I have learned that there are many ways to motivate your students and using some of these practices can really boost your productivity, in class as well as the productivity of the student.
I have learned that there are many strategies to engage online learner and that feedback is a crucial part of the learning process.
This provided great ideas on how to stay in constant communication with your students. Starting the year online I realize that I have to treat this just like if I had the students in my classroom. Doing the simple things like introducing myself to them is so important. Sharing my background in life with them helps put that at ease in some way. Allowing all the students to share information about themselves with other students. Students can see how they have similar interests as the teacher and/or other students. It helps ease feeling like you're a stranger.
I understand a little more why making directions available in a variety of ways is very helpful for online learners. Not having acccess to a teacher does make it difficult for many learrners. This area I will definitely need to work on in order to help my students.
I learned that everyone, just not students, get bored doing the same thing repetitively. In order to better engage the students, I need to vary my teaching style and use multiple resources.
I've learned ways to engage students online. I think the most important is to make it as enjoyable as possible by including subjects or points of view the student is interested in. It is also really important to have straight-forward and easy to understand directions, so the student is not overwhwelmed and gives up.
I have learned that just like in person learning, online learning requires different teaching styles to accommodate different learning styles. I will take into consideration that everyone's home environment is different and I will need to adjust for this and be available to help. I will need to give assignments to students using different methods like written and videos. I will need to adjust my lessons based on student needs and comprehension.
Even in the classroom, especially with our larger classes, strong engagement is difficult, and online classes will challenge that even more. This year, I'm going to come up with more interactive exercises/activities for them, which will hopefully also help with assessments. There isn't a lot of time for one-on-one engagement in a traditional schedule and only 4 mins between classes. Written and verbal feedback with students, parents and administrators is going to be key. I'm setting our asynchronous learning days as the day I will focus on student feedback and reminders. Online motivation strategies will be something I will look hard at for tunring work in on time, etc. Our elective (JROTC) is normally 2 days of lessons and 3 days of hands-on, so the virtual start of this year is going to be quite interesting!
Students need a variety of assignments to keep them engaged. Also, communication is key to a successful online course.
What I learned most from this course was in regards to 'Motivational Engagement'. The suggestions made to boost this type of student engagement opened my eyes to some concepts that I had not taken into serious enough consideration. The idea of presenting the instructions and material for assignments in different forms for different styles of learners is something that I will continue to expand upon in my teaching.
I have noticed that some of the online learners tend to procrastinate more. I learned that it can be helpful to send friendly reminders of upcoming assignments that are due. The course mentioned using the Remind App. I am familiar with that app but never thought about using it for my classes. I also realize that the online students tend to be more quiet and don't ask each other for help. I'm going to try to get them involved more by having regular get to know me activities so they can get more comfortable around each other.
I received several jewels in this module. I fully intend to use some of the techniques and tools provided, particularly as it pertains to the use of videos to personalize the course.
The module has provided suggestions for effective methods of engagement with students on a variety of levels both socially and motivationally. I believe it is also important to effectively engage the parent/guardian as well; especially in regard to motivational engagement with the learner.
With all of the COVID distractions it is very important to start each zoom with what we are doing today, what we did yesterday and when assignments are due.
I provide my studetns with a grade tracker form for what assignments are due and when for the term. How to contact me and what I expect of them.
Even though this information is provided I still have some students that will forget about assignments and deadlines.
I will start to engage with the "why" each time. I will also send a welcome email not only to the new starts but the returning students as well.
I have learned alot about the social piece of learning that still needs to occur even in the online arena. This is important toward developing communication skills in students and allowing them to hel each other solve problems. I learned that building rapport online is as important if not more so in the online world. I think that adding discussion boards, introduction videos or posts , announcments, calendars, reminders, office hours, FAQ, and so many other tools help students to be engaged have the resources available to stay motivated to complete the work and love the course.
I liked the idea of differences in communication from staff to student, student to student, faculty to student, etc. I also like the idea of content chunks.
While our school is in person right now, it is possible that we will switch to virtual learning in the future. This time around, I hope to improve our student's learning from home experience. I have learned that student engagement is very important and there are many different factors to consider. I can use many different stratagies to motivate and engage the students, such as games, student to student interaction, and making sure that the assignments are in manageable chunks.
I appreciate that there needs to be several ways to accomplish tasks, comminicate, and distribute information. I like the idea of helpful reminders rather than nagging. Getting them involved and asking what works for them has worked for me. Letting them direct and make decisions in how we proceed (when its not already a set standard)
I have learned that personalized student feedback is important, as well as providing instruction in multiple ways.
There were some really interesting tips from this module that I hadn't concidered before now. I like some of the ideas for the social engagement such as using a picture of themselves in an introduction. I've found if students aren't there in the first class, they usually miss introductions and don't offer one up at a later time. Also discussing student engagement, I liked the idea of incorporating virtual games to a lesson or class. That's been another strugle, changing things up and keeping engagement levels high in this platform of online teaching.
This was a great experience and I learned that students need motivation in Online learning just like classroom learning. Online reminders through different social platforms may be used to communicate with students so they do not forget the coursework deadlines and help answer in questions about the course or their learning in general
