Online Students and Support Systems
I work and teach primarily in an online course environment, which means interacting with students face to face is rare.
Does anyone have any suggestions or "best practices" you've found to be most successful in getting to know and understand online learners when there is the absence of physical interaction?
As a group, the online faculty at our school do a great job supporting online students...I'm just looking for any ideas that other online schools might be doing to reach out to their online students.
I use an initial discussion where people introduce themselves and explain why they decided to enroll in the program.
Not everyone participates in that, as the assignment does not factor into their grades.
Has anyone tried having students fill out an initial questionnaire asking about their background, jobs held, educational background, and so forth? I used to do this when I taught on campus, but I have not yet tried it online.
In the online classes I teach the first week has a discussion that the student tells what they want from the class and some background information about themselves and their lives. By reading this information I can get information that will help later in the course if the student runs into trouble with the class. This does not always work, but it can sometimes helps.
In the same boat here Kelly. I usually post a welcome section in a forum. Start a discussion on where people are from, what they do, etc to start a social atmosphere.
A few instructors I know of have used a professional career facebook page for this as well.
Kelly--
As a former online student, I really think it gets down to just paying close attention to your students posts. So much of their personality will come through. If it isn't-devise some forum that is a bit less formal and get them comfortable so that there is a free-flow of information. Make it fun!
