Studying Online;Succeeding through Distance Learning at University

92 Studying online 
academic assistance. Te study also showed that chatting with 
other students can be motivating. 
Students often do not realise how much they learn from each 
other. Academics call it “peer learning”, where you can learn new 
ideas and gain greater understanding from other students, rather 
than a lecturer. I am a psychologist, and this is no surprise to me. 
In the area of child development, the notion of learning from peo-
ple around you was established back in the 1920s by the Russian 
psychologist Lev Vygotsky (Berk, 2000). He showed that young 
children can learn from a social group – they did not need any for-
mal teaching to discover something. Vygotsky came up with the 
concept of what he called the “Zone of Proximal Development” 
(ZPD). Essentially, this is the gap between what you know as an 
individual and what you are capable of understanding as the next 
step. In order to progress your learning, you only need someone 
in your social group who knows a little bit more than you to help 
you get to that slightly higher level of understanding. All they need 
to do is provide what Vygotsky called “scafolding” – tiny pieces 
of support – to help you gain the additional knowledge. Tere 
is inevitably someone who knows a little more about one thing 
within any informal student group than another student. Tey can 
help with scafolding to move the other student along their ZPD 
to a state of higher knowledge. Tis is why students fnd informal 
study groups so valuable. Tey help them increase their knowl-
edge and understanding without it seeming tough because they 
are supported by their peers who only know a little more than 
them. Tat doesn’t seem as intimidating as asking a professor ...! 
However, when studying online, there is no opportunity to learn al-
most randomly from other students. You will not meet them in the 
cofee bars or bump into them in the corridor. Tis is where online 
forums can be so valuable. Many students who study online ignore 
the forums and discussion groups. Yet, they can make a signifcant 
diference by providing the ideas and support that would typically 
be found in informal face-to-face study groups. So, make sure you 
take advantage of the forums and discussion groups. 

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