Making my online course sticky

Making my online course sticky

by Laurence Kuek -
Number of replies: 15

Hi...

I have been using moodle as a student support platform for my college level managerial accounting course and the results have been good.  I am NOW interested in making it a FULL-ONLINE course.

Students for my subject currently go to classroom style courses. They sit for public style examinations every half year. When asked if they might consider taking the entire course online, the majority felt that they can't motivate themselves to complete the coursework online.

I recognize this as a mindset challenge but I am wondering if anyone here faced the same problem and have developed strategies to overcome this.

Any feedback would be very much appreciated!

Laurence

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Re: Making my online course sticky

by Colin Matheson -

One of the best ways to motivate students is through communication. Under Administration->Reports->Participation Report you can see who has clicked on each mod on your page (you can see number of forum views or number of forum posts, numberof times students have downloaded a file etc.). Then if you click "show all students" at the bottom you will get an option to "Select all no". This means you will have a check mark next to every student who hasn't participated in that activity. Then you can select "Add/Send message" and send  these students a message reminding them to get on track. (Your site has to have messaging turned on).

Another great tool is cooperation and competition. If you create groups of students and then give public recognition to the group who did the best on a project or quiz you can keep students inspired to participate in the course. In group work, students are accountable to each other and so are often feel more pressure to follow through.

Also making your own feedback personal is a great tool. Instead of just typing a text response to a forum or a student assignment, add a picture (of a cake or some other reward) as a virtual prize or a brief sound/video recording from you to give a more human aspect to your feedback.

If the students can get a sense of your "humaness" then they are more likely to follow through.

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In reply to Colin Matheson

Re: Making my online course sticky

by Laurence Kuek -

Thanks Colin, your advice will definitely come in handy when I have students who enrolled to completely do the course online.

First thing on my to-do-list would probably be to take a few "repeat" students (confident with my style of teaching) and work out the rhythm. Get them to pass and create a buzz around them.

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Re: Making my online course sticky

by Glenys Hanson -

Hi Colin and Laurence,

Thanks for that tip Colin about seeing who's done what and chasing up those that haven't - didn't know about it.

Some other things I've found useful (I've only ever done distance learning courses) :

  • Respond positively and very quickly (at the latest within 24h) to all their messages at the beginning of the course.
  • Start with activities that are non-threatening and fun (e.g. an introductions forum where they have to put a picture of something that's important to them),
  • Grade absolutely everything (even if it is just with an "OK" or "Useful"):  Forum messages, glossary articles, Questionnaires... so that they know you've read their work. (I can't keep up with responding to all forum messages - there get to be just too many.)
  • Put them in small groups to work on collaborative projects.

Cheers,

Glenys

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Re: Making my online course sticky

by Laurence Kuek -

Hi Glenys

Definitely true. The prompt response builds momentum. I noticed that word gets around when I answered emails fast just before their public exams. Right now, I've the unenviable challenge of transitioning students who's never ever done online learning before in their life (I'm in Malaysia btw). Maybe its more of a trust issue (for now anyway).

Cheerio

Laurence

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Re: Making my online course sticky

by Tim Hunt -
Picture of Core developers Picture of Documentation writers Picture of Particularly helpful Moodlers Picture of Peer reviewers Picture of Plugin developers

Just to make this more complicated, while I agree with what has been said in this tread, you also have to worry if you reply too much, and end up dominating the conversation. Sometimes it is better to sit back and see how that conversation between students evolves on its own.

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Re: Making my online course sticky

by Glenys Hanson -

Hi Tim,

Yes, you're right that teachers can overwhelm the discussion - it requires a lot of sensitivity to know how much and how little to say. I don't always manage that - it's so much more difficult on line than face to face..

As a Silent Way teacher, after 30 years of saying very little in a face-to-face classroomn, the problem was to push myself to say more. I think, however, I'm the only Silent Way teacher around here (be delighted to know if I'm not thoughtful).

Cheers,

Glenys

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Re: Making my online course sticky

by Stephan Rinke -

Hi Laurence,

I know this might be obvious but I have seen to many course where this went wrong. So maybe this is useful to you...

I always recommend to eally invest some time and effort to make sure that the group functions as a team. Play online getting to know one another games, make sure that every user uploads a good portrait profile picture and give students a chance to get to know one another. Give virtual gifts (like a picture of a chocolate cake) when somebody does something particularly helpful for the group or exhibits very good social skills.

Some more info you may glean from the slides to Michael Tighe's and my presentation "In moodle we trust" and my favourite getting to know one another game is described here...

Hope this helps,

Stephan

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Re: Making my online course sticky

by Glenys Hanson -

Hi Stephan,

I love your Bingo exercise. I do a similar thing face to face, but I'd never have worked out how to do so on my own in Moodle.

Thanks so much.

Glenys

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Re: Making my online course sticky

by Stephan Rinke -

Thanks, Glenys! blush

It works really well. I always use it before meeting students for the first time. It gives me a chance to learn names. Nothing shocks them more than being greeted by their names in the first session wink

Best,

Stephan

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Re: Making my online course sticky

by Colin Matheson -

@Stephan- I learned the trick of giving a picture gift from your presentation and have loved it. I find many secondary school students include pictures in their posts as a way of enhancing their expression, so it is definitely a communication style our digital natives employ.

@Glenys- (thanks for the useful rating big grin ) You bring up the most important point-subscribe to all forums and post and/or rate often and promptly. (You can allow students to rate forum posts by working with roles) I like creating a scale with only positive feedback options (Creative, Thoughtful, Clear, Concise, Informative) for students.

One other tip that comes to mind has to do with navigation and clear expectations. In an online course some times it can be unclear what to do first, how much is expected each week, etc. So having a set weekly structure (a resource at the top of each section with an outline of activities, reading, and what is due), can really help. Also creating a chat session at the start of each week or at least the start of the course, for folks to ask real time questions can help folks focus on what is important.

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Re: Making my online course sticky

by Laurence Kuek -

Great Stephane,

I've always suspected this... It's only when I was at a teacher's conference when people started delivering papers on social media that there's something important here.

Next sem, my plan is to get them to build a wiki as a team as the programme progress. I might actually see students writing more for once.

Thanks Stephane.

Cheerio

Laurence

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Re: Making my online course sticky

by Paul Ganderton -

Hi Laurence,

I'm adding my voice to this list partly as a way to say, according to what I've seen, these are great ideas that work! I'd like to add what seems to work for our students and what issues have arisen:

 

a) communication - put in all the forums, chat etc. you can but let the students have the majority say. If you start with some prompting then very soon they'll take over and you can just sit back and post only when there's a problem (my senior class virtually does all its own work and now doesn't expect me to be involved);

b) 'digital native' idea. Basically, students have no genetic predisposition to Moodle. They need guides and help in the early stages. Tell them what is expected and make it clear (I post cheat sheets differentiated by year);

c) Accept it will take time. After three years solid Moodling I'm just seeing a serious uptake in Moodle by students. That staff are also reluctant means you need a critical staff mass as well. Built a Moodle culture slowly and surely. If you build it, they will come (but only after a time);

d) Get students involved in course building. Wikis are good but if you alter permissions slightly then they can start to design their own learning tools. Very empowering - student ownership.

Hope this helps,

Paul

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Re: Making my online course sticky

by Laurence Kuek -

Hi Paul

Many thanks for the guidance. Right now, I pretty much have the definitive guidelines (from everyone here) on conducting the course when students are enrolled. Now, my question needs to be reframed... How do I get students to take the online "plunge"? Your input triggered a few thoughts:

  • I've to sell the benefits of using moodle to the students. I may even have to approach this as a customer value proposition of sorts.
  • Co-develop the course with the initial batch. My teaching materials (inclusive of things like cheat-sheets) are pretty well developed for classroom use. Translating that to an e-learning mode will definitely be experimentation based.
  • Allocate time for "hand-holding" newbies.

The process is definitely emergent. Btw, a conference I attended, a lecturer from La Trobe  related his experience with students building wikis unsupervised. His findings on student learning was quite positive. It inspired me to head in this direction.

Thanks again Paul

Laurence

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Re: Making my online course sticky

by Glenys Hanson -

Hi Laurence,

You ask "How do I get students to take the online "plunge"?"

I would say, don't give them the choice: it's just part of the course.

Online and offline, I'm all for giving students a maximum of responsibility and freedom in organising the process of their learning, but some things they don't get to choose (even teachers don't get to choose everything) such as when and where the class meets, what tools are available in the classroom, the pedagogical objectives of the course, etc.

Co-developing the course with the students sounds to me like a great way to get them involved. I've never had the opportunity.

Yes, allocate a lot of time for "hand-holding" wink.

Feedback from my students is overwhelmingly positive too - and the students that point out the most glitches and bugs are the ones who're the most positive.

Cheers,

Glenys

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Re: Making my online course sticky

by Paul Ganderton -

Hi Laurence,

Glad you found my ideas useful. From your post there are a few items I'd follow up on:

a) Definitely sell Moodle as cost-benefit. My students are keen to learn but they need to know that a new idea is worth their effort. You suggest your teaching a business course in which case Moodle becomes a marketing exercise smile

b) Do get students to join in but please realise that they are not native users so they'll need time. My favourite word is 'acculturation' which means it'll take time to grow on them (don't despair) and they'll need constant reasons to use it. I tend to put forms etc. on there with no paper copy so there's a solid reason to check Moodle. Having said that, I must add that if we all expect students to work online and in class rooms they won't have enough time to do the work. Moodle can be an addition but should really be a replacement for their time. If they feel overwhelmed, they might switch off;

c)I developed a set of 'cheat-sheets' for each year of my course. I tried to differentiate use of Moodle by age (to make it appropriate to the tasks we were doing and their interests in Moodle so year 9 get basics; year 12 get to push the system in social media terms) and my familiarity with ICT (I used our driving system of L and P plates). Show them you care - best way is to request their input in course design and then carry it out. I've even set up a bug tracker so if students fiund an issue they log it on Moodle and can then see how long it takes me to respond. If they ask and you turn it around it shows commitment and they can mirror that.

Does that sound like where you're going?

Paul

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