The picture demonstrates a frustrated and bored person, perhaps amid the educational process. I recall a similar educational experience from the past when I went through a tedious learning process. Moreover, I also partially associate the picture with the online learning process, as it can be more challenging to make this process engaging and enjoyable for the students. I felt bored and uninspired by the learning process in the past due to several reasons. Firstly, in some cases, such as school, studies were conducted at an inconvenient time, and it was impossible to regulate the timetable. In such situations, it is not easy to concentrate on the material and perform optimally. Secondly, and more importantly, some of the mandatory subjects evoked already mentioned negative emotions because they seemed useless and pointless for future education or careers. In some cases, it was not clear how the gained knowledge could benefit a student, and no explanation of that sort was given. Thirdly, in many cases, the teaching style led to student disengagement, as the presentation of course materials may have been dull and monotonous, and no interactive activities were used during the process.
Regarding the remote learning experience, there are two main reasons why it could have caused negative emotions. Firstly, online learning has been less motivating and encouraging overall due to the lack of real offline social contact, which is essential to many students. Secondly, the online learning process has been less stable and less consistent due to interruptions caused by technical and connection issues. Moreover, both students and teachers were not proficient enough with online learning tools initially, further reducing the efficiency of the educational process.
In the described cases, some of the principles of adult learning were not applied appropriately, which caused the negative attitude in the first place. The situation when it was necessary to study some courses that do not directly benefit a student may be the strongest example of the violation of principles of adult learning. According to those principles, adults are goal-oriented, and they want to learn something that can benefit them personally or professionally. That means that all of the aspects of the course should be designed to be useful, practical, and relevant. Regarding the element of time management, I believe that any mandatory material learned within a forced schedule violates the principle of autonomy – students should be able to choose for themselves. I do not think that online education examples are relevant regarding the adult learning principles, as these are primarily problems of the format.
Based on the reflections on my experience, I will pay significant attention to such aspects of the course as the student’s choice and overall relevance. As stated before, students need freedom, and I would like to give them as many options as possible to move their education in the way they prefer. Secondly, I will try to design the course in such a manner as to demonstrate its usefulness and relevance at each step of the process.
Reference
Bali, S., & Liu, M.C. (2018). Students’ perceptions toward online learning and face-to-face learning courses. Journal of Physics: Conference Series, 1108. Web.