Student Perceptions of Difficulty and Enjoyment

An unexpected finding of recent research into how students can best learn technology in design programs was that students often seem to confuse the concepts of difficulty with enjoyment. When asked what aspects of their courses they find the most difficult to learn—technical issues or aesthetic issues—students consistently reported that it was harder to learn the required technology and easier to learn the aesthetic material. From the perspective of the instructor, this response is confounding. Learning the appropriate technology is merely a matter of rote learning. There are ways to make learning software less tedious but the reality is that students must simply do the time. Developing a strong understanding of aesthetics on the other hand is not as straightforward or easy to master. This presentation will discuss how the management of student perceptions of the learning process is essential to quality learning