Communicating with your students weekly
I have found that calling each of my students one time a week has made a difference in my class. Not all of them will answer my calls but I still leave a voicemail and follow up with an email letting them know how they are doing in the class and offing all the help and support they need. I even found that some of my procrastinators are turning in assignments on time now because I have taken the time to build a relationship with them. Are there any other suggestions on how to retain students and keep them motivated?
Emily ,
There is no substitute (yet) for that personal voice to voice familiarity. It is one of those intangible teaching supports that often make a difference for the disenfranchised student. Thank you for sharing your insights.
Dr. S. David Vaillancourt
I teach for a school and we are required to call our students on day one or two. Some do not answer (perhaps 60% do not) but the ones that do answer are very happy to talk to me. I think that this is a great tool to build a community as we can hear each others voices and I remember them more throughout the remainder of the course.
You doing this individual calling is unusual and a very good method of interaction with your on-line students, I like that. I believe I've only had one Instructor call me just to re-assure and offer support.
I can only hope I be such a grounding force and model for my future on-line students.
I like your style. I'm just starting out with blended learning and believe it or not, it didn't even occur to me that I can send out weekly e-mails. I agree that sometimes it could go overboard so, I will remember that this term. Thanks for the help.
This is a great idea. In my classes I would send a message commenting on the original bio post of each student. I thought this would individualize our introduction.
I use the announcements section of the course to encourage active ongoing participation in the threads, give reminders on upcoming assignments, and so on.
Having a class size of up to 40 it would be too time consuming to contact each student regularly in a 5.5 week course.
In one of the classes I teach, I send out weekly emails to all of my students. These may be general notes, that might be nothing more than a reminder that they will be taking an exam this week, or they might be more specific emails detailing a student's progress in the course. I find that these notes tend to be fairly helpful in grabbing a student's attention, but that there is a fine line of what is too much. If I send out too many of these emails, or if I constantly comment on a student's accomplishments in the class, then my notes will tend to get ignored. This is why I constantly change the tone of my emails. That way, I hope, my emails will actually get read.
Hi Amy, I think your contact with the students is critical to keep them motivated. We have begun holding weekly study sessions with learners to go over assignments, which is leading to greater persistence. Tina
