What Students Want: A Vision of a Future Online Learning Experience Grounded in Distance Education Theory

As online learning continues to evolve many have proposed that we think differently about our pedagogical approaches, to move beyond the replication of the face-to-face experience. Here we explore the student and faculty visions of the future using a Zaltman Metaphor Elicitation (ZMET) method that uses images to metaphorically represent how individuals feel or relate to particular concepts. Focus group interviews with a small sample of faculty and students suggest a desire for a more personalized learning experience, but one that is still highly social within learning communities.