Nashid,
Communication, Communication, and more communication. Stay connected with your students early and often to try to alleviate their anxiety. If you know it is an anxious course, have extra help sessions, and ask the students what would make them less anxious. The main way to change their mindset is to convince them they can succeed and you are there to HELP them not fail them. Reassure them that you are there to help them through the process. Reach out to them personally when they are struggling...communication...
Herbert Brown III
Nashid,
A good retention percentage for any course is 100%. Reality is it will be something lower than that. However, if we strive to stay connected with our students and do everything in our power to help them along the way, then it seems you have done what you can.
Herbert Brown III
Jack,
I there a point at which you cut the strings and determine that there is no help? I understand that students pay for the courses -- but some course come with anxieties. Some students begin the course expecting to fail.
How do we change this mindset?
There are mechanisms to reach out to the student after your attempts have failed. Communicate with the student's advisor. But, I agree, -- after trying to help -- a student must be willing to accept the help.
Question -- in a class of 35 or more -- what is a good retention percentage?
Rachelle,
I appreciate that you don't give up on them. It is so important for us to show our students we are concerned for them as individuals and want them to succeed.
Herbert Brown III
I usually will followup with a personal call to the student. Often shy, reserved students are hesitant to contact you even when you offer help via email.
Greetings:
I agree, I contact their advisor as well as send an early alert. I do whatever I can to make sure they get the support they need.
I also keep emailing them the notice that they are late with an assignment and the late policy. I have had students contact me several weeks after I have been trying to contact them letting me know they were on a military training, in the hospital or some other type of emergency. They always express that they appreciated me staying in contact even if they couldn't respond.
Rachelle
Greetings:
I believe there is a lot you can do. I never give up for one. I continue to email them and provide feedback. I also will upload examples and additional resources that will assist them. I also make sure I let there student advisor know what is going on so that they can contact the student as well. I send updates to the students to let them know where they are and that they have missing assignments or need to revise something. I believe that it is my job to keep trying until the class is over. If the student never responds that is up to them but that doesn't mean I won't continue to try to engage them and make sure they have the resources they need to succeed.
Rachelle
Simon,
If you have used all your possible options to reach them and they choose not to be reached, then you have probably done what you can. It is important for the administrative personnel to try to follow up with them later though to see why your drop outs are leaving. Most of the time it is family or related issues you cannot control.
Herbert Brown III
I agree. I have offered phone class, video chat, etc to struggling students who simply ignore or reject the offer. At the end of the day, they will need to react to your offer that is on the table to help them. It is very hard to force them to decide, even after all the encouragement to get help.
Herbert/Peers,
I see a difference between offering ideas and motivational comments to offers of help and assistance.
I can continue to respond to the best of my ability to assist the student satisfactorily complete the course while maintaining the integrity of the program.
I can continue to offer assistance and even direct them to institutional labs, the library, and other sources, but I agree beyond these there is little one can do if the assistance is rejected.
I would have to say that I disagree with this assessment. It might feel like this at times. However, as an instructor it is my job to explore all avenues towards reaching out to the student. Does the student have a better relationship with their advisor? If so, I will reach out to that person and see if I can get assistance in reaching the student. Sometimes another voice helps to get through to a student who might be disengaged.
I agree and disagree with this statement. I think there comes a certain point where the instructor has done all that they can to reach out and there is nothing else they can do. If they only send one message to the student asking for a repsonse I do not think that this is adequate enough. The instructor can find a way to contact the students advisor which can help them get in touch with the students. I think it is the student's responsibilty to stay in class and do their work, not the instructor.
I would disagree. First of all, a teacher should never give up trying to reach out to a student; if the student is non-responsive, perhaps the instructor should try to reach the student on a more personal level. Also, students usually have advisors. An instructor that is not getting a response from a student, perhaps they can reach out to the advisor to try reaching the student as well.
There is typically something you can do to help. First you must take the time to gather information on the student and the particular problem. Then using that information plan an attack on the problem. Even if you only have a small amount of success in steering the student back on track, you've done something.
I learned about the different learning styles, and how some of them can cause students to avoid participating. I do think there are steps we can take as instructors to reach out to these students, through e-mail, inviting them to live chat sessions such as IM, or even calling them and asking how we can help them to be more successful in class. Before we take these steps I don't think we can simply say there is nothing I can do.
I disagree as I feel you always have the opportunity to help until the student is dropped from your course. At our school, we have a process in place as an "early alert" form. This is a form that instructors complete which then get submitted to the students advisors to assist in the communication process. Sometimes students may feel more comfortable discussing certain situations with their advisor as opposed to their instructor.
Dr. Brown, I agree and disagree. I disagree because there is always a way to get in touch with a student if they seem to refuse your offer to help. Contacting student advisers or student advocates and submitting "at risk" reports to the college are another avenue for getting in touch with the student. I agree in some ways because no matter who contacts a student they eventually have to accept or reject the help!
I certainly wouldn't give up on that student. If the student is non-responsive to my offer's to help I will likely go to the next step (when applicable) which would be to contact the student by phone to engage conversation.
William,
There is a point that you may not be able to help the online or traditional student; however, we need to be aware that the online students may need a little more attention than traditional students to provide them the extra support and attention necessary to help the be successful.
Herbert Brown III
