Flexibility

When I think of flexibel learning, the first thing that comes to my mind is distance learning related to e-learning. Maybe that is because I have not thought further on it, just like many other people according too Collis and Moonen (2001). But after the first lecture of this course, I found out that flexibil learning contains many different aspects, such as content, time, learning materials, instructional approach and the location.

Collis and Moonen (2001) define flexible learning as follows: ‘Flexible learning is a movement away from a situation in which key decisions about learning dimensions are mad in advance by the instructor or institution, toward a situation where the learner has a range of options from which to choose with respect to these key dimensions’.
In this blog I will describe five different kinds of flexibility, including their advantages and disadvantages.

The first one I would like to describe is time. When you follow a course, it might be that there is flexibility related to time, for example that you may choose when to start with a course or  when to hand in the assignments. This can be very handy for those who have a very busy schedule, they can decide for themselves when they do the assignment. A disadvantage is that the learner must have a real intrinsic motivation. Because there is no deadline, there is a chance that the learners wait very long before they do the assignment. Because the lecture for this assignment was a long time ago, it could be that the learners have forgotten the content and so it can be difficult to do the assignment. Another disadvantage is that it can be complicated for the teacher. When there is no deadline, I can imagine that teachers lose the overview because different assignments are mixed up.

Of course there is also a flexibility related to the content. Maybe learners can follow different parts of the course, so they choose the topic they want to learn. Probably the learners are real motivated because they may choose the topic by themselves. But in my view, it is difficult for the designers of the course. I take for example the human body. As a designer but also as a teacher, you want that the learners learn the complexitiy of the human body and you devide the course into five different lectures with each an own topic. Then the learners may choose three lectures they want to follow. The result can be that the learners learn a lot about the bones of the human body, but they do not know much about the circulatory of the human body.

A third dimension of learning flexiliby is related to the instructional approach. Will the lecture be in Dutch or English? Do the learners have to work in groups or on their own? This choice is for each learner different. Some learners prefer to work in groups, other learners prefer to work on their own. When the learners work in groups, this requires a good organization. There must be places to work in groups and of course there is some noise, but this should be not too loud, because then the other groups can not concentrate very well. So the organization of working in groups can be a disadvantage for those teachers who find it difficult to organize a situation in which everyone can learn.

Another flexibility is related to learning materials. There are many learning materials such as textbooks, educational software, video resources, recourses from multi-media, resources via the WWW etc. That learners may choose by what material they want to learn and by what material they want to communicate with eachother and with the teacher. An advantage for these different learning materials is that the learners can choose a material that best suits them and facilitates their learning. Of course there should be enough computers etc., so that there is an opportunity for everyone who likes to work with that learning material. A disadvantage could be that it is difficult for teachers, especially the teachers who did not grown up with technology, to work with the different learning materials. They must learn how to work with educational software, the WWW etc.

The first thing that came in my mind when I thought about flexibel learning is e-learning. So

the last aspect of flexible learning I would like to describe is flexibility related to distance.

In recent years there has been a lot of attention for e-learning, and still there is attention for it. E-learning has a lot of advantages such as lower costs and saving travel time, but one of the most important is the flexibility. It is not necessary that the learner and the teacher meet eachother at the same time and place. There are many other ways to keep in contact, such as skype, email and an electronic learning environment. And if the learner missed a class, for example he has a broken leg, he can watch the lecture online. But of course there is one big disadvantage, at least in my opinion, and that is the the lack of immediate interaction between the learner and the teacher and also between learners. On this way, the learners do not maintain social contacts and that is a pity, because it is useful to have social contacts and to know how you must maintain these social contact for their careers.

I think flexibility is a great addition for education, but of course there are limits. It is not possible that the learners may choose everything by themselves. I think it becomes a big mess if all learners use different learning materials or that the learners may choose when to hand in the assignment. And for some learners it is not even desirable that they make their own choices, for example learners with little discipline. They will never hand in an assignment....

Reference:

Collis, B., & Moonen, J. (2001, second printing 2002). Flexible learning in a digital world: Experiences and expectations. London: Kogan Page.