When internal motivation is a bit too much
Hi everyone,
Occassionally I will have an online learner who will report that they are taking 27 credits!!! These are people who are working full time, have families and all kinds of committments. They are totally motiviated to finish.
It seems that these learners are indeed internally motivated. However,their intentions speed them through class with little time to reflect or really integrate the knowledge.
I often wonder about the wisdom of allowing learners to enroll to earn so many credits.... Does anyone have some thoughts? How do I ensure that this super achiever is really learning my material?
Hi!
Since retention success is based upon application, I would set up a few scenarios or problems and ask the student how they would deal with the situation. This might give you some insight into how much they have retained of your lesson.
I know we have tried to limit the numebr of credits a studnet can take each term-- because remember the comment about it taking 30 days/45 repetitions to really learn a new technique- sometimes these students are motivated, but their mastery of hte material is not good. Sometimes they are just in a zone to sit, pass tests and continue without retaining much material
Cheryl, or the student who lets you know up front how important his or her 4.00 is. I think maintaining a 4.0 is a huge burdent that causes undue stress. I would never encourage students to not do their best but when it drives them and their classmates crazy it is a bit too much. Sarah F
Hi Cheryl,
Wow talk about super achiever! I get overwhelmed just hearing about a course load like this. You are right about the student probably not taking advantage of all this is going on in the courses as the phase flies by. One way that you can get an idea of whether the student is getting the content or not is to have that person do a case study or problem solve a situation where he/she would have to use the course content to successful resolve the situation or solve the problem. What I think you would be looking for is application of content. If the student can do that then he/she is learning and understanding the material in your course.
Gary
