Estimated Reading Time: 1 minute 15 seconds
This is still a semester to approach with care, for both faculty and students. We know faculty are facing unusual challenges and taking on significant work. Many of our students are (like us) overwhelmed. Most of you did not sign on to be online instructors and, similarly, most of our students never intended to be full-time online students.
It is very possible that the shift to online courses could lead to a retention crisis. What can we do to avoid the surge of incompletes or E grades in our courses?
This six minute recording from a recent Hub coffee hour describes some tips:
Here is a quick summary:
Intervene with Struggling Students
- Faculty are key to reducing the retention gap between traditional and online classes by building rapport with students
- Humanize yourself
- Leave personal feedback
- Reach out to students
- Use Canvas Analytics to check your students’ participation and view an individual student’s participation
- Nudging students with a personal message could help students succeed
- Tone matters
- Show concern
- Provide resources
- Sample email messages
Offer Options
- Give them more than one way to complete assignments
- If necessary, use the Incomplete Grade and the weeks before Jan 13 to accept late work
Further Reading
A Shift to Online Classes this Fall Could Lead to a Retention Crisis
Faculty are prioritizing flexibility, student mental health after switch to remote classes
Grading for a Pandemic: How lenient, or not, should professors be with students right now?
No One Should Fail a Class Because of a Fucking Pandemic
Supporting Under-prepared Students in the Online Classroom
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Image by anncapictures from Pixabay
Slides from presentation
Reading time estimation from https://niram.org/read/