The New Student as a Didactic Challenge

The "New Student" project started in the spring of 2009. For several years lecturers in the Religious and Cultural Studies at the University of Gävle had discussed what they considered was a new learning situtation in distance education: fewer and fewer students are present at the seminars; students seem to prefer to study wholly on the web; the immediate communication is only with one or two students. The lecturers found the situation frustrating. This student behavior did not fit their understanding of the nature of learning and communication. They considered that the students had lost the dimension of immediate interaction and participatory meeting. At the same time they asked if their perception was correct: Is it really so that the students share the sentiment that something essential has disappeared from learning or is it so that they are comfortable with the situation and really learn things? An evaluation commissioned by the government authorities claims that the learning outcome in distance is weak: the students simply learn less than in the traditional classroom or lecture-hall format. It is not the lack of students that led to the project; the students still participate in the courses even if they are not present at the lectures, but the new student behavior was the cause. A new learning situation with new student behavior, its presuppositions and possibilities, became the object of research in the new student project. The lecturers wanted to analyze the prevailing situation in education socially, culturally and ideologically, and they wished to offer new strategies for education and learning locally and globally; education and research today take place in national and international networks. Consequently, society, learning strategies, and student behavior became the objectives of the research.

Titel: The New Student as a Didactic Challenge
Redaktörer: Jari Ristiniemi & Olof Sundqvist
Skriftserie: Scientific Studies of Religion from University of Gävle 6
Utgivare: University of Gävle
Bandtyp: Paperback
Utgivningsår: 2011
Antal sidor: 188
ISBN: 978-91-975446-4-1
ISSN: 1652-7895