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Nathan,
That is a good 'key' to remember. You never know when that last minute effort will payoff.

Dr. S. David Vaillancourt

John,
All good points. Being ex-Army, I agree. My 'new tool' is texting. I seem to get better responses from some of my students than when I leave a voicemail. I wonder if others experience the same.

Dr. S. David Vaillancourt

Little is probably the wrong word. If a student will not accept the help then you can contact their adviser or the administration and let them know they have an issue on their hands. There are a thousand different reasons the student might not be responding. Many times the adviser or admin will have a way to reach out to them to get their attention. The key is to not shut the door on the student even though they are not responding.

Offers of help constitute the equivalent of email. I think there is a lot more to do. I engage support systems in the school such as guidance counselors. I also call students to see what is going on. I have had students in the military or with jobs with strange hours, so being aware of there situation can also explain times when it is difficult to engage them and the instructor can set up systems with them to communicate ahead of time. I have found that this works.

Noel,
I like your enthusiasm, dedication and persistent attitude. I do agree that you can get many students to respond "eventually" to consistent and helpful outreaches. Hang in there!

Dr. S. David Vaillancourt

Dalene,
Your evaluative comments ring true to my experience, teaching online since 1999. I do remember an instance where college representative drove to an online student's house (within the same city), because of the lack of response to outreaches as extensive as the one you described. The student didn't appreciate the "intrusion" and wrote a nasty letter to the president of the college (me). I agree, there is a limit to what we can and should do for nonparticipating online students.

Dr. S. David Vaillancourt

I diagree > I often do not get responses for my assistance , until they discover that I am here to help them graduate, and learn the material. It may take some extra effort to get them to respond, but eventually they do. Once they discover that their assignment marks are not where they would like them to be at, then they call for help.There is always ways to try to reach out to them, either by phone, e-mail or regular mail. Sometimes having a different voice helps, so we have student services contact " Lost " students to encourage them to respond to their instructor's messages.

I agree to a point, Dr. V.

Some schools have Learner Service Advisors or Class support advisors or Academic advisors whose job it is to try to keep the students in school and moving in a positive direction. As an instructor, if a student is unresponsive and is not doing well, I try to get the help of the advisors to reach out to the student, and I continue to query them in the classroom.

If a student is completely unresponsive to emails, to phone calls, to poking and prodding in the online classroom, we must assume that student does not want to continue, or has issues that prevent him or her from continuing. The most you can do is emailing in the classroom, contacting student by phone, having an advisor try to work with the student. That is the extent of your power as an instructor. The communication efforts should be documented by school officials.

Sarah,
There will, of course, always be some who do not engage. Nevertheless, some of the ones who would have been lost are saved because of these 'extra' efforts. Keep up the outreach. ;-]

Dr. S. David Vaillancourt

I'm not sure if I agree or disagree at this point. My experience so far as been that despite my numerous attempts to reach out to some students they still refuse to engage. My students frequently lament their difficulties with harmacy calculations. That is my specialty!?, I make sure they know that and I try all types of ways to she the. That I can assist them but they frequently ignore my suggestions. I would love to figure out another way to approach this.

Jenny,
Agreed. However, what steps do you think should be taken before "drawing the line?"

Dr. S. David Vaillancourt

I would have to agree since the face-to-face interaction is not there. Students are considered active learners so if they choose to be submissive, there's not much that can be done as an instructor who is looking to help.

Kevin,
Your approach is very reasonable. Thank you for your contribution.

Dr. S. David Vaillancourt

I disagree. I think one should try a few different approaches to reaching out to a student before giving up on a lack of response. Now, if you make more than 4-5 attempts and there is *still* no response, then I would be more inclined to agree!

Amy,
These are all found as best practices by many online instructors. Good recommendations.

Dr. S. David Vaillancourt

No, there are various things you can do in order to help ensure student success. The first thing an instructor should do is reach out to the student individually to try and help. If this does not work, the instrutor should utilize the Online Advocate as a resource to also reach out to the student. Until the student withdraws from the course, an instructor should, at least once a week, reach out to the student and the OA in order to help ensure student success.

sahbaa,
This is a primary approach to use. Private communications are best when correcting an individual student's situation. Very good.

Dr. S. David Vaillancourt

you continue and send an privit e. mail to see why the student is not cooporative with you

Laura,
The avenues of assistance you identify can be very effective. Like you, all online instructors experience some of the students who "just move on."

Dr. S. David Vaillancourt

In my case I disagree. I have my email and hours im available on all pages of the online class. We have a weekly chat and a weekly email to follow up. I reply to there email promptly. If i see that a students needs help and I offer them diffrent avenues for example a one on one chat,video chats, meeting them on campus. I do have some that just dont want to deal with it and just move on.

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