Andrew,
Great point! You do see a lot of loner mentality and that is not what online learning was meant to be.
Dr. Kelly Wilkinson
Christi,
My motto is student center means student responsible. It is amazing that students at best don't own their laziness and at worst, are a victum. They need to take responsibility.
Dr. Kelly Wilkinson
Alaina,
Great point, particularly in technical writing. They don't always use the feedback you give them to improve their writing.
Dr. Kelly Wilkinson
Many students believe they are better time managers than they actually are. I try to reinforce the class deliverables, dues dates and the current time status of the class. I post the unit and day with deliverable due dates throughout the duration of the class..
Students need to continually improve on writing skills including citing and APA formatting. I utilize the center for writing excellence. I will point out the deficiencies and correct writing mistakes.
Dr. Wilkinson:
According to the readings, students typically underestimate how many hours it may take to successfully complete an online course. To avoid this pitfall, students should generally expect to spend 2-3 hours per week outside of class for each credit hour of class. Additional time may be necessary when preparing for specific projects or tests.
Many students also have too much on their plate. They may be working 2 or 3 jobs, taking 2 or 3 classes or raising 2 or 3 children on their own; many have medical issues. It is, therefore, important to remind students that their grades suffer when they overload themselves.
Dr. Ricardo Richards
Lawrence,
Great points. I have started using Outlook (can use Google or other calendar tool) to help set timelines and mini deadlines. It seems to help some. . . .
Dr. Kelly Wilkinson
Shirley,
I agree with you. I don't think students come to us with the ability to gauge time to work. They have done so much work in class from HS. They have also always been able to do the last minute thing that has worked before but not now.
Dr. Kelly Wilkinson
Dr. Eileen ,
I really like your policy. I am really "on the fence" regarding extensions. I think you handing of that situation makes great sense. I may borrow that one. . .
Dr. Kelly Wilkinson
David,
You make a great point. They do think they are good time managers. . . WRONG! I think you have a great system for them to begin the time management system. Do you make them use a calendaring system such as outlook or google?
Dr. Kelly Wilkinson
RICARDO,
You have to communicate with them this and typically let them fail or struggle with the first assignment. I have actually started letting them set their timelines and show me their "project plan" . I then review it for reasonableness. This is where they struggle.
Dr. Kelly Wilkinson
The first pitfall would have to be procrastination. Students often think that they have all the time in the world to complete assignments and that it will not take too much effort to complete it the day before the assignment is due. I try to encourage my students to work ahead, ask for feedback on the assignment, view assignment examples and generally plan to get familiar with the assignment before they complete it.
Another pitfall would have to be overestimating their writing skills. Student don't take the time to read over their posts and essays because they think that they have said it perfectly the first time around. I often encourage them to submit their papers to the writing center for a review before their submit their assignments. Also I encourage students to read their discussion post aloud. They are better able to catch their mistakes if they hear what they have written.
Kimberley,
Great post. You really try to engage, engage, engage. Procrastination can be the worst enemy for the student (and instructor).
Dr. Kelly Wilkinson
Kimberley,
Great post. You really try to engage, engage, engage. Procrastination can be the worst enemy for the student (and instructor).
Dr. Kelly Wilkinson
Students today are lazy! Take a short cut in writing; wait until the day an assignmet is due; do an assignment on 'their time', not the course due date time! In my computer classes, students are always waiting until Sunday evening (assignments are due by 11pm Sunday evening) to do the work. By that time, techinal support is not available when they experience software problems, there is loss of power in the area they live in; or they did not pay the internet bill. I have heard it all!
Carolyn,
I do think this has been learned through high school. They are given time during class to finish work. They don't have to manage anything.
Dr. Kelly Wilkinson
A lot of my students have been falling into pitfalls this quarter, which is why I took this course. Several students have gone AWOL for more than a week. Other students ignore the course all week, and then try to get a whole module done on Sunday night. One student emailed me to complain that it took her 4 hours to complete the module. I told her that it should have taken more than 4 hours to complete a module and that the time needed to be spread out over a few study sessions.
I outline the course expectations on Day 1 in the class. I encourage students to check their grade throughout the quarter. I email and phone students who have failing grades, or who go AWOL. I have been spending an excessive amount of time this quarter chasing after students. My school has a report that is filed for students who are not participating or failing. The Advising Center then contacts these students. Even this is not helping this quarter.
Colleen,
How frustrated you must be! Do they answer their phone? Students consistently underestimate the time it takes to complete an assignment. You may want to give them a "project calendar" that give them times spent to work on assignments. I have started providing project calendars that parses out the work through the week(s) until assignment is completed. They then can model their schedule from that.
Dr. Kelly Wilkinson
Colleen,
How frustrated you must be! Do they answer their phone? Students consistently underestimate the time it takes to complete an assignment. You may want to give them a "project calendar" that give them times spent to work on assignments. I have started providing project calendars that parses out the work through the week(s) until assignment is completed. They then can model their schedule from that.
Dr. Kelly Wilkinson
Colleen,
How frustrated you must be! Do they answer their phone? Students consistently underestimate the time it takes to complete an assignment. You may want to give them a "project calendar" that give them times spent to work on assignments. I have started providing project calendars that parses out the work through the week(s) until assignment is completed. They then can model their schedule from that.
Dr. Kelly Wilkinson
Not all of my students answer the phone. I have mixed results with the ones that do. I do make course announcements with recommendations about how to schedule their workload, but I'm not sure that they all read them. I will try using a calendar. Thanks for the suggestion.
