Online learning: A student's perspective

I'm Sam. I’ve been asked to give a student’s perspective on what’s going on. My first brief is to talk about what I like about learning stuff online.

An online learning experience's primary strength lies in its flexibility. We keep hearing about how everyone wants everything to become more convenient; it's inherent to human nature. Online education is a (probably the) next step in making learning more convenient. And it isn't (solely) the fact it allows me to stay indoors and watch lectures in my bed. It enables a fluidity in learning that simply isn't available by a course with a timetabled lecture and tutorial.
The gaps and inconsistencies in access to tertiary education are well documented. We're paying so much more for university education than ever before. Plus, if you don't live within an hour of a major Australian city, it's not going to be easy for you to even attend university. The logical response is what we've seen beginning to happen around the world: massive open online courses (or MOOCs, because it's not a thing until it's an acronym).

These courses, despite various obvious criticisms, have proved extremely popular. This is unsurprising. I can think of over 50 people off the top of my head who would have been willing to complete an online course, but weren't willing/ able to commit to a physical university course. There are a hundred reasons they didn't, but most of them would be overcome by the type of online environment QUT Transform is proposing.

In Sue Savage's previous post, Developing modern learning experience, she set out the key principles grounding what Transform is trying to achieve. They all seemed to fit in with what I, as a student, would expect from an online course. They are all challenges that need to be addressed in a contemporary manner, with an eye fixed on what kind of new technologies can be employed. As students, we are no longer fazed by having to learn new interfaces and programs - so long as they aren't overly complicated.

This semester, one of my units, Online Journalism, required us all to create a Twitter account. Using the hashtag #QUTOJ1, we would all post relevant links to stories we created, or comments on lectures. It was a constantly moving platform, and the updating twitter feed was even displayed on the screen during lectures. It was an extremely forward thinking concept devised by the unit coordinator, Susan Hetherington. It offered me the most engaging experience in a unit I've had at QUT so far.

Maybe I'm just a bit weird, but I've never found learning a chore. An old teacher of mine once told me, "When you stop learning, you stop living." She was probably 60 years old, and was completing her fifth degree while teaching at my high school. I can't help but think we'll see cases like that increase exponentially as universities harness online learning technologies.

Sam Weston -- QUT Journalism & Law student / Transform Student Ambassador