The BilBea Learning Journey

One of my biggest dilemmas in online learning was the reading level required within the course (which would be present in face-to-face study) but added to this is the reading required to participate in asynchronous discussion (more reading). When I do a VARK style test (Visual, Auditory, Reading and Kinaesthetic) my visual is highest followed by kinaesthetic then auditory. The problem I have with reading is it’s visual nature. If I sit in a lecture I can listen (thus using a different channel) and create a picture in my head and understand the content more easily. If I need to read, I read a sentence, pause while I recall the picture try to add that piece (after deciding if it’s relevant and will fit) and attempt to store that so I can read again. As you can guess this takes enormous amounts of energy and after one simple paper my brain gives up and refuses to read any more!

This I noticed often and I would try to push myself past this barrier without much success getting crankier with myself all the while. That is until my partner suggested a screen reader designed for the blind to be able to use the computer. Willing to give anything a go, I researched installed and began testing my screen reader. I must say – Wow! What an incredible difference a simple mode of input could make! Now I was sitting in 6 or 7 lectures a day with the experts reading their papers to me (in a polite British accent). While it reads I can spend the energy in creating a mind map, typing up notes or purely listening to get the main ideas in the paper.

This has made me thoroughly aware of learning styles and accessibility for the handicapped in all things online, especially if it’s a learning course. I continue my study in learning styles and read a website the other day where a learning style study advisor and assister discovered that students high in VAR and K (that is high in all 4) actually require to learn the material in ALL 4 styles before they will understand! We all assumed that only one of these is needed, when in reality it’s the complete opposite making these people usually very unlucky in study. How to cater for all these styles in one online course, is beyond anything in previous history of online pedagogy, I think.