A recent BBC article, How do you stop online students cheating?, suggested that in the near future students may be able to take exams at home without the need to be a formal exam setting. In addition to issues such as how to effectively invigilate exams of this nature, it also raises the consideration of how the environment of a formal exam room has an influence on performance. For some who respond well to pressure, the heightened pressure of an examination room can only increase performance. For others, the anxiety created within an exam room can inhibit performance and an exam set within the comforts of their own home may help to increase performance.
This brings into consideration the wider discussion of the role of face to face interaction within learning and how this might affect the learning experience for participants with different learning preferences.
Online learning offers an ideal opportunity for students to fit study around their busy lifestyles without the need to attend classes at set times. The development of technology also enables interaction online through webinars, live classrooms, discussion boards and blogs all of which facilitates online interaction with other participants. For those with a learning preference which leans towards independent learning this may well offer an ideal approach to their studies.
The question is, does this interaction online allow students to learn, with and from their peers in the same way that a traditional cohort progressing through a course experiences? For some the experience of learning from, and with your peers in study groups creates real additional value enabling participants to develop in both in an educational and professional context by learning from the experience of their fellow participants.
During my Postgraduate study, I greatly valued the input of my peers to my personal and professional development, personally, I know I wouldn’t formed the same relationships, and learnt from others in quite the same way if the only place we had met was in a virtual environment. Perhaps this could be linked to age and a younger generation who had grown up with social media might feel very differently, being much more accustomed to the concept of socialising online.
In essence, I imagine that individuals learning styles, their motivations for undertaking study and their personal circumstances in how much time they can spend in the classroom, will have a great influence on the extent to which they value face to face interaction during study. Programmes which offer a blended approach to learning, offering both rich online materials and face to face contact may well be the ideal compromise in providing something which suits all learning styles.
Julie is the MBA Project Officer at the University of Bedfordshire, managing the operational delivery of Executive MBA programmes. She has worked for the University of Bedfordshire since 2005 and prior to the MBA, worked at the Centre for Women's Enterprise in the Business School, as an Account Executive.
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