Tena Crews

Rodney and Bob,

Teaching, in general, can be a challenge, but we keep trying. Keep engaging the students in the content and help them achieve the learning outcomes. Keep up the good work.

Rodney Cullifer

Bob,

You are correct, getting the students to read and act on the informatio provided can be challenging. We can counter this by providing the information in multiple ways, e.g, syllabus, weekly announcements, discussion boards, and Bcc emails to the class (or even better individual emails when appropriate).

Rodney C.

Tena Crews

Robert and Kimberly,

Thanks for continuing the conversation. I make the chat sessions, discussion boards, etc. a part of the participation grade. Hope this helps.

Dr. Robert Smotherman

Kimberly,
I think you are correct. However, one of the communications problems I see is in method of communication. Too often
online students simply read the assignment and respond without reading the material provided by the instructor. Even the chat sessions are often ignored, especially when chat attendance is not mandatory. How do you handle this type of student?
Bob

Tena Crews

Marie and Alicia,

Thanks for continuing the conversation. Students do check texts much quicker and often than email. Thanks for your input.

Marie Giammarco

Alicia,
Sometimes a preferred vehicle is text messaging the students with any special announcements or information you want to give them. I have used that vehicle with my students and I get a better response back from them.

Tena Crews

Alicia ,

We can spend a lot of time putting things (announcements/postings/discussions)in more than one place. The more we can limit too much redundancy, the better.

Tena Crews

Alicia ,

Excellent. Thanks for sharing your experience. We are learning so much from each other.

Alicia Carroll

That is a great idea to ask for a preferred vehicle. To much redundancy is confusing for students. This is what we do in AIU when we have basically just the required DB postings. However, DB can be a place to send students to other resources and this is what I usually do.

Alicia Carroll

I agree that it is challenging to communicate online. However, I have found that Live Chat works very well if I ask open-ended questions such as "What topic have you chosen to write on this week?" This opens up conversation and the discussion begins from there. If the student feels that there is no pressure to get a "right" answer to a first question, they will be more likely to participate in further and more challenging discussion. It's an "ice-breaker."

Tena Crews

Kimberly,

You are right on. Communicating with students and being available is of utmost importance. Thank you for your input.

Kimberly Knight CHEP

I agree. One of the drawbacks to online education is that it is challenging to speak to a real person. there is a lot of information available to the studentin cyberspace, but often times there is the need to speak with someone directly. Your availability to your students as an online instructor speaks volumes to your your committment to their success.

Tena Crews

Marie and Emily,

Thanks for continuing the conversation. Keep up the good work.

Marie Giammarco

Emily,
I agree with you. I always stress to my online students to email me or ask me questions if there are things they don't understand about the material or the assignment. I know they come from different "walks of life" and have other responsibilities. I try and keep a positive, encouraging attitude with each of them so they feel that they can come to me with any questions. It seems to work! They know I want them to pass and do well in their coursework.

Tena Crews

Jane,

Thanks for your input. You bring up some good points. Sometimes we try to provide for redundancy so that students can get information or provide information through many vehicles. But, too much redundancy just provides traffic. . .either too little traffic or too much.

Asking students what their preferred vehicle is has been helpful and also limiting (somewhat) the number of vehicles may also be effective in certaing courses.

Thanks again.

Jane Nickles

I have found that even though I may have designed many vehicles for students to receive the information I really need them to know, they will tend to use only one!! For instance, I have a forum assignment that is discussed via the forum itself, on the online chats, in announcements, on an assignment page, and via email. You would think the student would get the information they need!!! And yet, I need to figure out how students utilize the course platform, and make sure I reach out to them via their "preferred" content vehicle.

Tena Crews

Emily,

Thanks for your input. Thinking about how you commmunicate and create successful "ground" students and adapting that to the online students is very important. Communication is the key element!

Nice job.