Anchored in Online Learning: My Experience as an Online Learning Participant
As an elementary educator, I have spent countless hours in training of all kinds. At the beginning of my career, most training sessions occurred in person. I would make plans to be out of school and travel to a training site to learn all that I could in a short amount of time. The year 2020 brought a shift in how professional learning took place. The Covid-19 pandemic caused training sessions to shift from in-person to online. In this blog, I will reflect on my own online learning experiences and consider what makes these experiences effective.
A Tale of Two Training Days
I was in the middle of teaching second grade during the 2022–2023 school year when I decided to participate in IMSE (Institute for Multisensory Education) training. I was excited to incorporate some of the practices into my whole-group and small-group instruction. A few of my team members also participated, so we spent 6-hour days attending the online sessions from our school site.
Training sessions were delivered via a video conferencing platform, with an instructor guiding us through the content each day. Based on the training option we selected, we completed five days of training sessions. Each of these sessions had a different instructor. Each trainer had different training styles. I had a range of experiences, but I’d like to highlight two that stood out the most.
On one training day, I had an experience that was engaging and hands-on. The instructor was lively and made the content feel practical. We had opportunities to prep materials and practice lessons with other participants. Even though the day was long, I left feeling empowered and excited to try out the techniques with my second graders.
On another day, I had an entirely different experience. It was a different instructor, of course, but we still had the same structure of prepping materials and practicing lessons. I know how important it is to stay actively engaged during professional learning, but I struggled through this session. My colleague and I did this one together, and we were both bored out of our minds. We took a big sigh of relief when the training finally ended.
What happened?
What Makes Online Learning Work
I began to reflect on both training sessions to understand why one left me feeling energized and the other completely drained. Both instructors were knowledgeable and provided helpful content that could support my students. Both also included opportunities for hands-on practice. But then I realized something: during the first session, there was hardly a lull. I was constantly engaged in taking notes, prepping materials, and practicing strategies. In the second session, time dragged between each activity, and the lack of momentum made it difficult to stay focused.
Many elements make online learning successful, but there are a few that would have made my negative online learning experience a little more meaningful. Much like learning in a traditional face-to-face setting, online learning requires structure. Instructors have to consider not only the content when structuring learning experiences, but they also have to consider their audience. Learner experience matters greatly when considering the effectiveness of online learning. Wong et al. (2024) found that user experience and situational interest are strongly linked to learner engagement, while mind-wandering has the opposite effect. Thinking back, I can see how the instructor’s energy and the continuous flow of activities in the first session kept my interest high, while the slower pacing of the second left too much room for distraction.Meaningful interaction is also important when designing online learning experiences. Simsonson and Zvacek (2024) stress the importance of encouraging communication not just between instructors and learners, but among participants themselves. While both IMSE sessions offered opportunities for interaction, the energy and connection with others felt much stronger and more authentic during the more effective session. It's important to note that there should be a balance when incorporating interaction into online learning experiences. Forced interaction can decrease effective learning as much as no interaction (Simonson & Zvacek, 2024). Forced interaction has always been my worst nightmare in training sessions.
Giving learners a sense of control and involvement is important for engagement in online learning environments (Simonson & Zvacek, 2024). When we feel like active participants in our learning, we're more likely to stay focused and retain new information. During the first session, I had frequent opportunities to step away from lecture-style instruction and actively apply my learning. The day was thoughtfully paced, with plenty of breaks for practice, planning, and discussion. This approach is supported by Wong et al. (2024), who emphasized that breaking up long video lessons and incorporating interactive elements can reduce mental fatigue and help learners stay engaged. I was able to practice skills for both small-group and whole-group instruction and even had time to plan how I would implement them in my classroom. By the end of that training day, I felt accomplished and confident in my ability to apply my learning.
Since my online learning experience was designed for adult learners, it’s important to consider it through the lens of andragogy. Andragogy, a concept widely studied by theorist Malcolm Knowles, involves frameworks for programs designed for adult learners (Simonson & Zvacek, 2024). The video below highlights key elements that support effective adult learning. Many of these elements showed up (or didn’t) in my own training sessions.
Final Thoughts
Reflecting on these two different experiences reminded me that effective online learning isn't just about delivering content, it's about how that content is delivered. When instructors are intentional about pacing, interaction, and learner ownership, online learning can be impactful. My IMSE experience showed me that the difference between a draining day and an empowering one often comes down to thoughtful design and facilitation. Although learning took place in both sessions, I walked away more confident and ready to apply my learning in the more engaging session. As we continue to embrace online learning, it's important to make sure we’re designing it with the learner in mind.
These two scenarios sound a lot like what different in person classrooms can look like as well! Whether students are meeting online or in person, an engaging classroom filled with collaboration is always going to be the most beneficial for students. Wong et al. (2024), shares that an engaged student is less likely to mind wander and be more like to successfully learn the objectives for the day. The article was geared towards online learning but this is so true about classrooms in general! Online learning needs to look and feel as close to in person classrooms, this is just accomplished in different ways. Simonson and Zvacek (2024), mention that many students prefer in-person instruction. I think this is the case because there a many online courses that fail to feel as engaging as an in-person classroom.
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