The Learners: Self-Regulation

Whether taking a face-to-face or online course, students must be able to manage their own learning. The ability to self-regulate is critical for success.

Self-regulated learning involves:

• Motivating oneself to take action, complete assignments and stay on track
• Planning, monitoring, and evaluating personal progress during the course
• Adapting to changing personal circumstances and academic challenges
• Adjusting performance to address personal strengths and weaknesses
• Applying strategies to course demands
• Attributing successes and failures to factors oneself
• Exerting effort to learn

Supporting Self-Regulation Learners

Consider ways to facilitate self-regulation in your students by encouraging metacognitive awareness, promoting time management, encouraging social interaction, and providing effective, efficient, and appealing learning materials.

Encourage Metacognitive Awareness

Help learners use metacognitive strategies to become more self-aware. In other words, encourage students to think about themselves, their learning style, their motivation, their personality and their approach to online learning.

Ask students to consider the following suggestions:

• If you're a procrastinator, accept it and set up a rigid schedule and effective rewards.
• If you're easily distracted, identify a private workspace that will facilitate learning.
• If you need quiet, noise, or music, set up your environment with those features.
• If you work best at a particular time of day, schedule your deep thinking activities for those times.
• If you have a hard time working at a computer for extended period of time, vary your work. Read the textbook in a comfortable place, read the assignment online, do some brainstorming off-line, then return to a discussion forum.
• If you are a worrier, stay calm and contact your instructor if you have trouble.

Promote Time Management

Provide learners with tips for time management during online course.

Ask students to consider the following suggestions:

• Identify the course as a priority
• Develop a regular schedule for coursework
• Keep a course calendar with study time and due dates identified
• Establish goals and deadline for yourself
• Anticipate problems (i.e., illness, technical problems) and have a backup plan for course completion

Encourage Social Interaction

To succeed in online discussions and other online course activities, participants must have basic social skills including the ability to:

• listen (read) and comprehend classmate postings
• ask appropriate questions
• assist others through supporting comments
• build on the work of others
• take on the role of devil's advocate or other perspectives to promote discussion
• synthesize information and ideas presented by classmates and make a unique contribution
• participate in a timely manner

Provide Effective, Efficient, and Appealing Learning Materials

Support learners through the design of quality course materials.

• Ensure that course materials are effective in addressing diverse learning styles
• Design materials that are time-saving and efficient
• Create appealing materials that are interesting and motivating
• Organize the course into clear, logical segments
• Review progress and forecast upcoming assignments
• Encourage students to ask questions

To learn more about self-regulation, go to Virtual Information Inquiry: Self-regulation.

Apply It!
Are a self-regulated learner?
What tools or resources will you build into the course to encourage self-regulation?

Self-regulated learning involves managing one's own learning through metacognitive strategies.

Facilitate self-regulated learning by
- encouraging metacognitive awareness,
- promoting time management,
- encouraging social interaction, and
- providing effective, efficient, and appealing learning materials.

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