Online Learning Update

By Todd Tauber, Quartz

So why are all these students falling asleep, virtually, in their digital classes? Mainly because the people putting education online are still thinking in terms of classrooms. And despite incorporating “decades of research on how students learn best”, the world has changed a lot in just the last few years. Here’s just one example of how: Before smartphones, we went online roughly five times a day, in long chunks, according to Joe Kraus, a partner at Google Ventures. Today, with smartphones, it’s 27 times, in much shorter bursts. Twentieth century instructional methods just don’t work as well for busy, distracted 21st-century learners. Another big issue, especially for non-traditional students, is that learning has to fit in between life and work.

http://qz.com/65408/the-dirty-little-secret-of-online-learning-students-are-bored-and-dropping-out/