Vimlarani,
All of these strategies are great for online learning and teaching. I find students don't "listen" well online and it causes them issues later.
Dr. Kelly Wilkinson
I help students with their reading, writing, and communication skills by walking them through a series of mini workshops in my instructor lab times. This allows the students to see how their work will hold up in the real world but in this case, its a safe environment with a sharing of ideas.
Communication skills need to be sharpened to improve student engagement.
• Listen: No matter how many years of experience you have don’t always assume that you know what is going on through your student’s head. If you’re not having the results you expected with it could easily resolve just by asking and listening.
• Describe Clear Goals: make sure you communicate a clear vision of the objective you wish your students to achieve.
• Give praise: everyone likes to hear they’re doing a good job and your students are no different. Don’t be cheap with your kind words!
• Be accessible: you have an important job to do and your students depend on you for their learning process. You can also give them a special email address you have set up for this purpose or create an online forum for open questions. You don’t have to offer “24-7 service†but make sure they can reach you if they need to.
• Build teamwork: if your whole classroom is working together to achieve similar goals it creates an environment that makes communication easier, it will help students help each other and build the camaraderie needed to make the classes run more smoothly.
• Use humor: Sometimes humor can lighten up the mood and be the lube that keeps the gears moving smoothly in your classroom. This does not mean you have to turn your lecture into standup comedy –unless, of course, you teach standup comedy!- but keep things light and have a little fun. A little humor can even get your students to do a task that may not be their favorite.
• Embrace Variety: it really is the spice of life and routines are a mood killer. So introduce new tools in your teaching repertoire.
• Keep it real: it’s easier to learn something new when you understand how it relates to your life. So next time you tackle a new subject show your students how they can find evidence of how they can use the new information in their life or how it relates to their daily activities. Be creative!
Victor,
Don't forget you may have to guide them through the first round of questions, modeling appropriate feedback and comment. It will serve as a great reinforcer to students who always seem to "forget" the rules!
Dr. Kelly Wilkinson
Victor,
You are right. It is so important to hold students accountable to good communication skills. That doesn't mean you have to be the "gotcha" person, it means you need to be respectful and professional in giving feedback to students as they interact with you and other students.
Dr. Kelly Wilkinson
Hello Pat,
You are certainly correct when you indicated that more topics relating to the primary question of discussion provides greater opportunity for students to participate in the discussion which as well helps them become effective writers and communicators acquired through participatory learning of this type.
Job well-done!
Victor
Hello Dr. Wilkinson and Class,
To help students improve their reading, writing, and communication skills, things has to be considered including but not limited to engaging students with critical analysis questions that require some elements of research and reading, demanding responses to questions asked in written format using appropriate writing criteria such as APA or AMA as the case may be.
Additionally, instructor's ability to provide immediate substantive response to students' responses to the question asked does help strengthen and/or improve students' communication skills.
Thanks.
Victor
Dale,
Use your resources provided by your institution. It will keep you from "burning out" due to workload!
Dr. Kelly Wilkinson
Dale,
Do you require students to have good grammar and punctuation? Do you assess it as part of their grade? Just curious. . .
Dr. Kelly Wilkinson
Andrea,
Great point made, one that I forgot about. We have many labs that offer help to students who need to work on things such as reading and writing. Thanks for reminding me about that!
I do this by providing opportunities for students to be engaged. With reading skills, I provided additional sources in addition to the class materials. This could be articles relevant to the topic, additional notes that I provide, and additional e-mal communication. With writing, and communication, I offer follow up questions in discussion threads for students to write about, as well as live session in which students can communicate with me directly.
Jacinda,
Great strategies! It is important to provide that help. You may want to pair students together in writing teams for them to who share their writing and critique each other using wikis.
Dr. Kelly Wilkinson
Kimberly,
I agree and hold them accountable to good writing skills. You may want to provide them with "good" examples and "bad" examples of writing.
Dr. Kelly Wilkinson
I think the best way to help students improve reading, writing and communication is through practice. It is also a good idea to provide feedback on each of these qualities. A student who is below standard in any of these areas may require additional time and assistance from the instructor. For example, a student who has difficulty with writing may need more guidance. I always ask these students to submit assignments early through e-mail. This allows me to provide feedback before the due date of the assignment. Students can then make corrections and resubmit the assignment. I have found that students are very appreciative and show signs of improvement over time. It also lets the student know that you are concerned about them and want to help them.
I think the best way to help improve students reading, writing, & communication skills is to provide a sufficient amount of feedback on their work. I try to use online resources that further explain what I may not be able to provide and ask them to do further research where they lack skills. Detailed communication is going to be the most effective way in a virtual setting.
Angela,
You have some great strategies. Sometimes a quiz is just the thing to remind students how important the information is. Also you modeling good communication skills is so important.
Dr. Kelly Wilkinson
This is a great question! I use multiple methods including providing a writing guide, providing a guide for discussions, and providing feedback with all assignments on their writing. I acknowledge good writing/communication skills as well as those areas that need improvement. I also try to incorporate reading exercises throughout the course that helps them develop comprehension skills.
I also provide a "netiquette" guide and quiz them on it.
Sabrina,
That is a great strategy. How do you provide that information. Do you record something?
Dr. Kelly Wilkinson
Several students' have been out of school for a long time. I like to provide them the necessary resources and guidelines on the first day of class to help eliminate the fear of returning to school.
S.Sanders
Sabrina,
You have a great set of strategies. You have to continue to provide resources and encourage them to use them. You may be the first instructor who gives them guidance to communicating.
Dr. Kelly Wilkinson
