I really do not like to complain about my students, and I am frequently annoyed by others who do. I believe that many problems teachers have with students can be addressed by considering the teacher's approach to the situation and the way the teacher/student relationship has been established (I am speaking very broadly, I know). But I am not immune to being frustrated with my students, and a specific problem I frequently have is exacerbated by the nature of an online course.
People just don't read instructions. They glance over them, perhaps, but rarely do people set out to read and follow instructions carefully until they have made mistakes that require them to go back and look again. In a traditional classroom, students have opportunities to ask questions and express confusion in person, and a lot of problems are handled in that way before the assignments are due (while wasting valuable class time going over what they would have already known had they simply read the instructions!). The online class depends ENTIRELY on the student's ability to read and follow instructions. These instructions are delivered in a number of ways, with written documents and podcasts and samples and all kinds of things. But, alas, many students have failed to submit work this week because they just didn't know that it was due.
I must add here that I have spent A LOT of time online. I have frequently posted prominent announcements of impending due dates and reminded them which documents they need to have read and reviewed. I have sent messages to individual students when I see that they have fallen behind (already!!!). But I just spent a good ten minutes answering questions from one student, all of which are answered quite clearly on the documents that the announcements tell her in bold letters to read. And several students have told me that they just didn't realize that materials were due this week, when a really nice, very clear chart gives them dates and step-by-step instructions for completing assignments.
In a traditional classroom, I repeat my office hours and email address at every single class meeting and remind students that I am available to them. I was concerned from the beginning of the online class that my students would feel alone, and I have worked to make my presense seen and felt online. But I have students who have not asked questions until things go wrong--or until I contact them to let them know that things are going wrong--and they constantly apologize for bothering me. I am terribly frustrated right now.
I have some ideas about why this happens, but I will leave them for another day. Now I must turn away from this class that has taken up most of my day and prepare for something else. Tomorrow I have lunch with my advisor.
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3 comments:
I have the exact same problem, although my class is not online. I have posted frequent announcements on Blackboard, included instructions about paper writing in the syllabus, and spoken about it several times in class, but I still get emails from students who did not know that they were required to write papers in this course. Sometimes I get so frustrated!
Try experiencing the same thing from faculty members! At least with students, you can chalk some of that up to immaturity. With faculty, I'm not so sure.
I took an online course this summer just to experience it (and it was about online teaching). I think I went through most of the steps my students experience: confusion, being overwhelmed, not connected to their classmates. I checked grades too often and complained too much. When a disucssion board posting wasn't interesting, I questioned the value of reading a bunch of the same reports over and over.
Still, as much as I learned, I'm seeing what you say: they have to read. Not sure how to help other than the follow-up (or preemptive?!) that you've already undertaken.
Several things that *are* helping this semester -- (1) having two courses using similar discussion groups and it working well in one group and not at all in another (which just reminds me that like f2f classes each one is unique) and (2) having much of the prep work done for the class I've taught before.
good luck!
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