Engaging and Retaining Online Learners

I was struck this week by Ghazala’s February 8 post about the importance of communication between faculty and students. She goes on to state that “student engagement is a reciprocal product of faculty engagement.” As so many of us know whether through research or by observation, students who are more engaged (more involved academically or socially) are more likely to be retained or to persist. Thus, successful students are engaged students.

I keep coming back to this question about engaging students outside of the formal learning environment of a classroom. On a physical campus students engage with one another in the classroom but also outside of the classroom. They may hang out intentionally (or unintentionally) in a commons are or the library; they may enroll in multiple classes with the same students creating informal learning communities; they may chat in the parking lot. All of those experiences create community. So, how do we create community in the world of online learning? In my current Distance Learning class, I am excited to see the connections my students are making with one another. They are finding common ground in academic interests, career goals, as parents (a new mom is being cheered on by the more-experienced moms), and as workers. But, when a student ends a Blackboard class, that gathering “space” is eventually removed. Where do students hang out and connect informally, as they might on campus, in our online learning environment? How can we develop opportunities for student engagement that are not confined by bricks and mortar?

I for one am ready to learn more about how I can best engage our online learners. I hope you’ll join me on February 23 and 25 from 1:00-2:30 for a two-part webinar on Engaging and Retaining Online Students. The program is facilitated by Karen Betts, a nationally recognized expert on online student learning and engagement, who is an administrator and faculty member at Drexel. We’ll meet in the LTC Auditorium. I hope we’ll learn and discuss together and begin to shape additional opportunities for our students to become engaged learners. You can register to attend the webinar in the Knowledge Center. The title of the session is JSRCC, Engaging and Retaining Online Students-Part 1 and Part 2. Check out the webinar’s website to learn more about the specific topics covered. If these dates do not work for you, the college has purchased the DVDs of the webinar and will re-broadcast at a later date this semester.

-- Meg Buchanan Foster

QEP Assistant Coordinator