Staying Focused in the Virtual Classroom
There is nothing harder than maintaining focus (both the student and your own) when there is no eye contact, low attendence at Live Chats, and little communication with students. One way is to continutally change your presentations to keep them fresh and to keep you on your toes mentally. Second, continue to bombard your absent students with information - be the 'drippy facuet' in their lives.
For some the ability to ignore all those messages gets weaker and they actually start to participate. Finally, there is always the 'shock' treatment method. Some students will only become engaged in the learning process when they realize that your class is not the 'pass through' they anticipated at the start of the session.
One of the most difficult things to instill in online students is the sense of urgency and timeliness regarding their assignments. For some the light goes off early - others become discouraged and start to fall behind - those are the ones that you have to work hard to retain and rekindle that spark for learning.
In either case, it is up to you - the instructor - to light the spark and keep fanning the flames.
Hi Diana,
Good advice. Thanks for sharing it with us. I know this will be of help to other instructors.
Gary
Hi Jen,
Is there anyway for you to set up case studies for the students? In my online courses I create learning groups and then have them work together on case studies. Each person is responsible for a part of the case study so it is clear how each person contributes to the outcome. My students really like doing these.
Gary
You know, I was challenged with that very issue initially and then decided to review quiz scores (most frequently missed questions) and focused on these topics and created an additional hand-out to ensure students were "getting" the topics as planned. That method actually permitted for more interaction and teaching and got the class going with more emails to me and conversations.
I am an online instructor, and I find it very challenging to actually "teach" to students in my online classes. Because the presentations and audio lectures are already in place, I have very little teaching time. I spend a majority of my time solving problems regarding technology and grading the assignments. Any suggestions?
I love your reference to being the "drippy faucet" for students who aren't participating or communicating. I agree that it is definitely a challenge to engage online students who may have already decided that they can just do the minimum to get by.
Hi Dolores,
One of the things that I have done to shorten my grading time and still give student feedback is to use a grading rubric. This way the students can clearly see where the points were earned in each category. As a result I can target my comments to the areas where they excelled and highlight the areas they need to improve. It keeps me from writing general comments over and over.
Gary
Some instructors find it difficult to communicate online when there is no face to face as well. Depending on the instructor and the class both sides could be experiencing challenges. As an instructor - communication is important - holding office hours (even if no one comes) is important because at least your students know! that you are there should they need you. I also have a Yahoo IM account so if I should be on the computer working - they can see that and ask me questions in a real time mode for assistance.
One of the biggest areas of difficulty I have in the online classroom is not becoming overwhelmed by the amount of grading I face and forgetting the students behind the papers. When I have twenty research papers to grade in a couple of days, I find it hard to remember to make positive comments on the papers also. I get to focused on making corrections. I am not sure how to change this. I will start to make positive comments on paper but as the time crunch intensifies, it falls by the wayside.
I do not find the same issues with my onground students because I think I have better one-on-one rapport with them and make the positive comments on a daily basis in the classroom or when I meet with them one-on-one about their in class work.
Any suggestions would be appreciated.
Dolores Kiesler
Hi Lisa,
I am an online instructor and do find the job to be difficult at times. Usually the only time I hear from my students is after the midterm grades are posted and they are failing. Online classes require a lot of discipline for the student. Your method of reviewing the material at the beginning of each week is great. I tell my students to print out their material on Mondays that way they can review it and work on it all week long (and not sit in front of a computer). Then when they are ready, they can enter their answers.
Good luck,
Colleen
Hi Diana,
Aw, the value you of technology. You have instant misunderstandings floating around to confuse and compound situations. This is why it is so important to be very careful of the message being sent and through what medium. Glad you were able to clean up the problem and keep everybody moving forward.
Gary
I agree with you. I told an employee, just yesterday, that exchanges texts with her youth participants as a primary mode of communication how cold discussion can be that way. A participant called me upset because she had interpretted something the employee said as rude and, of course, the employee had interpretted something the participant said in text the day before as rude. That left me to clean up the misunderstandings.
Hi Sherry,
Thank you for sharing your strategies for working with online students. Each of these ideas can be very effective in keeping students engaged. This information will be valuable to other online instructors.
Gary
Hi Lisa,
Keep your positive attitude while pausing to reflect on the new knowledge you have acquired during the week while working on your online course. This way you can serve as your own best cheerleader when it comes to course success. Online learning can be very effective but it does take effort on the part of both the instructor and the students.
Gary
The online environment presents a new set of challenges. When you can't see how a student responds to your feedback or have the opportunity to pull them aside after class you are subject to how your words were written and how they are perceived. I've seen situations where a simple statement can be interpreted in different ways. Depending on the mood of the student the feedback could come across in a very nasty tone.
I find that by addressing my students by name and ending the feedback with a suggestion to contact me with questions on the feedback I am keeping the doors of communication open. I also try to demonstrate examples to illustrate my point. Communication becomes a challenge when you can't count on cues like tone, inflection, gestures, eye contact, etc.
as an instructor I would think online courses would be difficult to teach. As a student in an online course, I have found it very difficult. Maybe because I am a "new" student after being out of school 30 some years and also because I don't know how to use a computer the best. I wish there was someway to make me feel like my teacher is actually teaching. I feel like it is up to my self to teach this course. I have learned to start my week immediately on Sunday night after my weekly quiz.
I would agree also about the shock treatment. this whole on line stuff is new and tough.
Barbara
I agree that helping students to stay focused in the online environment is difficult esptecially when there is lack of eye contact, low participation in forums, and little communication.
One thing that can be done to overcome this difficulty is to communication with each student in some way weekly if not more often. This communication should include some positive comments; any negative comments that are necessary should be in the middle of the communication. In addition, negatives comments should include what needs to be done instead of what has not been done. The last comments in the communication should also be a positive statement if possible. Finally, I find that it is helpful to use the student's name and comments that show understanding about the difficulties that students encounter.
Rebecca Coleman
