Assisting the Online Student
I disagree. I think as an online instructor you need to make an effort to reach out to the student. They may not accept your offer to help in the beginning, but I think with persistance and showing that your assistance is sincere and beneficial to them, that may make a difference.
Austin,
Your approach sounds very reasonable and well within the parameters of Dr. Stavredes. One additional avenue of assistance may be a follow-up phone call to the student, if feasible. Thank you for your contribution.
Dr. S. David Vaillancourt
Dr. Stavredes
It is usually advisable to reach out early to the students falling behind within the first two weeks of the course. While contacting the students using e-mail, I would inform them of my willingness to help with any issues they might be having and to work with them to succeed. In the same E-mail, the students would be reminded of the late assignment policy.
Austin
Donna,
Nice going! Texting is a strategy that more and more online instructors are using. I have heard similar results from others. Teaming up with the advisor is often very helpful, as well. Nice job.
Dr V,
I have noticed that after repeated attempts to reach an online student via emails and phone messages and I have not received a response I sometimes leave them a text message. Students may not always read their emails and sometimes their voice mailbox is full and I cannot leave a message but I have noticed that the students respond well to the text message. In today's high tech world the younger generation really does prefer to be contacted in this manner. I usually get a response fairly quickly when I use this form of communication. Also, I will contact their student advisor who can sometimes give me information on a student's past history to help me better understand what the students issues/struggles may be so I am better prepared to assist.
Sometimes persistence is not implemented enough as a pedagogical tool. The 'slow~n~steady' (really) often wins the race. Excellent!
If I have a student that does not seem to respond to my offers of help. I do it in a way where they can't avoid it. I just keep sending them information through the email. Maybe they are just really busy, or really bashful. I figure that if I send them information or guidance in an email, and they read it, I have succeeded. I don't like to give up. I just keep feeding them. Linda Walker
If an online student does not respond to your offers to help; as an online Instructor, there is very little more you can do. Do you agree or disagree? Explain your answer.
Hi Jeff, yes, that is similar to what we do. Unfortunately, it seems that the students who really need the help, don't utilize the resources provided! Tina
While that is basically true. I do try multiple times with different kinds of offeres. I also include other forms of help. Like informing them of the other tools that are offered, informing them of the tutoring that is available and suggesting google and youtube if they need more sources of help. Everyone needs something slightly different, so I try to off as much variety as possible.
True, there is little that an online professor can do outside of sending emails. However, there have been instances when a student exibits personal doubt, fear, or depression on a discussion board or in private emails.
In that case, I have alerted the student's advisor (or student assistant program) to reach out to the student for additional assistance.
Hi Glenn, I am interested in comment "Helping student's to understand that learning is about personal e xperience versus the opinions of others is an integral component of online learning." In my program, we work to help learners understand that there are multiple perspectives on issues and help them build skills to be able to critically evaluate the opinions of others and the evidence they use to support their ideas in order to make decisions about what to believe. Tina
I disagree. How you reach out to a student is vital for motivating the student to engage with the online instructor through email or phone calls. The phone call support is an essential element in the online learning environment. Calling a student and leaving a voice message improves the opportunity for the student to reach back. Helping student's to understand that learning is about personal experiance versus the opinions of others is a integral component of online learning.
Hi Srabasti, I agree with you that it is critical to be proactive in reaching out to learners to help them re-engage. Tina
I agree that there is not much I can do. However, I also believe that there are lots of things that I can do:
1. Try to contact the student throug emails
2. Get hold of him/her, if possible, in the chat-message system
3. Contact her advisor and let the advisor know.
I think there are a lot of ways a teacher can try to help a student. You can e-mail, call, chat and be persistent. But there has to be a line that is drawn so you don't overstep your bounds.
Agree, if the student does not respond to your offer of help or to your communication there is not much else that you are going to be able to do to reach that student. If after several attempts to communicate with no response there may not be any other way that you can reach that student.
I try to reach out to them with personal emails, or a call. Usually after 2 or 3 tries I move on.
Hi Kim, we have found that students have very high expectations about response times to emails or request for phone calls. Most learners expect a response within hours!! Tina
I run into this to. I tend to reach out 3 or 4 times and if no response then I move on as well. They have to want to learn and we cannot force that. We can remind them that we are here to help and want to help them if they are falling behind but at some point it has to lay on them.
