Henglang Mo V00970423
IAT HANG IAO V00913226
Persona:
Profile:
Name: Daniel
Gender: Male
Age: 22
Current residence: living with parents in Shanghai, China
Interests: basketball, singing, sports.
Education and experience:
American, graduated from high school in the United States, he is studying in China and accompanied by his parents. Although his mother tongue is English, he is a Chinese language major. Daniel loves singing and dreams of becoming a famous singer.
Job responsibilities:
Daniel is a college student in Shanghai, cheerful, and he likes learning. In his spare time, he sings and creates on social platforms. He works part-time and studies part-time. It is a side job that can provide funds for life.
Technical ability:
Daniel has good computer operation ability and often helps students repair computers; Daniel has a great musical talent. But he is not good at Chinese, and Chinese foundations are poor.
Motivation and desire:
He wants to pass the Chinese college entrance exams and enter the Chinese department of a prestigious university in China.
Own advantages:
He has a firm belief that he will not give up his ideal because of external obstacles. He wants to enter the ideal university through his efforts and develop his music dream at the same time.
learning difficulties and obstacles:
Daniel has a poor Chinese foundation and can’t keep up with his classmates’ learning pace. Additionally, his time distribution is uneven as he has to sing on the platform, work and studies, his schedule is always full. Furthermore, Daniel lives far from the university, which means he has to spend a fair amount of time attending university every day. In addition, Even though Daniel is about to speak in Chinese, he still has difficulty pronouncing Chinese fluently. Also, due to the stumbling and stumbling of Chinese pronunciation, he dared not communicate with friends for fear of language misunderstanding, which made him lack self-confidence. This became an obstacle in learnings time management. Chinese foundation and lack of self-confidence have affected his choice of learning methods. Therefore, with the comparison chart below, we believe that open learning can provide him with the required environment to learn Chinese better.
Open Learning |
Distributed Learning |
| Very High Flexibility, courses can be completed anywhere at any time with the internet. | Limited Flexibility, students are required to attend classes at a fixed time. |
| Students can complete the course at their own pace, course length can also be adjusted according to students’ needs. | Students need to keep up with the instructor and have to finish the course within a period of time, but they are more focused on a topic at a time. |
| Students can access course materials anytime anywhere with an internet connection. | Students need a quiet environment when they attend classes. |
| Students are able to access course materials and review them anytime they want. | Students have limited time to write down notes during class time and instructors might not upload the notes after class, however; they are able to ask questions in class. |
Proposal:
Objectives:
- To identify the strengths and challenges of the student
- To provide a comparison on open and distributed learning environments
- To identify learning support strategies that are applicable for both learning environments
- To identify which learning environment and learning support strategies will benefit the student.
Executive Summary:
Daniel is a 22-year old student who is currently taking undergraduate studies in Shanghai, China. He graduated high school in the United States and his mother tongue is the English Language. He is currently enrolled as a Chinese language major. His strengths lie in his expertise in using the computer and its various operations, has talent in music and performing arts, and has great motivation in accomplishing his goals despite obstacles. His learning obstacles are: difficulty in basic Chinese language foundations, time distribution and conflict between academics and extracurricular activities, and lack of self-confidence that restricts his learning opportunities. Open and distributed learning environments are being considered to help him cope up with his academic requirements.
Open Learning Environment:
According to Caliskan (2012), open learning is considered as a mode of learning that is associated with providing learners with the opportunity to have the flexibility and be able to choose from options regarding time, place, mode of instruction, and mode of access that is associated with their learning process. It is emphasized that this type of learning is open, at any circumstance, and can be interchangeable with e-learning, flexible learning, and distance learning. Due to the flexibility and adjustability that open learning provides, Daniel will be able to access the information and lessons that are necessary to fulfill his academic requirements at his pace and based on his schedule.
Distributed Learning Environment:
At face value, distributed learning seems to be highly restricting, as it requires students to attend classes at a fixed time. Also, distributed learning requires teachers and students to track the progress of the course at the end of each lesson, and the course materials are needed to be broken down into smaller, easy-to-manage learning methods. However, Grevin & Richter (2019) cited that distributed learning makes it possible to foster long-term retention through the time allotted between repetitions of a certain learning material. Thus, distributed learning is actually concerned with learning schedules in which information that needs to be mastered is repeated and distributed over several learning sessions as compared to providing only on a single session. In the context of Daniel who needs to master the Chinese language, long-term retention and repetitive strategies will work best for him.
Final Recommendations:
Based on the evaluation of the two learning strategies, it is recommended that Daniel fully adopts the open learning environment as it offers a high degree of flexibility that can accommodate his academic needs and his extracurricular activities. In addition, the accessibility of the learning materials that can be acquired remotely will be beneficial for Daniel as it will ensure that he will not miss out on any information. However, the repetition for long-term retention under the distributed learning environment can also be explored for Daniel, particularly in the realm of mastery of the Chinese language, which proves to be one of his greatest learning challenges.
References
Caliskan, H. (2012). Open Learning. Encyclopedia of the Sciences of Learning. DOI: 10.1007/978-1-4419-1428-6_52.
Greving, C. & Richter, T. (2019). Distributed learning in the classroom: effects of rereading schedules depend on time of test. Frontiers in Psychology. 9 (2517); 1-15.