I mentioned this earlier, but a nice touch that a professor once did to me was have a weekly motivational statement. Instead of giving a motivational story, this professor personalized it and made it unique and it really stuck to me. In my future classes, I am going to have something like this each week of the course that helps the students feel good about what they are doing and keeps them "on track". -Ron Stefanski

Sometimes as a professor I find it difficult to juggle all of my different commitments. AFter all, I am working full-time, working on various side projects, and teaching the course. I have always believed in the "lead by example" clause and when students explain they are having hard times I immediately relate to them and explain what my schedule is like and how I manage it. I have had a few "heart to heart" conversations with students and they have said that I really helped them. -Ron Stefanski

Something that I am going to begin to do in my next course is to send a message promoting how great the students are doing and motivational words for my students while they are pursuing their degree. I have found that many of my students WANT to do well, but sometimes things happen and they lean on the "giving up" method. -Ron Stefanski

One of the best things that I see happen in my courses is when someone who is much older than the other students reaches out and says how excited they are. Surprisingly, twice I have had students who are retired from the work force contact me in Live Chat sessions and strike up conversation. Many of them think that their colleagues are much younger than them but that isn't always the case. Usually I shock the student by telling them how old other students are but it is always refreshing to let them know that they aren't "too old" for an education. -Ron Stefanski

working with small groups I believe is esenial. I let my students pick their own lab groups and they all sit together. I feel this removes some of the tension. They are more at ease when we do reviews or studying. The answers are very often collective and if it is incorrect I just say ok lets find the answer together. Usually my class is very at ease and that takes the pressure off of the student and me.

One area to help all adult learners is to use their life experience to enrich the course content. This will help motivate them to be in the class because they can see their contribution to the overall course. Matt

I tend to enter class full of energy and the students will begin to show a little energy, but I also find when I smile at them or speak pleasant to them they respond better to me.

I like your comment about competition being a part of human nature. I use a variety of games in the classroom, and it's during those games where I see the most involvement among the students.

While taking this course I have had the opportunity to read an article about millenials working in the skilled trades. In the article the researchers provided comments on how millenials viewed themselves, how Gen Xers viewed millenials, and how baby boomers viewed millenials. The comments focused on specific skill sets. I mention this article because the comments seem to match up well with how this lesson described adult learners and those right out of high school. The millenials had a fairly good understanding of what others expected from them. Just as this lesson points out we need to remember that students come to us wanting to learn and wanting to succeed.

I agree that intrinsic motivation is the more powerful motivator. I think that most insturctors will agree with that concept. The big challenge is finding what will intrinsically motivate each individual student. Sometimes you can find what motivates a student intrinsically by knowing what motivates them extrinsically. In-other -words the transferance of an external stimulas to an internal stimulas.

never use long media presentations to students

what make professional differents then coworkers?

please think about before replying

Games seem to mativate and keep intrest in learnig

Visual aids seem to grab my students attention.

Field trips are fun for students.

Im having issues with students with medical marajana liscenses retaining information. They also seem to be vy un-motivated.

I like creating small groups for my students. Small groups incites cohesion which helps build confidence. In the workforce we work in groups and collaborate on many topics. I want my students to understand they are not isolated. By having them join in groups I am looking to enforce two things; team work, and confidence. Sometimes students are not willing to share on there own. But if they have support from another classmate, confidence in themselves can be established.

Retaining students can be a challenge especially for new instructors. New instructors are sometime intimidated by students and that’s something that may happen with everyone. As I stated before being their friend is not the key respect is.

Teaching adult college student has been a great experience. I've notice that the older student takes their work more seriously apposed to the younger student with least experience doesn’t.