In keeping with the career college relevance,I find that one of the single biggest motivators is the not hold back your passion of the subject and letting the students know it's safe to do so too. Most students are attending school with goals&desires, but over time--and with life's anxieties never stopping--students and instructors can get in a rut. Fanning the flames of why they first wanted to attend the school has helped the students, but also comes full circle to keep me motivated. Even when I feel tired, I'll try to let my passion for what I am teaching--and what they are learning--show.My students fire me up and that makes me want to do better. Everybody benefits.

As an instructor for an online college, there are great challenges in keeping students constantly motivated and eager to learn and grow. My portfolio class allows me the versatility in my teaching style to include live critiques of the student work, allowing the students to interact with one another and provide an interactive platform for learning from each other. Here, they feel comfortable making mistakes and learning from one another and see great growth in their work as there is a bit of 'peer pressure' to continue evolving as the other classmates do.

Motivation is one of the powerful words an instructor will embrace. If an instructor is not motivated it will affect student(s) desire to learn and their ability to succeed.

Its' important that when presenting new information and in a new format that teachers acknowledge stuents and their various methods for learing. This can motivate student to learn.

Instructors should alwasy involve all students in the learning process. Each student should be made to feel their opinion has value to the discussion and that being right or wrong is value added to the discussion.

To maximize student retention instructos should be aware of the class dynamics and keep students involved in the learning process. Tie learning task to daily events and make students believe they have input in to the process.

it's i porta tnat when teaching in the multicultural environment that the instructor remain aware of each students needs, and learning styles. Sometimes language can be a barrier to learning and should be taken into consideration when using slang vs. academic language in explaining concepts.

You are looked to as the expert, so your body language and teaching techniques motivate your students.

This is a very good acronym for me to utilize. Sometimes dealing with adults with a mixture of teenagers can get me out of my element.

Adults tend to value their decision on coming back to school when they have pay for it on their own.

Adults process information different from younger generations. They are sometimes more focused.

I have found that when the student is motivated ,it is more like he or she is on a mission,they know what they want to accomplish and they are much more enthusiastic about seeing the end result. this makes the teaching of the subject much more rewarding also because the motivation is very apparent and present!

The portion of this section about students and age issues really hit home. In the past I have had students question my ability to teach them because of my age. I became a college professor at the age of 28. Now, at the age of 32, I am younger than a lot of my students. In addition, I'm still younger that the parents of my younger students. I kind of sit between a rock and a hard place. While I am completely competent in my ability to teach them, I shy away from posting my picture to our course portal so students won't have an idea of my age range. Since I teach online not posting my picture completely prevents students from knowing my age. Has anyone else had this issue? If so, how did you handle it?

Instructors need to be able to get their students pumped and excited about what they are getting ready to learn. This makes for a much better learning environment in that the students are paying attention, listening, taking good notes, and just all around happy and excited to be there.

I think it is very important to figure out learning styles and personalities early. This will ensure time to adjust as necessary.

Some students have internal brakes applied to their ablities and need direction in ensuring, Yes I CAN. This may require obtainng self actualization of whom they think they are and what they are presenting to others. Facing that they may require to change their social behavior in order to achieve their true desire in changing their plot in life. Learning at this time really becomes self motivate.

I enjoyed this exercise as it allowed a view into building up the students confidence to increase his participation.

Some students need to know that the instructors are listening to their concern and responding to their questions in a manner in which is understandable to them.

Instructors with experience in the field they teach, make better instructors than those who do not have any work experience prior to teaching. Instructors with outside work experience allow students to learn more skills, and reinforce their abilities to achieve their goals. The instructor is able to become a role figure that has succeeded in finding a job using what he or she learned from similar classes. Students are practical, and goal oriented. When an instructor shares his or her work experiences with his or her class, this is a good motivation strategy.

One great way to make students enjoy your class and gain their trust and build a rapport is to actually make students believe that you really care for their profession. Interest in their profession makes students eager to behave in class, eager to demonstrate worthiness. An instructor must make his or her students believe they will gain skills from class, enough to go out to the real world and make a difference!