• What are the 2-3 most important concepts that have impacted your thoughts on student engagement and retention during this course?

 

One important concept that impacted my thoughts on student engagement was social presence. In an online setting it is intrinsically more difficult to create a trusting community. I was very lucky to have completed my undergraduate education at a university with very small class sizes (most of my classes had only a handful of students) that naturally induced high student engagement. I found that the teachers in this environment were able to tailor their classes to their students and there was a very strong sense of community in these classes. This course helped me realize why I was so engaged during these classes and I aim to create a sense of community in the classes I teach.

Another important concept was that of using multi-media in courses. Students learn in different ways and presenting the material in a non-text form might augment some students engagement and retention. I found it interesting that it has been suggested that videos might take over from textbooks. It seems that movies and television shows are becoming a more mainstream form of art than novels now so it does seem to follow that education will eventually follow suit and include more multi-media as technology evolves.

 

• Discuss your rationale for implementing 1 or 2 course facilitation strategies to increase student retention and engagement.

 

One facilitation strategy outlined by Garrison et al. is to provide opportunities for introductions and ongoing social interaction. This strategy encourages a sense of community and increases social presence.

Another strategy outline by Garrison et al. is to ensure information about the technicalities of completing the course are very clear. In an online setting, small technicalities can lead to large delays in a student’s progression through the course and can easily lead to a loss of engagement.

 

• Identify 2-3 specific goals that you would like to achieve in light of what you have learned about social presence and creating effective educational media

 

I would like to improve my introduction to my new students. I currently offer very little personal information about myself and while I try to be welcoming in my first interaction with them and encourage them to ask me any questions, I think that there is room to improve. This course has demonstrated to me the importance of creating a community within my courses and I need to take the lead on its creation. I will add more information to my introductory letter, including information about my background.

I also think that creating videos about common issues and problems in the course is a great idea and my goal is to create these videos as I find a reoccurring problem. I think these videos would help increase student engagement by offering a different medium for the student and also increase the sense of community since the student would feel that other students had the same questions.

 

 

• Think about some questions you still have with respect to student engagement and retention. Post these questions and also a strategy for finding the answers.

One question that I have about student engagement is how student-student interactions are relevant to continuous enrollment courses like mine. To address this question, I will look at how other instructors handled increasing student-student interactions in their courses.