We work with a wide age range of students we have to be able to adapt to all ages and learner styles

We find that motivating online students is a bit more challenging than in face-to-face teaching. Motivation can be achieved through clear course objectives, assessment criteria, and demonstrating how assigned activities can be applied to a student's own experiences. Weblogs, interactive exercises, and discussion forums amongst the students creates open communication and an opportunity to be heard. Providing quick responses, constructive feedback, and ensuring responses are personalized will make the student feel the instructor has listened to them, thereby making the online course experience less impersonal.

I have found that setting up a friendly yet competitive environment amongst students in my classes has worked to create a great atmosphere where students come self motivated and ready to do better than the next. The easiest way I have achieved this is by telling students to take a look around and that the people sitting next to them will be their greatest competition!

I have found that the easiest way to help a student get motivated is to constantly remind them about how their education and what they do in class will translate into a better career and more opportunities in the real world and provide them with examples from my personal experience and others success stories

I always tell students to write on a sheet of paper their life goals at the moment. Starting from for the class... to the degree... to just having graduated... to being steady... and all the way to the point at which they feel they have completed everything they ever wanted to achieve...

I definitely found that being open to students suggestions has helped make me a better instructor. It has allowed me to understand the subject matter from the point of view of the student.

I find that having built relationships with students from my classes. Even when they are not doing well in another instuctors class they tend to come to me for advice and I have been able to talk them out of quitting or dropping the class.

I show students that I am paying attention by giving extra credit to students who have been excellent in front of the class and this has encouraged other students to work harder. On the flip side... there have been times when a student has approached me and said it was unfair because they were going to personal issues. But I managed to build a relationship with those students who opened up.

I always try to point out the little things that students do well because most of the time they don't take them into consideration. Eventhough the student may be in college, they still enjoy getting stickers, or a smiley face on a test/quiz to know that they are doing well. Again something as small as that can really make the student feel better about themselves.

Hello, What do you do in a situation when a student has missed 25% of the class and has completed only one assignment... now it is close to finals day (two class periods away) and this student is trying to work his/her tail off to complete the assignments, understand the material and pass the course. I feel that if I allow this student to just squeak by in the end, it is not teaching them "real" lessons of life. What do you think?

I have had times when a student has been sleeping in mu class. I always talk to the student and remind them of their choice to attend this school and their individual responsibilities before advising them of the negative consequences. What do you do when a student has a horrible work schedule but has good benefits, a family to support with those benefits but stills sleeps in class? I think he knows that I care but he also knows that I support the school standards of not sleeping in class. He may fail the class because of this behavior. Ideas?

Often students that English is their second language will state that they do not want to participate in class because “…my English is not good”, which frequently is not true. I tell the students that they are lucky to be able to speak more than one language and encourage them to participate. I have foreign born students sharing information about their native country, including government structure and customs. This has always worked well for me. Any other ideas that have been sucessful?

While podcasts can be helpful for both on-ground and online learners, I will focus on the online learner. Online students should have more resources available to them at their fingertips than perhaps on-ground learners, as they do not have the advantage of having an instructor physically present. By presenting material in several different formats, it gives online learners yet one more avenue of learning.

Since I am not good with remembering names, it helps me to review the roster to become familiar with the individual names and pronunciations prior to the first class. It also helps to have the students use place cards at the first class so I can put the name with the face, and use their names during class. I have introductions as one of the first activities by pairing the students to interview each other, and then make the introductions to the class which includes something memorable about that student. It helps to build the connection for me, and the students have made a new friend.

In particular, I am having a challenge with one student who refuses to use the free MS Office software that the school provides. He is turning in his papers on the discussion board and I contacted tech support early on. He is not responding to tech support and I did reach on his behalf. He is wanting a scholarship. I could grade his papers from the wrong area but they still would not be of passing quality. Very bluntly, I asked him what the response from tech support was and he keeps asking me to grade the same papers in the wrong format. This may be one of those situations where I tried but I keep reaching out. Thoughts? Sounds confusing but we have standards to uphold from an accreditation standpoint as well as class standards.

When I get excited or enthusiastic while giving a lecture it becomes contagious and pretty soon everyone is in a state of joy; the joy of learning. Now, what a concept!!

The instructor will likely be the first person a student comes into contacat with in reference to retention issues. Once the instructor has identified a student with a potential retention issue then the instructor should channel that student to the appropriate source for assistance.

Multisensory teaching methods should cast a wider safety net which should reach a vast diversity of different types of learners. Using many types of teaching methods should ensure that you get your concept across, ex. visual presentations, audio presentations, and hands on projects are a few methods which can be helpful.

Hi class members, I find it motivating for online students- and I- to use a webcam so they can see my facial expressions. I also like them to use audio, as well as I. Sincerely, Pam

As a librarian, I don't have my own class so I'm often in the role of the guest speaker. I try to build rapport by: * saying hello to students as the enter the classroom (or virtual classroom, in my case) * taking time to introduce myself and tell students how and why to contact me with questions * ending my visit by thanking the students for their time and reminding them who I am and how they can contact me. Building rapport in such a short time is not easy. If anyone else has any ideas for me, I'd love to hear them!