Challenging Characteristics of Online Learning Essay

In online learning there are some challenging characteristics that an online learner need to face during their study periods among them are lack of motivation, stress, bad time management and learning style, computer illiterate, and language barrier. Firstly in lack of motivation, having lack of motivation is one of the characteristic challenges in online learning. If a student has lack of motivation this will make them less interested in their studies and this will drag the online learners down from producing good results in their studies. This is because without any motivation it will affect on how well the online learners do in their work and on when they will want to do their work and this also affects on how long will it take for them to work on the task given and this will automatically make the online learners lose their concentration on their studies. Next is when the online students are having stress during their study periods. Stress is an emotional challenge that the online learner faced in online learning. When one is having stress during his or her study period it is never a good sign because stress can affect both the body and mind. Warnings of stress such as significant changes in the behavior and life patterns can indicate that a person might be having stress. Among the symptoms of stress are the sudden bursts of anger, restlessness and or uneasiness, lack of joy, spontaneity, enthusiasm and or happiness. By having stress the online learner will have difficulty in concentrating on their studies as well as having trouble or problems in making decisions. Then there is time management and learning style. If the students or online learners are not well discipline and cannot manage time in a reasonable manner, he or she will not be able to cope up with their studies, work and personal life. A disorganized person is not going to have a good experience in their online learning. As an online student one need to have a good time management skills. An older student tends to manage their time properly because they have developed better time management skills. Therefore the younger generation of students mostly will have problems in managing their time accordingly. With a bad time management this will influence on the online learner learning skills. This is because with a bad time management the online learner will not be able to cope up with their studies and thus will make them lose their concentration in understanding their learning style. Meanwhile being a computer illiterate is also one of the challenges that people have with online learning. This is because not many people out there who are an online learner are computer literate. Most of the online learners are adults who might not be familiar with the recent technologies and software. Even though there are many computer literate students but not all of them possesses all the necessary skills needed in online learning. Some may still not know on how to use the Microsoft Office Words, Excels, and Power Point features and some online learners might have lack of technical problem solving skills and basic technology literacy skills such as file management. Lastly is the language barrier among the students and their study materials. This is also one of the challenges faced by the online learners in online learning especially in a non – English speaking country like Malaysia. Most of the references retrieved by the online learners online are in English and some of the teaching materials provided for the online learner are also in English. Growing up with a non – English native mother tongue will somehow give trouble for some students to understand their study materials. They will need to take more time than other students to understand their study materials. So these will one way or another lower their self esteem and their confidence in doing the task given to them.