Best way to get online student s attention and keep them engaged
Nowadays, the utmost requirement is to keep the student engaged and motovaetd as well. Since life can be very lonely online, teacher interaction with constant motivation would actually be very helpful for the student, sometimes more than in the actual class room for certain students.
Huma I agree. I see the impact when our online staff takes the time to mentor a student who is in struggling .. and the response is amazing
Huma, your statement that life can be very lonely online defines our student population. Keeping them engaged is our number one focus. If the student looses focus, they become an at-risk student. Once the student is an at-risk student, it is difficult to get them re-engaged. Teacher interaction (or sometimes any interaction such as gaming) is helpful in keeping the student motivated and engaged.
Instructor interaction weighs heavily in online and F2F environment for the majority of learners.
I am looking for come suggestion on what you feel are activites that would motivate and help an online instructor engage with their online students at a deeper level? I see some instructors simply think responding to the discussion post is sufficient. What else could we as an education provide do to connect better?
I believe responding to questions promptly is very important especially in media such as message boards or texts.
Attention spans in general are eroding, so catching a student when he or she is inquisitive is like a fisherman feeling a nibble on the line. Setting the hook by guiding a student to an answer is where the inherent fun of teaching lies.
Unfortunately, online interaction is not an equal substitute for face to face interaction. Its strong point is data collection. Tests that monitor how long it takes for a student to answer a question and recognize problem areas are expensive, but are efficient tools for teachers to identify weak areas of the program or teaching style.
In addition, it is comforting for a student to know where he/she has competency, and that valuable time is spent wisely on competencies that are lacking.
Yes, students like to talk about themselves and things they like
I totally agree! Texting and sending out Kudo notes to my students seem to work very well. When they know that someone is out there and that someone cares, they perform better.
Paula Bordenkecher
