Student Competencies for Online Learning

This chapter expands on the information provided in previous chapters to emphasize student preparedness for successful online learning \i. Being prepared to learn, regardless of course modality \i, is fundamental to a student’s success, and persistence \i to course and/or degree completion. Chapter 2 highlighted the need for online students to be ready for online learning by developing and enhancing their technical and digital literacy skills. However, as discussed in Chap. 3 , there are many more competencies that an online student needs to demonstrate and/or develop to experience success, and persist, in an online learning environment. Hence, this chapter identifies common competencies all students need to effectively engage in college-level learning and introduces competencies that are somewhat unique to the autonomous and virtual nature of online learning. Research centered around online student success and persistence confirms that online students need to demonstrate or develop certain knowledge, skills, and attributes at the onset of the academic journey. This chapter describes these competencies and explains why they are necessary for online student success. This chapter also addresses misconceptions often associated with online learning and discusses how these myths may present barriers to online students. Finally, this chapter presents strategies and resources for students to measure their preparedness for online learning and to develop and address any gaps in their online learning competencies.