This
semester I am an instructor for Section 805 of online COMM 1010: Introduction
to Communication. The first half of the semester has been fairly smooth for
both my students and I, each week the students are required to read a couple
chapters, watch an online video or two, and submit a quick assignment – whether
it be a short quiz, discussion forum post, or online activity. As an instructor,
I post weekly videos outlining their required readings, videos, and assignments
for the week and I make sure to grade their assignments fairly quickly. Easy
enough. Sure, some of my students had some rough starts or hard lessons learned,
for instance, I had a couple of students who missed an online exam or an online
activity without realizing the due date. But nothing unexpected from an online
class. After all, freshman students enrolled in this class are still learning the
amount of responsibility and motivation an online course requires.
Within
the online COMM 1010 course, the students are required to complete a group
project. As part of this project and as a graded assignment, their group is
required to confirm an online conference meeting with their instructor to discuss
their plans as a group moving forward in the project.
Ohhh,
man was I in for a treat!
By the
time the due date for the meeting rolled around, one group had confirmed a
conference meeting time with me, and most of the other groups were scrambling
to confirm a conference meeting time that not only worked for everyone in their
group, but for me as the instructor as well. Not to mention, this was occurring
on Sunday, November 3rd at 10:00pm, two hours before the deadline. Not
to mention, I had one group that had not even posted a single post in their
group page on Canvas, so as far as I knew, each group member was not in
communication with their other group members.
While
the conference meeting assignment fiasco was occurring, my class was also
required to submit a presentation to Canvas, worth 200 points. By the end of
the night, I had 16 out of 30 students submit the assignment.
I was
incredibly frustrated and disappointed in my class. The entire first half of semester,
the majority of my students submitted their work on time and submitted quality
work. But when the group project began, they fell apart.
Reflecting
on this, I wonder whether or not my weekly videos and announcements
communicated the requirements of this assignment well enough. Maybe I didn’t
stress the importance of not waiting until the last minute? Or maybe I confused
my students with my explanations? I’m not entirely sure. On the other hand, my
students also hold some responsibility. I posted weekly videos and
announcements of this assignment nearly three weeks before the assignment was
due. Additional resources are posted to Canvas throughout the entire semester,
including instructions for all assignments, my email, and my office hours. I
consistently remind them to either email me or visit me during my office hours if
they ever have any questions.
The
difficulty with online classes is that when a class collectively expresses behaviors
that seem to fall in line with laziness, frustration, lack of engagement, or
simply not caring, there is no place for my frustration to go. How can I
motivate an online class? How can I mediate any confusion or frustration in an
online class? How can I encourage an online class?
The
irony of it all is that ultimately, I am struggling to effectively communicate
to my online communications course. I don’t know how, if at all possible, I can
foster a class climate, encourage and motivate my students, or express my own
identity to them. As their instructor, I feel like I have some sense of
who my students are because I grade their work, but it is still not the same as
a face-to-face class. I do not know my students in my online COMM 1010 class at
the same level that I know my students in my face-to-face COMM 1010 class.
Maybe I
can add words of encouragement in my weekly videos and announcements? Maybe I
can include some information about my own life in my weekly videos and
announcements? But will it ever be the same as a face-to-face class? Probably
not. Maybe the key is acceptance. Acceptance that online classes are fundamentally
structured differently that face-to-face classes and maybe the best I can do is
the best I can do. Ultimately, online students must be able to motivate themselves
to complete assignments and take responsibility for their own learning. Maybe
that in itself is empowering for students.
As for
the conference meeting assignment, I spoke to Madie and expressed my
frustrations and she gave me some advice: to give them a break. So, I did. I
expressed understanding to my students and ignored the official due date (under
some circumstances, of course). With that, four out of five groups scheduled conference
meetings with me and completed the assignment.
I’ll take it.
#drainedandinsane
#eyeswideopen
Angelica, I think part of it may just be that at this point in the students are starting to feel like missing some online content may not have a significant of and impact as in class work. I've been noticing some similar thing happening with my 2140 students, but that's a bit different since I have one day a week where I get a chance to remind them about assignments and do check ins. I wish I had a solution to offer that is more applicable to your situation, but the best I can say is sometimes sending a bunch of reminders can help. Do you think it could work for this class to make announcements in the video, post the announcements to canvas, and also use the tool in the gradebook to message students who hadn't completed the assignment yet?
ReplyDeleteAngelica-
ReplyDeleteFirstly, I want to say that I feel your pain! As you know, I am also an instructor this course, and it has been pulling teeth to get them to do their assignments! Thus far in the semester, I feel the same way about my videos, and I realized that I think I would like to make them more appealing, fun to listen to and watch, and I will often change my environment. I think your frustration with them and self-relexivity of how you can better instruct this class speaks to how much you care, and as you know, teaching is heart work.
Secondly, I agree that it is hard when you do not have as much of a relationship with your students, and I am so glad you decided to cut them some slack with some ground rules. I think this also speaks to the type of TA you are; compassionate, but not to be taken advantage of. To me, it sounds like you are doing a great job. If you want to know how to improve, you will receive SPOT evaluations about it I'm sure. After all, direct feedback and reflexivity and change are great ways to improve!
Hi Angelica,
ReplyDeleteSo, old me would have had excitement about being an instructor for an online section of COMM 1010. I really adored online classes during my undergrad (and I didn’t have enough of them to know them too intimately...or come to hate them) so it sounded like a dream. Ultimately, I’m happy with what I have now as a TA, one learns to adapt, of course, but I enjoyed the journey that you took me on as a reader into Section 805.
Even though they’re first year students, it is good that you didn’t hold their hand too often, in fact one can’t, with everything going on in life. If you can, please teach me as I need few more brain cells and hands to survive the last of the semester. What will you be doing about the students that did not submit their presentations? I personally find a little pleasure in being able to watch the number of things left to grade dwindle, when I can plug in the zeros for the handful of people who didn’t do the assignment.
I would say that you can mediate the confusion and frustrations by continuing to tell them to contact you and by posting your videos. Unless they want to reach out to you, there is not much that can be done. I could suggest maybe having meetings with each student once or twice throughout the semester as check-ins but that could get to be a lot. You could motivate them by sending out announcements/emails of praise, if students did something particularly well. I think adding words of encouragement in your weekly videos and announcements would be fun. But I wonder if that would get to be too much. Including some information about yourself would be neat. What kinds of things would you say/do?