Since, I am not a licensed mental health professional, I’ll refrain from labeling students that I do not know and who have not been diagnosed (to my knowledge) as narcissistic. What I have found, during my three years as an online instructor, is that the majority of my students are wholly unprepared for college-level work – no matter how diluted it is. And, while they may be technologically savvy, many still seem to have difficulty following assignment instructions, using spell-check, writing in complete sentences, and using a dictionary.
Over the past few years, I’ve learned not to lower my standards, but to temper my expectations. This cognitive shift occurred when one of my students responded to my assignment feedback by writing, “I am doing the best that I can.” I could have interpreted this comment as impertinent; however, the remark made me realize that the level of work that I expected to see in students’ assignments, might not be the level of work that some of my students were capable of producing.
This realization was the impetus for creating a student-centered learning environment in my online classrooms. In addition to required weekly announcements to introduce new material - I include worksheets that clarify assignments with narrated Jing screen capture, embedded videos, and hyperlinks to handouts. I also allow for late assignments through the last day to submit work before the classroom closes. Although late penalties are assessed, students still earn points towards their overall class grade. My goal is to provide students with a learning style that meets them where they are, instead of where I want them to be – even the procrastinators. I am still learning about other digital learning tools.
