YOU ARE BLOODY BRILLIANT!
Okay -- while "You are bloody brilliant!" is a bit over the top the point here is that we, as online educators, must use every trick and educational strategy available to keep our students engaged, interested, and active in the course. If not the ugly word "attrition" comes into play, and it can hurt us by there not being enough students to have us teach a course. The Quiet students are the ones most likely to drop out, and we have to quickly prop them up -- they are like balloons that have come to our classes already partially deflated; our job is to inflate them. There are two major ways this can be done: getting the student to open up about some part of his / her life that relates to the subject of the course and pointing out this, that, and the other thing a student writes in discussion or does on an assignment that is good. Doing this latter one can go a long way to blowing up that balloon, for the student suddenly knows we like what he / she has to offer, and it builds up the student's confidence. I don't know how many hundreds of times I've seen this happen, but in 19 years of teaching online it is rare when telling a student an offshoot of "You are bloody brilliant!" does not work.
I like this a lot! Praise, praise, praise your students; they thrive on the positive engagement. In fact, I wish I didn't have to hand out grades, as I hate to say "You are bloody brilliant!" and then give them a D- on a very poorly executed assignment. Sometimes I feel quite silly insisting on their awesomeness while they are quite obviously failing my course, but I keep applauding all the way to the bitter end anyway. Great post, Errol!
Your subject line was so intriguing that the end result will be more people engaging in the topic. Students can easily get 'bored' by the topics, but adding an intriguing subject line as this one, gets people to click on it and read more! It is like an eye-catching headline.
Tim,
I think most students will trend toward being the quiet student and just get the work done. If we really want to build interaction in the course we have to work at it with meaningful discussions, reflection on the content, and guide the discussions to deeper and more meaningful levels. If we prompt the students and help them think in a deeper way on the material we are helping them reach a deeper understanding of the course material.
Herbert Brown III
I often considered myself to be a quiet student. The instructors I valued the most were the ones that did precisely this! A comment, interest, or simple interaction will go miles in getting a quiet student to begin interacting. I may find myself using this phrase! Kudos to you!
Many of the tips that I use in the classroom I am able to apply to the online teaching environment every day. I agree, it is definitely a skill we have to continue to work on as educators.
Kozet,
Good point, do you have any examples or suggestions maybe that have worked for you in this area?
Herbert Brown III
Learning to reach across technology and touch the human spirit and mind helps to motivate any student. The challenge is developing that reach. Let's keep working on that skill as educators.
Errol,
Positive reinforcement continues to stand the test of time as a reliable and effective motivator for students. Making the content real and relevant to the students and giving them engaging projects that they can customize to their areas of interest help to motivate them as well.
Herbert Brown III
