Communication with Different Personalities
My classes are quite diverse when it comes to how students communicate with each other. I've been teaching online for just about a year now. Luckily, I have yet to run into any arguments or inappropriate student behavior. However I have noticed that some students are more, well, talkative than others. This was always the case in my F2F classes, but students could see who would converse and who wouldn't in those classes; it's significantly harder to do that online. I see some of the more gregarious students trying to engage the less talkative students and often the more gregarious students get left hanging, questions unanswered by their classmate. I try to step in and help but it's hard if there are specific questions being asked. Is there some way I can help this or is it just a casualty of online learning?
Amanda,
You must be vigilant in maintaining your expectations that you established. You can step in and make sure that everyone is operating within the expectations. You can step in if there is inappropriate behavior and take the student aside in a chat room or an email and explain the issue and the expectation. You will probably only have to do it once. . .
Dr. Kelly Wilkinson
Personally, I do not mind talk to students. When a person is talking, they are typically not thinking of doing something inappropriate because they are doing something at the time that they are talking. On the other hand, silent students are always an issue because one never knows what the students are thinking, or even planning to do. Personally, I like a good conversation, and I fostered my class. It makes for a lively time, and it passes the hour weekly.
Donald,
It is also important tool to determine learning. Silence is so frustrating as you can't determine how to approach the issue or problem.
Dr. Kelly Wilkinson
Hi Amanda,
This is a very interesting question. I can recall several instances where my more advanced students would offer wonderfully constructed replies to others, offering great information, only to be left without a response from the original poster. It is unfortunate.
In the future, I think I may try replying with a brief reiteration of the student's question or response. There are times when some students seem intimidated by the sheer length of a reply or fear their reply will reveal their lack of understanding, which is a frequent theme in math discussions.
I always make a point to let these students know that I am sincerely grateful for their leadership in the discussions and include gratitude in the feedback for their efforts. Hopefully, the acknowledgement will be a positive motivator when we cannot control the responses they receive from their peers.
Eugenia
Eugenia,
It can be discouraging when students only post to for the grade not for the discussion. Great idea to identify students who take the discussions seriously and continue to not only post but reply!
Dr. Kelly Wilkinson
I have been facilitating online for about five years. I have encountered two memorable situations that required my intervention on the discussion board. I teach Environmental Science, which is mostly a learning experience for many students. However, occasionally I will have students with strong opinions about a topic - global warming comes to mind. :-)
One of the questions is an opinion question that requires student response. Is global warming a viable theory? Then students have to use credible information to explain their position.
In two cases, students attacked the opinions of other students who believe the theory is possible. I actually responded directly to the discussion board and stated that each person can state their opinion.
I actually saved one of the posts. It says, “The great thing about this week's discussion is people can post their opinion. The key is supporting that opinion and which expert does an individual believe.
I suppose there are still people who do not believe that there is a correlation between cigarette smoking and cancer, regardless of the studies.
A challenging subject for people to grasp is the link between radon gas and cancer. There are probably people that have trouble with that theory also. It can't be seen and has no odor (unlike cigarettes); but the risk is real.
See http://www.cancer.gov/cancertopics/factsheet/Risk/radonâ€
So I shifted the discussion to another topic. This student did not respond negatively to any other student post.
Sandra,
Thank you for sharing your story. You have to have policy and expectation in place and hold students to it. I also think you took advantage of the situation to make it a learning experience. That isn't always easy.
Dr. Kelly Wilkinson
Amanda,
I'm not sure I've ever had a class where this situation isn't present in some form. One thing I try to do to help the situation is alternate the style of my discussion questions. I require all students to participate in the introduction question and I respond to all of them. I also start off my first week with a question where I can assign each student to answer a specific area. For example, when we are discussing conditions of a body system, I may assign a specified disease to each student to research and report on. The next week I do not do this, but Week 3 I do it again. This helps the students become used to their discussion process as well as responding to questions about their post. I have seen improvements throughout a course.
Angela,
You have great strategies. You want to make sure students have examples of good discussion replies and bad discussion replies. It is also important that you communicate the importance of discussion and hold them to the standards!
Dr. Kelly Wilkinson
