I teach a blended communication course at a technical school where we have a diversified group of students. Some students work full-time, others part-time and many commute long distances to our college. The academic programs are compressed time-wise allowing students to earn a bachelor's degree in 36 months. Due to the diversity, student time constraints, commuting, and work schedules, I always feel I must earn every minute of attention from each student. Otherwise, students will devote more time to their favorite technical courses without realizing that communication and public speaking are equally important to achieve success in their careers and personal lives.
That said, I find that different intervention strategies to retain students are required. Some students respond positively to the lectures, discussions, group interaction, and online assignments; others do not. Some students understand the value of time spent studying and learning communication and public speaking skills; others see the course as only a requirement and express less enthusiasm for perfecting speaking and listening skills. Some students have taken my course in previous semesters, which is usually problematic since the course content and structure don't change dramatically from one semester to another.
Therefore I try different retention strategies depending on the student and offer multiple opportunities for students to catch up on homework and missed speeches. By itself, this doesn't resolve the retention and performance issues. However, students who are willing to work together with me on action plans usually pass the course and learn basic communication and public speaking knowledge and skills that will help them in life. I find working with student services and other instructors helpful in identifying student learning styles which I then apply in my courses. Our school also generates considerable data on each student's performance allowing me to deal with students who struggle in other courses.
In sum, RT101 raises important considerations for all instructors. Testing new ideas and course content, I think, is the wisest approach with students at our college.
