Diamonds in the rough
I thought I’d share something inspiring with all of you as we approach the end of the term. It’s about one teacher’s experience in appreciation of his students. Christopher Phelp’s Diamond in the Rough reminded me just how courageous, tenacious and adaptable we are. Appreciating those qualities in students is something we miss sometimes because we haven’t taken the time to get to know anything about them.
Getting to know students in a print-based distance course may be a bit of a challenge, but there are some ideas that you might consider:
- Send a welcome message via the Faculty Service Centre to all of your students at the start of term. Consider sharing something interesting about you and encourage them to send you a return message.
- Follow up regularly with students who miss assignments, don’t log into the course or haven’t contacted you in a while. A friendly check in goes a long way to creating a teaching presence that is so important in distance learning.
- Consider sending a brief survey out to students at the start of term. It’s a good way for you to find out something about their knowledge or interest in your subject matter and their approaches to learning.
What about you? What do you do to get to know your students? How do you stay connected during the course? Please leave a comment and share…
Happy Holidays all!
November 2nd, 2009 at 9:43 pm
Are you a professional Author? You write very well.
November 3rd, 2009 at 6:17 am
I wish I would have had the chance to have have such a teaching body in my earlier years.
November 3rd, 2009 at 10:12 pm
Very good and in depth document about Online Studies, after reading this document I understand very properly about Online Studies.
November 4th, 2009 at 11:37 am
Hi Olive,
No, I am not a professional author – however, a big part of my role as a learning resource designer is to write reasonably clearly and coherently. I am glad that you found this to be so.
Thanks for your comment.