I have discovered many different ways to motivate and engage online learners. I always found discussions challenging and this course has shoed me different ways to keep students engaged.
It is important to provide various interactive opportunitites for students for student-teacher and student -student. Getting ahead and providing social engagement from the beginning is imperative. This helps to builf trust and a rapport with the students.
I enjoyed this lesson pertaining to on-line learners, I found it helpful. I am most concerned with procrastination or unsuccessful submissions with our students, so the second video was beneficial in helping our students to be engaged during our class sessions and remain motivated throughout their studies. I also appreciated the recommendation of remind.com, I heard about this previously from our Curriculum Director. We do post reminders weekly and use our dropdowns to message students who haven't yet submitted their assignments, this seems as though this would be a great alternative tool to use to "remind" our students effectively and efficiently via text message. If there are any additional ideas or thoughts as to how to further engage and motivate students to remain excited and current in their studies, I would appreciate your share. Thank you.
I have learned how important group work is during online learning. As an instructor, it is easy to assign individual work when they are working from home, but it doesn't guarantee positive student engagement. Putting the students in groups increases engagement, because they have to interact with each other. It also increases their social engagement.
Content chunking is also an important concept. It provides a sense of accomplishment and makes things less overwhelming when broken down into bite size chunks of information or activities. It really resonated with me when working adults were reference and catering to the small chunks of time they have during the work day or evening. If you can get something done in 10 minutes on a break it feels like you are making progress and it is less daunting than trying to do it all at once.
We do a good job of communicating with students after they start class but have an opportunity to put out a welcome message to students before class starts. We had a challenge sending Welcome emails through the LMS because the student doesn't receive it if they have not accepted their course. We will be providing rosters to our instructors in order to have access to email students prior to the beginning of the course. The other thing that really stood out to me is the recommendation to provide instructions in different formats and be aware that students may perceive the meaning of the insturctions differently but that does not mean one is right and one is wrong. I would love some suggestion about how to make online discussion questions more engaging and fun for students and instructors to participate. I also have many instructors that ask for advice about how to keep students on task with their asynchronous work. We work in a blended environment and some student are great at showing up for class but lose focus when they leave and vice versa.
I feel like online learning can be a great experince for people as long as they have the right internet, techology, time, a quiet set up and any other supplemental materials that is needed in the course. The challenges come when these technologies don't work or you can't afford them and that really hinders their learnings.
This is a very valuable learning experience. It is a great tool for me to step back and evaluate my own teaching style, look at areas where my students are thriving and are engaged, and look at areas of improvement. At the same time be able to actually investigate for anecdotal evidence of both. I noted that even in the synchronous method of distance learning, some learners may be lost just because of different barriers such as distance and technology. Being aware of this enables me to tweak a lot of the styles and even structure to incorporate the need of the students to be addressed in order to keep them engaged.
When I initially signed up for this class, I really thought it would focus on my job as an instructor. At the University where I work, not only am I an instructor, but I also am what could be considered as a liaison for the students. I work in student services and I reach out to the students in a variety of ways. Early last summer, I was asked to track a student who was on academic probation. She was struggling with so many things, but most of all, she had no idea how to write a paper. She needed to approach her assignments differently than being directed to a website. She needed social interaction and motivational engagement to get her on the right track. So the time I spent with her gave her the confidence to continue on her educational journey and not give up. The following semester, she sent me a screenshot of a paper she wrote and was so excited that she got an A on an assignment when it hadn't been that long she was due to be dropped from the school. Up until the time I worked with her she had been isolated and did not know how to navigate her own educational journey. When she would attempt to write an assignment, she was given very basic feedback, and she had no idea how to correct any of her errors, so as a result, she put off doing her assignments to the point she was going to be asked to leave. So the part where the presenters in this class talked about efficient and effective feedback, made me realize that is what I need to do more for my own students. I put myself into the discussions and add my own thoughts to what the students are saying, but I also need to make sure I validate their assignments and not just leave them with a "Good Job!" I do write more than that for them, but I know I can do more. As Kathleen Watts mentioned about I too will implement more specific feedback that is in-depth to encourage students to continue learning.
Using reminder.com for student reminders.
I have to find ways to encourage students to want to learn and not make it a burden for them. Looking for different ways to engage them in the online courses.
Great tips on how to engage students more via the online format. Early contact is key with introduction emails and an information page for easy of contact with the instructore. Be mindful of students with children for this can be a barrier to success. As an evening weekend instructor, I try to give the lunch break around bedstime so the students can put their children to bed.
I have learned the methods of engaging students online is different from the traditional in class setting. It is important to enage students before the course starts with a welcome announcement or video. This can help build rapport with students and give them a sense of connection before the course starts. I also learned the need to engage students during the class to allow for social engagement with me as the instructor and with their peers. Lastly, I learned that engagement extends to provided feedback, instruction and reminders. These tools will help me to better engage my students online.
I have learned that I need to communicate with my students more between classes and offer them alternative instructions on the assignments.
Studdnts need a variety of assignments and if possible, varety for each learning outcome. If a student needs to meet outcmoe X, it would be nice if you can comepup with a few different projects that will satisfy assessing if the student learned that outcome. Studnts can select the option that matches their learning style.
This lesson was a solid reminder of how important communication is and how important it is to engage all parties involved for the cycle of communication to sustain energy toward a common team goal of success. In order to do that it is essential that I quickly assess the needs of each student to understand the importance to work together.
Having taught in a blended program before in a university setting, I thought it would not be a great challenge to transition our ground students to full virtual/online format. I was dead wrong. Our student population is different and have different home environment, responsibilities, priorities, and backgrounds that may not prove conducive to an online learning environment. To improve both social engagement and nurture motivational engagement, I have learned that practices need to be evaluated every time for effectiveness and relevance. What worked before may not work all the time. With different age groups and different learner styles come the challenge of being flexible and well-rounded as an instructor/facilitator. Maybe a needs assessment at the beginning of each course may help identify potential issues and allow the instructor to plan ahead.
I learned that its very important to keep your students motivated and engaged while lecturing as well as while they are doing online assignments. I learned that we have to make sure that the material is not only accurate but also effective for each learning syle.
Communication is a priority ,listen and respond to their feedback within limits ( I'm not available 24/7 ) give them several venues of communication have them realize that the response may not be instananeous encourage them to work with other students who may have a better grasp on your question I also have to make it interesting so they stay motivated encourage discussion boards try and discover what it takes to get them motivated and I'm always open to altering my method if it makes it easier for them to grasp a concept I'm trying to get across
Motivation is critical in online learning without the physical classroom environment
