Management of Student Participation in Online Learning

Online teachers encounter several issues in classroom management.  Among them is student participation.  Student participation involves their interaction with the content, with each other and with the teacher.  First, online students complete their study and work in their own environment away from the eyes of the teacher.  How do teachers verify whether or not students are actually reading the content and doing their own work?    Second, online students are usually required to write posts to discussion forums to engage them with other learners.  Teachers often report two problems with student participation in this area:  the posts are not often enough and/or they are not deep enough to address the prompt.  Third, students are often expected to interact with the teacher via online class sessions, telephone conferences, and electronic communications.  Students or parents may want to avoid these interactions or they may not be forthcoming in their communication.

Teachers can be proactive in addressing student participation concerns by doing things before class begins and throughout the duration of the course that will improve student participation.  First, set up expectations and guidelines from the beginning of class.  Be sure those expectations are clearly communicated and what the consequences of not following those expectations will be.  The expectations should include technology requirements so students will be well prepared to meet them.  Be sure to include how non-participation or low participation in all its forms mentioned above will affect grades.  Teachers should monitor and address any issues they find as they find them.  To ensure students participate in the coursework, the coursework should be engaging and high quality and accessible to all students.  For example, it should address many learning styles, provide resources for enrichment and remediation, and be standards based.  It should ask them to complete tasks that are meaningful and well designed.  When problems do arise, teachers should investigate to determine what the problem is and address those issues.  Depending on the situation, the course management system may provide teachers with data on student usage and time on task.  Time logs kept by parents or students report time spent on task.  Both sets of data will help teachers identify students that are not actively participating.  Otherwise, teachers will need to infer student participation based on student work.  High quality work usually indicates students are participating.  Low quality work may be an indicator that students aren’t participating.  Teachers will need to investigate to determine the cause of low quality work.  This involves contacting the student and parent to discuss the issue and uncover the problem.  It may be a technical issue or something else.  Teachers can attempt to help students with technical issues, refer them to support personnel, and reiterate policies and procedures regarding these issues.  If it happens to be something else such as a student needing extra support, students can be assigned to tutoring sessions or other resources to assist them.  Otherwise, it may be personal issues in the home such as sickness or a loss.  Teachers can deal with those issues based on school policy and procedure and a willingness to care and support students.  When an issue arises over whether a student is doing their own work or not, teachers should contact the student and parent and discuss this.  If evidence indicates the student isn’t doing their own work, the student and parent will need to be reminded of school policy and procedure and a consequence issued.  As far as students not participating in discussion forums, Morrison (2012) found three reasons adult students don’t participate:  “poor timing of due dates, reticent students, and student posts that are shallow/lack depth”.  The last two things, I think, apply to younger students as well.  She suggests things teachers can do to alleviate these problems.  For the reticent student, make smaller discussion groups of four or five students, create facilitation teams of two or three students to act as moderators who guide and encourage students, and contact the student via email to offer support and encouragement.  Ko & Rossen (2010) suggest being sure to make the participation required and graded and to create rubrics for the quality and quantity of discussion posts.  Students should understand how many posts or responses they must do and the required depth of their response.  Thormann (2014) recommends that teachers model participation.    As for the third concern, interaction with the teacher, Zacharis (2009) suggest several steps teachers can take:

·         “List contact information on the syllabus

·         Set up communication guidelines and expectations

·         Provide office hours in person or virtually using instant messenger tools or chat rooms

·         Set up a weekly optional chat for students

·         Provide prompt and detailed feedback on assessments and discussion responses

·         Call students to clear up misunderstandings

·         Make frequent announcements to the class”

References:

Morrision, D. (2012, September 03). 3 Reasons Students Don't Participate in Online Discussions. Retrieved August 06, 2016, from https://onlinelearninginsights.wordpress.com/2012/09/03/3-reasons-why-students-dont-participate-in-online-discussions/

Thormann, J. (2014, April 08). Encouraging Online Learner Participation. Retrieved August 06, 2016 from http://www.facultyfocus.com/articles/asynchronous-learning-and-trends/encouraging-online-learner-participation/

Zacharis, N. “Fostering Students’ Participation In Online Environments: Focus On Interaction, Communication And Problem Solving” Journal of College Teaching & Learning 6.2 (2009): 25-34. http://www.cluteinstitute.com/ojs/index.php/TLC/article/viewFile/1169/1153