Student Engagement in Online Courses

>> Hi, students. I
wanted to send you

a video to explain why I

make you visit
the course site

at least two
times per week.

After reviewing my
student evaluations

over the past year
from online courses,

a lot of students are
upset that they have

to come to the site
on multiple days.

And I just wanted
to hopefully give

you some insight into
why I make you do this.

So if we think about it,

there are 168
hours in a week.

And this is the same
amount of time that

a module discussion is

open in my online courses.

Then we can look at how

much time do students in
a face-to-face course

where there are
traditional lectures.

How much time at
Miami at least?

Those students
usually spend

about 160 minutes
in the classroom.

So what I usually see in

my online course is
students will wait

until the last
moment and they will

spend about 10 minutes
in a module discussion.

They will post their
own reflection,

they will respond to
one other student,

and then they
leave the module.

That's not really
discussion,

that's not really being

engaged in the content.

And if the minimum
is two times per

week and you come on

the site one time and
leave two comments,

hopefully you can see how

this makes me think
that students are

trying to skim the content

or they're really
not engaging.

and for me, that
makes me feel

as though they don't

really know the material,

or they're just trying

to do the minimum
amount of work,

yet get the maximum
amount of points.

That's not fair
to the students

that actually
come on the site,

ask questions, post
their thoughts,

respond to others.

For me as an instructor,

while I'm trying to
assess your learning,

it doesn't really give me

a good sense of

how much information
you know.

And if the site is
open seven days

and for previous, the

first five days
or six days,

everyone else is posting,

and there are a few
students that are

getting on at the
end of the site

to post their responses

after they've
had the chance

to look at everyone else.

Again, it puts me in

a position of trying
to understand, well,

does this student really

know or are they just

copying and pasting
essentially

what other students
have said?

Now, this may not be

the case for
many students.

I have no way of knowing.

But hopefully,
you can see my

dilemma as the instructor.

And there are cases

certainly where people
can only get on

the site at a certain time

and not to be mean,

but I would suggest
that you look at

a different course
that doesn't

require the high
amount of engagement

that I require
from my students.

This is from a place

of care, please know that.

I want to make
sure that students

really understand
the material,

that they can talk
through issues about

families or child
development

or adolescent development.

So that they can get

the maximum out
of the course.

And so if you have

a very limited
amount of time,

maybe this isn't
the course for you.

And if you do,

I'm just asking you
to carve out 15, 20,

30 minutes on at
least two days

out of 160 hours,

to be able to
come on the site

post your own thoughts,

respond to others,
and truly be engaged.

I believe this is where
deep learning occurs.

And if this is
still confusing

or you don't
agree with me,

please let me know, and
we can discuss this.

I think, I'm a pretty

nice person and
I'm approachable,

and maybe we can
come up with

some different
ways that allow

people to show their

knowledge about
the content.

Without having to do

the high
engagement, though,

there's a high
bar to hurdle

to get me to
transition to that,

but I'm willing
to talk about it.

So thank you for
watching this video,

and I look forward to
increased engagement

or increased discussion
about this topic.

Thanks and have
a great day.