Conversations with students : what is it they want us to hear?

Abstract

Interaction with students in Open Distance Learning (ODL) in Higher Education (HE) has been researched extensively as it is widely recognised as a crucial element of teaching and learning in such institutions. ODL in HE institutions are often blamed for lack of and bad communication with students. What is usually understood as interaction with students is student-study materials, student-student and student-lecturer interactions. Student-lecturer interaction mostly focuses on lecturer initiated interactions such as announcements on the Learning Management System and a bit less on student initiated interactions. Personal conversations initiated by students are seldom dealt with. The research for this lecture was therefore specifically and exclusively focussed on personal conversations between students and lecturers that were initiated by students. These conversations included e-mails, letters, faxes, SMS’s, Whatsapp messages, home phone and cellular calls, appointments, Skype conversations and conversations at workshops and school visits. The objective of the research was to firstly find out what students were conversing about, how they were doing it and how it manifested in practice. Several patterns emerged from this that might have significance for universities. The research however also went beyond this thematic analysis and it went into the realm of interpretation of conversations to try and determine the underlying stimuli, reasons and motivations student had for initiating the conversations, because that would reflect their innate needs. Effective personal communication in distance learning is of prime importance and is in fact one of the pillars of efficient student interaction which ODL institutions in HE strive for. Learners benefit from increased interaction. It would therefore be imprudent not to seek every possible opportunity to create avenues, means and the necessary time for lecturers to engage in such conversations with students.