The Student

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Students are people who must be satisfied. People take a Web-based course with some goals, in pursuit of advantages they feel important to them. Generally, students are the ones who must be convinced that their goals have been met and the advantages realized. Web-based training is effective when it helps these students get the fullest benefit possible from the instruction with the help of technology.

Defining the word, student, is rather difficult because of the way instructors view students. A grade school teacher may define a student as a child in grades 1 through 6. College professors may define a student as a person over the age of 18, a high school graduate, and who is enrolled in college classes. Conversely, another instructor, working in the continuing education department at the same college or university, might define a student as an adult simply wishing to further their education. These classifications are good as they help define the instructor's focus and how the instructor delivers instruction.

Depending on the Web-based course, and how accessible it is, people from all types of backgrounds and educational levels will mostly likely visit. With Internet access available to so many people - and who are taking advantage of it - our definitions of what a student is may no longer fit. An outstanding Profile of the Distant Student will assist in creating Web-based training as this document points out the different types of students as well as the difficulties that they face in distant education environments. I have found a definition that works for me; one that seems to wrap things up nicely. With appropriate caution, a student can be defined as a person who is more concerned with the outcome than with the output. In other words, students are people who treat the technology as a means to some other ends: business, professional, or personal objectives.

For students to be satisfied, they must believe that their objectives have been met, with acceptable effort and cost. The end matters more than the means; the outcome more than the output. How the system works is less important to the student than how to work the system to their advantage.

Students are people who want something bigger than, and outside of, the medium they are using. If they could find a cost-effective way to get what they want without a computer, they might. Why stress the point? Because it is so easy, when developing Web-based training, to view the technology as an end in itself. The user interface and instruction can become so unusable, that the students do not get what they really want even if the tools are available to them.

In well-planned Web-based instruction, over time, the needs of students change. Web-based instruction should not only help the student get started but also stay at a pace of their evolving interests, ultimately reducing the student's dependence on the instructor.

This poses an ironic question: How can we create Web-based instruction so as to reduce the need for instructors?

Over time, students need the following from instruction:

• lose shyness
• learn terms and elements
• learn necessary procedures
• receive often-used facts
• receive rarely-used facts

Look familiar? These are the same basic steps we must take in other training environments: from two-hour presentations to the semester length traditional classroom-based course. These five points can serve as a beginning blueprint in designing Web-based training. By giving the students what they need, they'll most likely spread the word, "This course was worth it and then some!"

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Last Modified: February, 2005