What pitfalls do you see your online students falling into and how do you help them "get out of the pit"?
Procrastination is huge as well as blaming others for mistakes and wanting to be perfect warning all their points all the time to keep the perfect 4.0. To get them out of the pit I coach for success, discuss self-efficacy, EQ, and internal motivation for learning along the journey not being sponge learners repeating what is told or doing what they think they need to do or what the instructor wants them to do to earn the “A.†As long as they want to learn, to rework work to strengthen skills to explore the research I create opportunities to coach them for success rather than penalize them for what they do wrong setting up a hostile environment where no one wins or learns. I look beyond the assignment and help them see the learning is in the journey…..
Joanna Oestmann
Late assignments seems to have taken over the online environment and we seem to spend 90% of our time as faculty grading. Procrastination and time management is a problem as well as not having consistent systems in place to help use behavioral techniques to coach students for success by penalizing plate work and rewarding on-time proactive work. To work within University policy encouraging students to apply concepts, look at time management and problem solving in their lives and how this will impact them in the work place helps set the tone for encouraging a more proactive approach. Encouraging engagement is great for those active, the trick is reaching those who are not through email, phone, and other supportive mechanisms to draw them in and get them the support they need through University services. Eric Oestmann
Students often underestimate the amount of time they need to spend conducting research for papers.To help I begin week 1 to encourage them to participate in a virtual library tour and to become familiar with the writing assistance labs and other help resources. If available reviewing a formal paper also helps students visualize what a formal paper looks like once complete.
Dr. Crews,
The most pitfall that I find students falling into is underestimating the time they need to complete the course. The steps that I take are:
1. become honest with them about the difficulty level of the course and course expectation at the very beginning
2. Provide prompt feedback so that they can use those in all their subsequent assessments.
3. Constantly send them emails, reminding them of deadlines and how they will get behind and not able to catch up if they procrastinate.
Thank You,
Srabasti Dutta
I see many students not taking advantage of the resources available to them in different locations across the Virtual Campus. Previously, I would mention in feedback or chats that they needed to visit such-and-such place, or read something I had posted elsewhere.
Now, I am trying to make an effort to actively use my Discussion Board to direct students to appropriate resources. So if I have several questions about my grading rubric, I'll repost it in that space. If students are unclear about writing resources, I'll attach files and links that they can use.
I'm finding that the less unguided clicking and searching students have to do, the more likely they are to access the resources I feel are appropriate. For instance, if you Google "how to write a topic sentence," there are lots of options I, as an instructor, wouldn't pick, but students might. By linking them directly to the Purdue Online Writing Lab, then, I can steer them away from Yahoo and eHow, etc.
There are several that I see. The most important is a tendency to procrastinate and not work ahead. These students do not always understand the effort required for assignments and fall behind or tend to submit assignments late. Another pitfall is failing to plan for contingencies. Many have issues that come up in their personal or professional lives that were unanticipated, but this is life and they have not learned to accommodate these events well, and often become frustrated when they happen. A third pitfall is when students do not know how to conduct research for a project, choose appropriate sources for information or how to use a library. Finally, many students do not know how to use the technology as well as they thought, and issues come up that prevent them from uploading documents, joining live chats, or accessing online reading materials. As instructors, we must be prepared to assist them or refer them to appropriate resources for support.
The most critical pitfals are, underestimation of time, overestimation of their technology skills, assumption learning is easy, belief they can do it on their own, procrastination...
I try to help them before the "fall" happens, by telling them ahead of time about as many pitfals as I can, and I tell them, this is based on the number of times I taught that course.It helps.
Jim,
I concur. My students are current or future to be executives. I tell them that thesolution is not in the book. I tell them to be creative, systematic and convincing
Some students think that they are still in high school. By that I mean that they have theexpectation that they can get everything they need out of a textbook. In college you have to do research, evaulate the material from various perspectives, weight the value of your sources, and then share your insights with others in a clear and compelling manner.
Every now and then you get a student who is baffled if all the answers are not in the textbook or the learning materials. I share my insights on digging out knowledge, using a search engine, watching YouTube how-to videos, and getting some hands on computer skills by attempting the tasks that are described in their computer textbooks.
I show them how to load Windows 8 and Zorin Linux in virtaul machines and how to experiment with them. I show them how to find eBooks. You can preview books at Amazon.com. Often the preview is all that is needed to get the required information.
I emphasize that unit due dates and late penalties are for the student's benefit so they don't get too far behind. I share that I sure try to work ahead where possible because you never know what will come up.
I have used a program called TeamViewer to remote into students computers to help them with setting up a virtual machine or getting into a virtaul lab.
I give students my phone mumbers so they can contact me if they are stuck. If I have a student who keeps asking me question after question in emails, I will often call him and preview the remaining assignments.
Finally, I do my best to answewr emails promptly and completely and have an encouraging tone with my students.
I hear you Melissa. A couple of times a year I have a student who believes that they deserve an "A" grade when they just ansered the assignment without demonstating mastery of multiple facets of it, or without going beyond the call of duty. I do point out my course announcement on what it takes to get an "A", and I do give them some information on Bloom's Taxonomy. Sometimes they get the picture. If they don't I offer them to resubmit the assignment and give them a few related topics to include for a richer response and grade.
I understand what you are saying Ramonica. Support sure helps. It's hard to take a computer networking class without a decent computer and a decent Internet connection, or if they are married and can't get some support at home, or if they are working 60 hours a week. On the other hand, it is ideal when students are self-motivated to rise beyond their circumstances.
In my experience, I would identify procrastination as the most common pitfall as well as the most detrimental to the student learning experience. The most effective method against procrastination in my classrooms has been the frequent use of quizzes. The points earned from these quizzes provide motivation for many students and have had the most positive effect on classroom attendance. The quizzes are in the form of 'learning checks' that students have told me helped them organize the highlights of each assignment or chapter and helped them to better understand the bigger picture of the course in general.
On of the pitfalls that student experience in my class is assume that online learning is easy. In my first chat, we literally have to go through every single expectation, policy, and guidelines for the class before talking about APA, writing in third person, and deadlines. Even though many students show some nervousness in taking the course, all are very excited to learn. One item that has helped me in the past is before I start talking about all of these items, I share some experiences of my own when I took online courses for the first time. It always seems to help whenever a faculty member shares their own experience and shows the students that they will be understanding and patient, as best as they can.
I find commonly that certain students will lack initiative because their motivations in attending school are largely externally considered. It is a focus of mine to try and find ways for students to get in touch with internal motivations and means of connecting the course work to their own genuine concerns and interests in life.
Another pitfall comes with students who are over-burdened with tasks and work that gets in the way of their focus on class. Emphasis on time and effort considerations and time management planning may be of help in raising these concerns and addressing potential pitfalls.
Dr. Crews, the most common pitfall I see my students falling into is their lack of effective planning…
Many times my students will assume that everything will go right during their workday or work week, leaving them a small amount of time to complete their assignments.
I let my students know that the number one threat to their success is the lack of time management skills, or procrastination… so with that in mind, I told my students that the best advice I can give them is to spend a little bit of time on their studies every single day… because by doing so, they will avoid that feeling of being overwhelmed.
Mike Crowley
The most common pitfall I see my student fall into is spending 80% of their time on 20% of the required components of an assignment.
I share my exact grading rubrics with my students during the class prior to assignments being due -- and I stick to that rubric. And I create my rubrics directly from the 4-5 things listed in the Assignment Description.
Nonetheless, I would say that about 60% of the class don't address everything in that assignment description and instead, spend 80% of their time doing 20% of the requirements.
The good news is of that 60%, it decreases to about 20% by the end of the 5-week class and most students are heavily in-tuned with focusing on the rubrics and addressing everything required in the Assignment Description.
Right, Detra! I agree with everything you wrote...specifically aligning their deliverables with the week's assigned reading material.
I typically will remind students in the feedback that our assignments are "tests" in essay form and that they need to tye in the business concepts being presented in the assigned chapters each week.
To help my student to avoid the online pitfalls, I send out a email the first day of class called how to rise to the top with a time line and tip on how to succeed in my class.
Most pitfall item is when students are falling behind because they did not manage their time to complete assignments. This usually happens in the beginning of the term and it is stretched to the end where they get overwhelmed and rather not show in the class. To help them stay focused, I would send regular reminders on what has be done and what remains to be completed. I would send group as well as individual Email messages using their school and outside email addresses.
The pitfall I see students falling into is under estimating the task. To help student I provide a general overview of the assignments and the expectations I have. Also, providing words of encouragement.