Online faculty are challenged with creating a cohesive classroom culture with culturally diverse students every semester. How can faculty overcome this challenge when online students' most common complaint is social isolation? In this interactive session, we will examine best practices to create a culture-of-engagement plan of action.
Many universities today strive to meet student demands for the online course modality. In 2013, over five million postsecondary students enrolled in online courses in America (National Center for Education Statistics, 2016). Challenges for online students continue to exist with social isolation, coursework confusion, and lack of teacher presence (Milheim, 2012). Studies show that by creating an online classroom culture, faculty can overcome these challenges to foster and motivate online student engagement (Ladyshewsky, 2013; Milheim, 2014; Vesely, Bloom, Sherlock, 2007).
Learning Outcomes: Participants will be able to:
- Determine what online student engagement and positive classroom culture looks like.
- Collaborate on best practices for positive classroom culture with peers.
- Create a personal action plan to implement strategies for a positive and engaging classroom culture.
This session will engage participants with group work, feedback, and an action plan deliverable of best practices for successful online classroom culture.
Step 1:
- This interactive session will engage the participants in defining online classroom culture.
- We will discuss best practices from recent studies and identify elements of those best practices that are pertinent to their course and teaching style.
Step 2:
- Participants will discuss the difficulties of a consistent online classroom culture every semester and share past challenges.
- Participants are then encouraged to offer support and feedback to their peers.
Step 3:
- Each participant will be given a blank action plan.
- This action plan can be used as a framework for consistent online classroom culture best practices.
- The action plan will be discussed and questions will be answered.
Step 4:
- Participants will be divided into groups
- The groups will discuss their specific challenges and identify which best practices will help them to overcome their issues.
- Each participant will receive feedback from their group to develop their own plan.
Step 5:
- After the group work is complete, the presenter will ask the participants to discuss their findings with all the session partcipants to include plans for fostering engagement and motivation.
References:
Ladyshewsky, R. K. (2013). Instructor presence in online courses and student satisfaction. International Journal for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning, 7(1). Retrieved from http://digitalcommons.georgiasouthern.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1377&context=ij-sotl
Milheim, K. L. (2012). Toward a better experience: Examining student needs in the online classroom through Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs model. MERLOT Journal of Online Learning and Teaching, 3(3). Retrieved from http://jolt.merlot.org/vol8no2/milheim_0612.htm
Milheim, K. L. (2014). Facilitation across cultures in the online classroom. International Journal of Learning, Teaching, and Educational Research, 5(1), 1-11. Retrieved from http://www.ijlter.org/index.php/ijlter/article/view/66
U.S. Department of Education. National Center for Education Statistics. (2016). Fast facts: Distance learning. Retrieved from https://nces.ed.gov/fastfacts/display.asp?id=80
Vesely, P., Bloom, L., & Sherlock, J. (2007). Key elements of building online community: Comparing faculty and student perceptions. MERLOT Journal of Online Learning and Teaching, 3(3). Retrieved from http://jolt.merlot.org/vol3no3/vesely.htm.