Social Integration
The challenge for addressing social integration for our campus lies in the schedule. Students are in class for one day out of five and in the lab for the other four. Each day is five hours long. There is a half hour break before the next class arrives. There are three shifts. I see the opportunities for social integration to be done in the classroom day more than anywhere else.
Huseina,
This is unfortunate that the school could not find a way for the "loner" to connect with someone at the school.
Ron Hansen, Ed. D.
I have had two students with academic and attendance issues in the past term. The student with strong social bonding with students and faculty is staying on and persisting despite not having good grades. He was absent for a whole week and we got him to come back by getting others students reach out to him. The other student who is a loner and has resisted all attempts to get him to bond with other students is dropping out at the end of this term despite having better than average grades.
Bette,
Pairs and groups help students retain more information, build community, and provides support.
Ron Hansen, Ed. D.
I work in a healthcare profession program and I find students have projects that require social integration, especially in clinical or laboratory settings. Often, the student is paired with another student to complete a clinical or laboratory competency. This provides a platform for social integration.
Ashley,
It seems to me that online students want to get in, focus on the learning, and log out. Social integration might be most effective when it is
tied to a learning outcome.
Dr. Ron Hansen
Coming from an online school, we have similar pros and cons. Since students have access to their classes all the time, they can either use that to their advantage and message each other or they can use it as an excuse to avoid online mingling. I've tried to think of ways to help encourage them to interact, but the limits are clear. We did think to offer a weekly chat room for students to talk with each other and get instant replies, but not very many students use that.
