An increase in student diversity often challenges teaching. The change is due to increased enrollment by international students in the United States, for instance. International students’ needs include several things that differ from those of American students: e.g., cultural adaptation, language barriers, and social support networks and so on. Ethnic diversity raises concerns as this may be a new experience to the traditional teacher. Biggs and Tang (2011) stated: “When the teacher focuses on the learning activities, ethnic differences are appropriately minimized as far as learning itself is concerned” (p. 5). In addition to diversity, another concern are the academic orientation and student commitment to maintain standards when the level of commitment ranges within a group of students to the extent that it presents an interesting teaching challenge (Biggs & Tang, 2011). Generally, there are two distinct types of students:

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  Self-Learners: Academically committed, interested in the studies, want to excel, have a clear career path, and ask questions to develop a concept as it pertains to personal significance.

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  Job Seekers: Generally, do not have a sound background of prior knowledge needed to excel in the course nor divulged in commitment, often do not ask questions and producing just enough effort to pass the course, to become employable.