Ask Errol! Free

Errol, you are going to think this is one of those “Oh, you’ve got to be kidding me!” requests. On the surface it may sound like an item with an obvious answer, but I’m relatively new to teaching online—only 18 months—and my school places much emphasis on improving professionally. I have not previously taught online, in fact my background is not in education; I work in our local police department as a sergeant. My wife is an educator and suggested I share my experience through online teaching. It’s been great teaching in my school’s criminal justice program, but the only professional development I know is through law enforcement organizations. Can you help me?

First: I assure you—your question is not one I take lightly! Professional development can have many faces, and navigating it can be tricky at times. What is of primary importance in professional development is one seeks improvement in their field of expertise, and from what you wrote you are already doing that through law enforcement organizations. Now comes the “however”—look at the course or courses you are teaching, then seek out those professional development opportunities that fit. As an example, you may need a course like “Proper Gun Safety” for your full-time position, but does it fit the subject(s) you are teaching? Also, look for any courses that may give tips on teaching/ training. Finally, join a professional teaching organization or organization that offers courses in teaching in your field, such as the American Correctional Association and the Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences and look for opportunities to present at criminal justice or online teaching conferences (such as the United States Distance Learning Association and Lily Conferences). Taking this approach will definitely put you in good stead professional development wise with your institution!

Errol, I don’t know how else to say it: you have been a lifesaver in helping me to become a better distance learning educator! I’ve taken your many tips to heart, and my supervisor’s evaluations have reflected this with ongoing improved scores. So, I have no doubt you can help me with a specific quandary I have involving my outreach to students. The communication tools at my disposal are several. First, there are the usual ones: email, phone, and texting. But our school also offers a type of intracourse messaging service (which has become quite popular with students). My problem is I don’t know which ones to use and how much I should use them in doing outreach to my students. Any suggestions you have would be greatly appreciated.

Well, you certainly made my day with the compliment—thanks so much! It’s a joy for me to assist others in the often confusing and challenging profession of online education and receiving notes like yours lets me know my efforts have been helpful. As for your question, there are two items to consider: which form of communication does a student prefer and how much is too much? For the former, the only way to discover which communication tool a student prefers is by asking, and I would suggest not telling the student to pick one but rather two (I’ll explain shortly). Skipping to the second item, students will not appreciate being bombarded with an email, then that intracourse message, then a phone call, and so on. Be wise in the balance you choose. Now, once these two parts of communication are set, there is a third factor to understand: one form of communication may be good for one thing, while not for something else. For example, you may choose to send out initial information on a missing assignment to a student via email, but a phone call might result in a better response because it is more personal. In the end, these three suggestions will definitely help with your communication question—but it is you who must decide how to use them.

Errol, I have a question that I suppose every distance learning educator has pondered at one time or another: when you have students who are pretty much on cruise control, that is, students who need little motivation or assistance to get in assignments on time and do a good job with those assignments, what kind of motivation does one give these students? I don’t want to have them feel I am overlooking what they are accomplishing, or that I am “insulting their intelligence,” or that I’m treating them as if they were low-performing students. There must be a balance somewhere in how to motivate them: suggestions?

Your quandary is one I’ve heard often, and sometimes it has been after the fact: students have reacted negatively because the motivation given was in a tone that seemed not to respect what they had been accomplishing in class. Other faculty have told me of instances when giving the wrong kind of motivation to “good” students has resulted in students complaining to supervisors they felt the instructor was insulting them or students who dropped off from their successful run in class. You do not want either of these scenarios, of course. There are three easy—and highly successful—approaches you can take: (1) Compliment the students on a job well done, indicating they have become leaders in the class; also, point out an item here or there that especially stood out—this really makes a student feel good about him/herself. (2) Send these students “certificates of accomplishment” when they do an over-the-top job on an assignment, a discussion post, et cetera (These are free, by the way, and can be found at the top of Microsoft Word.) They can easily be customized. NOTE: Do not overdo it with these certificates, as their special meaning will be lost. (3) Asking the students for their input on how the course could be improved, an assignment improved, et cetera. because they have grasped the course material and done so well. This gives them, in essence, an ownership role in the course—a great motivator. These three tips will make sure the motivation you give the successful students is taken as positive motivation and will definitely be appreciated.

REMEMBER! A glass of water by itself is a nice drink, but adding ice cubes, a twist of lemon, and a touch of vermouth takes it to next level.