Hiemstra, R (1994) wrote in their book, The International Encyclopedia of Education, about self directed learning. They defined it as a form of study in which individuals have primary responsibility for planning, implementing, and even evaluating the effort. According to them people who are doing PHD or higher education based on research are highly self directed. To me, they have defined the self directed learning perfectly and covered every aspects of it. The original definition is as follows:
“Several things are known about self-directed learning: (a) individual learners can become empowered to take increasingly more responsibility for various decisions associated with the learning endeavor; (b) self-direction is best viewed as a continuum or characteristic that exists to some degree in every person and learning situation; (c) self-direction does not necessarily mean all learning will take place in isolation from others; (d) self-directed learners appear able to transfer learning, in terms of both knowledge and study skill, from one situation to another; (e) self-directed study can involve various activities and resources, such as self-guided reading, participation in study groups, internships, electronic dialogues, and reflective writing activities; (f) effective roles for teachers in self-directed learning are possible, such as dialogue with learners, securing resources, evaluating outcomes, and promoting critical thinking; (g) some educational institutions are finding ways to support self-directed study through open-learning programs, individualized study options, non-traditional course offerings, and other innovative programs.”
To many people, self-directed learning means learning that take place in isolation. However, it is not true. If we consider Hiemstra’s definition of Self-Directed Learning, self-directed learning not always mean an isolation type of learning; it could be learning in an online environment where students are more independent to explore and come up with their own findings but not necessarily work without any direction. There must be instructors who will provide direction for the entire learning process. But we can say that in a self-directed learning environment, such as online education, high level research and independent study students need to be empowered and inspired toward a certain thing by themselves. They need to be able to take more responsibility for various decisions and an instructor will work just as a facilitator or a mentor. Below is an image of a Self-directed learner, which gives you a fair bit of idea about self-directed learner. This diagram is introduced by Hope Hartmans, a professor of Education Psychology.
Source: http://condor.admin.ccny.cuny.edu/~hhartman/
Now that we have an idea about what self directed learning is all about, I want you to turn your attention towards self-directed learning in online education. As I have mentioned earlier, most of the online education can be categorized as Self-directed Learning. Students taking online courses must consider being self-directed. This is one of the big challenges for students, since they are not in a face-to-face class where they have an easy access to instructors to ask direct questions. Most of the time students are taking online courses under distance program and participating away from the actual campus location. Therefore, it is very important to be able to take more responsibilities, being self-motivated and being highly inspired to carry on the learning process.
Here is a nice link to learn about the techniques of how you can become more self-directed. I personally found it very informative and worthwhile to study. Please help yourselves in learning different techniques of becoming a Self Directed Learner from the following website. Here is the link-
http://www.selfdirectedlearning.com/becomingSDL.html
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