Unfortunately, online educators and students alike often face frustrating challenges in virtual classrooms, including connectivity Internet access, navigational issues, time management concerns, time-zone variables, and other ongoing problems that continually impair the learning process.  However, the inherent conundrum with online learning is that the majority of communication in our classrooms is one-way and limited solely to the written word.  

Unlike a traditional classroom setting where students convey attitudes of elation and enthusiasm with bright smiles, posture, and eye contact, or demonstrate inattentiveness and disagreement by yawning, frowning, or even sleeping, online learning is void of nonverbal cues that indicate a student's level of involvement.  Undoubtedly, nonverbal communication evoked through body language is a vital form of human communication.  Nonverbal behaviors-the gestures we make, the way we stand or sit, how loud or how fast we speak, our proximity to others, and how much eye contact we make, communicate compelling and complicated messages about how we feel.  Some communication scholars believe nonverbal communication is even more important that verbal language. 

Granted, Skyping and iChatting help to humanize our classrooms, but as instructors, it is difficult to determine the intensity of involvement or the level of motivation our students possess.  A student may be absent for days-motivation or lack thereof may be the culprit.  Certainly, our enthusiastic and timely feedback is important, but using personalized, emphatic interjections is one proven technique to attain students' attention and to covey emotion.  While not a conventional use of English punctuation, I inject loads of exclamation marks to infuse enthusiasm into my feedback and discussion forum responses:  Good thinking, Thad!  Way to go, Mario!  Excellent idea, Keisha!  Super hyperlink, Gaynell!  Awesome addition, Adrienne!  Creative content, Charles!  Outstanding analysis, Adam!  Interesting conjecture, Constance!  Way to elevate our level of understanding, Edgar!  Fabulous, Freddy!

A second technique to motivate students is to add a notable quotation to the Weekly Announcements at the bottom of the closing signature.  There is a myriad of quotes on the Web from which to choose that discuss general education or specific course content; quotes help to enhance each weekly message with a thought-provoking adage.  Here are a few of my favorites:

• The function of education is to teach one to think intensively and to think critically.  Intelligence plus character-that is the goal of true education.  -Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929-1968)
• Education is not preparation for life; education is life itself.  -John Dewey (1859-1952)
• What we want is to see the child in pursuit of knowledge, and not knowledge in pursuit of the child.  -George Bernard Shaw (1856-1951)
• Imagination is more important than knowledge.  Knowledge is limited.  Imagination encircles the world.  -Albert Einstein (1879-1955)
• I cannot teach students anything; I can only make them think.  -Socrates (469-399 BC)
• Teachers open the door, but you must enter by yourself.  -Chinese Proverb
• The beautiful thing about learning is that nobody can take it away from you.  -B.B. King (b. 1925)
• If you are thinking one year ahead, sow seed.  If you are thinking 10 years ahead, plant a tree.  If you are thinking 100 years ahead, educate people.  -Anonymous

It is clear that motivational techniques are an essential part of online teaching.  I look forward to working with our students and motivating them as they journey down their educational path to find their purpose, striving for academic excellence at Grand Canyon University.  

Faculty Spotlight:

Dr. Susan C. Montjar holds a BA in Early Childhood Development from the University of Arizona, Tucson, a MA in Mass Communications from the University of Denver, and a PhD in Mass Communications from The Pennsylvania State University, State College, PA.  After teaching primary grades in the Bay Area and in Denver, she completed her Master's and started her own company, Pendleton Media, a full service AD/PR firm, providing services to a wide variety of businesses and organizations in the Rocky Mountain region for a dozen years.  Susan returned to the classroom, teaching communications courses at the graduate level for fifteen years. 

Presently, she is teaching online communication studies at Grand Canyon University.  In addition, Susan has earned accreditation (APR) in public relations from the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA).  Her areas of interest lie in persuasion and effective communications.  Her scholarly publications include: Public Relations Quarterly, Language and Communication, and Speech Communications Teacher.   For more than thirty years, Susan has run a communications consulting business providing a myriad of public relations services while living in CO (Pendleton Media), IN (Coppess Communications), PA (Mansfield Communications), NE (Northland Communications), and now in AZ (Estrella Communications).

Get Ready to Be a Grandmother in Less Than Nine Months! is her most recent achievement.  Her book was awarded the PRSA Paper Anvil Award of Excellence, Special Purpose Publications.  Dr. Susan: The Gramma Guru® turns her passion for teaching to uniting and empowering grandmothers to improve intergenerational relationships through better communications.   She enjoys speaking to women's groups in the region.