Challenges to Motivate
Students in an Online Course
“What do you think will be the biggest challenge you
face when motivating students in an online course environment?” Several thought
whirl around my mind trying to make sense of what usually happens in virtual
environments and what has happened in my blended learning experiences. My eyes
have chanced to fall upon three challenges I feel now prepared to deal with:
Marketing the LMS, creating a real community of learning, and having students
meet deadlines.
Challenge 1: Marketing the LMS
Based on my experience with college students taking
English in a blended learning modality, marketing the LMS is the very first
thing instructors have to deal with. The LMS’s virtues need to be stressed,
which in our cases is the fact that students can continue practicing the target
language beyond the class time boundary. The knots and bolts of the system need
to be fully explained to users, so learners get some sort of training before
the face the platform on their own. Having students understand the
possibilities the college LMS provide and having them comprehend how it works,
the dos and don’ts, they can have a pleasant interaction with the system’s
interface.
Challenge 2: Creating a Community of Learning
As it has been customary in my discourse about online
and F2F teaching and learning, the creation of a Class Culture is necessary.
This kind of culture is the first step towards the creation of a community of
learning. Within our community, students can feel at ease and confident when it
comes to learning. In a community of learning where students’ affective filter is low, students can be
easily motivated towards the accomplishment of learning goals, based on the
course outline objectives. By creating this community of learning, whose main
ingredients are a great class culture and low students’ affective filter, it
becomes easy and smooth the monitoring of student work and motivating them as the
ultimate goal in learners’ education.
Challenge 3: Meeting of deadlines
As a blended learning language instructor, one of my
main concerns –within our culture- is students’ procrastination.
Procrastination in college education is Costa Rica is and has always been a
problem. Although this is not meant to be taken as an overgeneralization that
obviously does not affect early birds, this postponing of priorities is a
common practice among university students. The need for friendly reminders for
learners to meet deadlines is a must. Additionally, reminding them of their
online performance is also necessary to have students comply with their
responsibilities. It can be useful, -from time to time-, to have them go back
and review the course expectations for learners to have them in the lookout.
To conclude, there may be more than a single challenge
to face as an online instructor. Perhaps there might be more issues to be ready
to deal with beside the one outline here. One thing is quite true, the fact
that no matter what kind of teaching scenario we face, we have challenges to
solve in a F2F class or within an LMS. Having some sort(s) of protocols to
approach problems is the best, and wise, way to find the right path to have
students feel at ease and willing to learn.
E To fully develop and comprehend this teaching issue,
it’s advisable to research and expand these areas:
1
|
Student training in LMS use
|
2
|
How to market an LMS in your course
|
3
|
Creating a community of learning
|
4
|
The community of learning and class culture
|
5
|
Procrastination in VLEs
|
Professor
Jonathan
Acuña-Solano
ELT
Instructor & Trainer based in Costa Rica
Freelance ELT Consultant four OUP in
Central America
For
further comments or suggestions, reach me at:
@jonacuso – Twitter
Other blogs and sites I often write for my students at
the university are:
Get new ELT material and ideas by
visiting my curated topics on http://paper.li/ and http://scoop.it/
Get a copy of "Challenges to Motivate Students in an Online Course by Jonathan Acuña" right over here.
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