Issue link: http://ncumarketing.uberflip.com/i/740850
Kristopher Lichtanski, PhD Full-Time Foundations Faculty, Department of Psychology The online asynchronous environment can be particularly challenging in regard to keeping students engaged in the course and in learning. I think some of these challenges can be remedied by the quality of the relationship between faculty and each student. After all, our students want to learn from us, their professors, and not just from textbooks and links. Thus, reflecting on the way we interact with our students can provide for a more engaging commitment on their part. Here are three examples from my work. Get to know each student (as a whole person) and allow them to get to know you (as a whole person). In my experience, students who complete the welcome call at the beginning of the course generally remain more engaged in the course. While I do spend some time going over the logistics of the course during these calls, I am more interested in establishing a trusting relationship with the students. A sense of genuine interest in them and their success on my part and a sense that I am approachable, reasonable, and accepting of imperfections on their part, can go a long way in keeping students working for the next 8 or 12 weeks. I profusely and repetitively invite them to email me or call me with any questions whatsoever at any time (I also promise not to judge them). Use the knowledge of the student in giving feedback to their work. I find that students are more accepting and responsive to feedback, if the feedback is tailored specifically to them – not just in terms of their academic performance - but also in terms of their goals, struggles and successes. When I provide feedback, I try to let them know that I see not only the "academic, scholarly work," but also the work they put (or didn't put) into preparing the assignment submission. My approach is solution-focused. The student (no matter how deficient in various skills) is not the problem; the product that I received is or has a problem. So then, how can we (the student and I) work together with our respective resources to fix that problem? Frequently, this approach allows the student to maintain ownership of the desire to grow and learn rather than simply respond to my demands to do better. Knowledge of the student also allows me to illustrate my points by using examples that are "experience-near" for the student. Reach out to the "missing" or "silent" students. Similar to calling on the quiet, reserved students in a brick-and-mortar classroom, reaching out to students who don't respond to the welcome letter, don't perform well on the assignment, or don't submit an assignment, can provide them with an opportunity to feel supported. Anxiety, self-doubt, avoiding failure (procrastination), perfectionism, and poor time management are frequent reasons for lack of response. Solving these problems together early on can often bring the student back on track.