Match the Experience to the learner

   It seems too obvious to need saying, but there are differences between kids and adult learners that need to be considered when designing online learning experiences.  Although children mature and eventually reach a level of self-direction and motivation, not all kids mature at the same rate.  Generally speaking, child and adult learners differ in the following ways:
Children...                                        Adults...
Depend on the instructor for            Are responsible for his or her own
all learning                                        learning

Come with little experience              Bring a greater volume and quality
that could be tapped as a resource    of experience
for learning

Are told what they have to learn       Are motivated by the need to
in order to advance to the next          know in order to perform more
level of mastery                                 effectively in some aspect of
                                                           one's life

Learning is a process of                     Learning must have  real-life
acquiring prescribed subject              tasks and is organized around
matter with content units                    life/work situations rather than
sequenced for them                             subject matter units

Are primarily motivated by                Internal motivators; self-esteem,
external pressures, competition          recognition, better quality of life,
for grades, and consequences            self-confidence, self-actualization
of failure

   The goal is to turn child learners into adult life-long learners.  This is a continuum, in which individuals move forward at their own pace.  If you are designing a learning experience for adults, you will want to approach them in a different way than if you are designing for children - even if those children are of high school age.

For advice on designing for adult learners, check out these ideas on Shift's eLearning blog.

    If you are designing online learning for children, be sure to keep in mind their reading level.  Including the option to hear text read aloud is great, but not a fix-all.  When designing for grades 5-12, consider the following:

• Don't crowd the pages with text.
• Include illustrations, or better, video clips.
• Make sure audio voices are not too mechanical.
• Break up readings into chunks with opportunities to review after each section.
• Get kids thinking! Ask "why". Go for process.
  
• Build in opportunities for kids to manipulate and match
• Involve students in social interaction when possible.
• Provide for immediate feedback.
• Build on skills that will be needed for online future learning by providing repeated opportunities and sequential tasks
• Model for the student

   Very few 5-12th graders really enjoy reading miles of text followed by a quiz of multiple guess questions.  While some multiple choice activities are fine, online courses that rely on True/False, Matching, Fill-in-the-blank, and Multiple choice are missing the boat when it comes to engaging students in deep thinking and in helping them really understand the content.  

   The book Making Thinking Visible is a great resource for K-12 teachers who want to take kids beyond facts and into deep thinking. You might also like to read Teaching Students to Think, an article from Educational Leadership (2008).