Jerry,
"It takes a village" approach provides a great deal more opportunity to return the learner to the educational fountain. I agree with you that teamwork should be part of all institutions' strategies to help their students successfully complete the programs in which they enrolled. Good post - thanks.
Dr. S. David Vaillancourt
Dr. V.
You can reach out to your peers, or more importantly a supervisor.
You can get feedback from there and maybe go in another direction. So, I disagree. You should look into other areas to get responses from the student.
Hi Nick,
I greatly appreciate your commitment and enthusiasm. Many of us have run out of feasible avenues. Do you have any specific "other directions" with which you have experienced solid success? Please share them with all on this forum for additional conversation. Thank you for your contribution.
Dr. S. David Vaillancourt
I'm not sure I understand the "safety" issue. Are we talking about meeting students in their homes? Personally that would never work for me. I'm assuming the instructor and student meet at the "bricks and mortar" location of the school. Pardon me if I misunderstood the comment.
Yes Tom,
Earlier in the thread it was suggested the instructor may wish to recommend meeting with the student if they are local. I have seen this occur in very few instances where the student was a former brick-and-mortar student of the main campus and once the students switched over to become an online student, she would occasionally meet with the instructor in a face-to-face meeting to assist with online difficulties. When the meetings take place at a campus, I don't see any real difficulties. However, the student and the teacher have implicitly agreed to meet online, so I don't think this is a good normal course of action. Nevertheless, the way the statement was made there was no distinction of meeting at a campus, library or any other location. Therefore, I emphasized the safety issue if this approach was to be used. Again, I personally don't condone this approach with online students.
Dr. S. David Vaillancourt
Hi Dr. V,
This definitely a concern, but there are some things we can do. First, I would need to know the scope of the problem. If the student doesn't respond right away, I check and see if they are new to the virtual classroom, (which is often the case in a freshman communications course). I do this so that I can eliminate any fears the student might have about participating. In the past, I have sent emails and called. I always try to encourage the student to complete the class and offer as much assistance as they might need. I also make sure to email notes of encouragement, feedback and upcoming due dates and classroom happenings regularly.
Depending on the scope of the problem, I will steer the student in appropriate direction. Usually after several emails, the student will respond. If I still do not get an answer, I then start copying the Online Advocate. The OA will contact the student on campus, if possible, or phone them at home. The Online Advocates are very responsive and quick. Usually, they will get back to me within 24 hours, followed by the student. The one thing I have learned is that "Life Happens" and it's for this very reason that I try to reach out as much as I can.
Thanks,
Ginny
Ginny,
Your approach and the resources you employ are both very comprehensive. I would expect you have a relatively high completion rate in your courses. Nicely done.
Dr. S. David Vaillancourt
I am not one to admit defeat. I will always try to find another approach to resolve a problem. Student motivation has a powerful affect on attrition and completion rates, regardless of institutional setting. Motivators for adult distance students are often different from those of traditional students. Learner behavior is influenced by a combination of the learner's needs plus the learner's situation and personal characteristics. Knowing these personal characteristics is an important aspect of planning distance learning courseware and strategies and is key in providing offers to help the student. More importantly, knowing the students can help drive program planning and policy formation, factors that are important to participation and success in distance learning.
Marcia,
Well stated. This proactive approach to instructional design and policy creation really is much better than the reactive processes employed in most current online environments. Very good.
Dr. S. David Vaillancourt
I continue to try to help, never giving up on my students. I don't just email them. I email them with encouraging words and request a reply. I ask them questions and/or ask if I can call them.
As an online instructor, I am faced with this situation during each session. As I facilitate two different schools with the online modality, my options differ for each school. My comments are related to efforts beyond formative feedback, course announcements, etc.
At one school, I can file an early alert and populate the requested information and mention that the student is not participating in forums and not submitting assignments. The form asks what I have done to reach out to students, beyond letting them know that he/she has not submitted an assignment. I typically post an individual note or send an email asking if I may assist the student with content questions.
At the other university, I contact the student's advisor directly. There have been occasions that I was notified of the advisor’s contact with the student (I was cc'd,) as students who have not participated are highlighted and readily identified.
So there are options. Awareness of what those options are, per university, is helpful. I believe that most online schools want the instructor to put forth their best effort.
Some have suggested using audio and video email; but I have not yet arrived with this level of technological skillfulness :-)
Kimberly,
Those are all good follow-ups, and in many cases do the trick. Thank you for your contribution.
Dr. S. David Vaillancourt
Sandra,
My experience is similar with the availability of student assigned advisors and electronic forms/e-mails to request assistance and provide information on out reach efforts to date. I too look forward to the audiovisual e-mail which will allow concern, urgency and affective components of the outreach to be greatly enhanced. You are absolutely right that knowing your resources, and using them, is key.
Dr. S. David Vaillancourt
There is actually a lot that an online instructor can do. Working in concert with academic advisors and our supervisors, we can figure out how to reach the student best. Also, a phone call or a social media contact may be a good way to reach students. The phone works for those students who are less tech-savvy; social media tends to engage a younger audience. Also, we should use links and external resources in order to help students, and include those in the emails we send them. If we express sincere concern and do our best to reach students, then we have succeeded.
Adam,
The team approach to assist online learners has proven valuable at many institutions. Your indications sound like they come from first-hand experience. Very good points. Thank you for your insights and contribution.
Dr. S. David Vaillancourt
I have met with an online student only once after multiple online requests by her. She was not good at providing me with a clear description of what she needed via email. We were able to meet at the coffee shop of the bricks-and-mortar school. Unfortunately, she was also unable to prior a clear indication of what I could do to help her face-to-face. I would put her in the dependent learning style.
I think I agree, if a student does not want help they will not take it, we as faculty can only reach out so many times. But, I am not saying that if the student does re-engage later that we should ignore them. Our job to is assist when and where we can.
Also as you get to points in the conversation with the students that are not responding, ensure to copy the advising teams in the discussion, they can also reach out and try to assist as well.
-- Matt
Tina,
In today's online learning environment there are many deficiencies for addressing all learning styles. While technologies exist to address most of these, many have not yet been implemented in the virtual classroom. So it seems, in our current situation there are some students who need the face-to-face classroom.
Dr. S. David Vaillancourt
Matt,
You make an excellent point. As others have indicated on this thread, involving the school team can have many benefits when re-engaging a student. Thank you for your insight.
Dr. S. David Vaillancourt
Luckily most, if not all, of these programs, have on site advocates who could help as well. I will typically copy this advocate on my emails, and he or she will help out when they see the student on campus.
If you have the student's phone number, not a bad idea to call and/or leave a message, as your concern can be sensed in your tone of voice better than in an email, which may get the student to respond.
Finally, I would articulate the consequences of the student's continual behavior or pattern of poor grades if they don't respond to your offer to help. If they understand what the outcome could be, they may be more apt to respond.
